FRE$H is back like he never left.
You may recognize the Houston native from his days mobbing with Young Money, but he’s come a long way since. A versatile recording artist if there ever was one, FRE$H, real name Supreme Williams, speaks his truth and creates from a place of vulnerability, unleashing nothing short of good vibrations and positive energy.
He states, “I’m always a glass-half-full person anyway. Even before the pandemic, optimism is my thing. You gotta have that positive energy around you. You gotta really produce it, in order to keep going in this world.”
With his roots in Houston, Fre$h knows a thing about hard-hitting production, impeccable lyricism, and impressive melody… and that carries over to the new music he’s recording today. Most recently, he unleashed his new EP titled “Still Summer Somewhere,” this time inspired by dancehall and Afrobeats.
AllHipHop spoke with Fre$h in downtown Los Angeles, who was rocking his hoodie from his fire new merch, which coincides with the new project.
AllHipHop: You’ve been travelling all over. How was Christmas in Aruba?
FRE$H: That s### was amazing! It was my second time going. It was super cool. I brought my mom out there so we spent Christmas together. Then I went to Columbia for a week and some change, that was beautiful. Now we finna go to Puerto Rico.
AllHipHop: Do you be traveling with friends, family?
FRE$H: Yeah, Squalla’s coming with us this time. It’s really finna be the gang this time, all the Fresh Lxrds going. This our first trip together. Squalla don’t have his passport, so we demoted to going to Puerto Rico only. I wanted to go somewhere more exotic, but we gon’ accommodate little bro.
AllHipHop: Talk about your Fresh Muzik LLC label.
FRE$H: All the homies, we trying to make this bigger than life. We got Squalla, MC Beezy, Mike Zombie, Don Juligans.
AllHipHop: Mike’s from Jersey right?
FRE$H: Yeah, Jersey Mike! What’s funny, I met Mike through my boy ISM who produced frēsh•ism. We had all linked up ironically at Coachella. We all rented a crib at Coachella, that’s when me and Mike really got cool. From that point on, we’re rocking. We started working together. It became a thing where he’s coming over to the crib everyday. We’re always linking up, going to the studio. We’re all getting lit, it happened organically. Now with Squalla finally moving to LA, we all been kicking it. Especially during the pandemic, that’s when we got the tightest because during that time, we’re always at my crib.
I got the studio set up at the house as well so we started making music. That’s how the Don Juligans came about. As far as Beezy, we met back in Houston years ago and formed a friendship. I remember telling Squalla, “you my favorite rapper from Houston.” When I heard him rap, damn! I was shocked because I liked who he was, he’s always smiling. Every time I see him in the club, he’s always smiling. Always lit. I didn’t even know he rapped at first, but when we heard him rap, damn this n*gga hard! We built it from there.
AllHipHop: “Bottomless Mimosas” is such a vibe, what inspired the record?
FRE$H: I got the concept from a situation that had happened. There was this girl, she had went and had bottomless mimosas with her friends. When she came to my house, it was crazy! Whoa, I ain’t never ever seen you act like that! [laughs]
AllHipHop: What was the creative process behind your new project, Still Summer Somewhere?
FRE$H: You know what, it was recorded before because I was supposed to drop this last year, then the pandemic happened because I had a whole listening party for the “Bottomless Mimosa” single. Right after that, the world shut down. I’m not finna drop this amidst chaos, we don’t even know what’s going on. So I held it for a year, finally put it out.
AllHipHop: Do you feel like it’s the perfect time with the world opening back up?
FRE$H: I do. It’s great timing, especially with everybody so anxious to be outside. The music fits the vibe of outside.
AllHipHop: The project is inspired by dancehall and Afrobeats, were you listening to anyone when creating the project?
FRE$H: When I made it, I wasn’t listening to anything ironically. I was making it off my inspiration, I remember hearing the music and diving in. When I was in Aruba, I really spent a lot of time listening to Wizkid. His album, he’s my favorite artist now over there. I thought “this dude’s dope!” I went to listen to his older stuff and it’s cool, but this last project he put together sounds so well-produced. His vocals sound good, it’s a dope project. I’ve been jamming that lately. I had someone make me a playlist with all the top Afrobeats artists. It’s a lot of guys, I don’t want to butcher their names. [laughs] It’s some good songs, I know that.
AllHipHop: How did it feel to celebrate with close friends at the brunch on Saturday?
FRE$H: It was great! When I have these events, I don’t really expect much. For one, I’m from Houston. Out here, I don’t expect a lot of people to come or be in the mix, but a lot of people do come show love when I have stuff. I’m thankful ‘cause being from a whole other state, you wouldn’t expect to have this many supporters out here. Anytime I do something, it’s really the same people that always come to support me.
AllHipHop: What was your first taste of the music industry?
FRE$H: Getting signed, because I moved to Atlanta after my freshman year in college. I got signed 8 months after being there, so my first taste in the industry was my deal with Def Jam. Working with DJ Toomp and getting discovered by Russell Simmons, that’s how it began.
AllHipHop: What are those early conversations with Russell Simmons?
FRE$H: Man, you know what Russell told me when I was 19? He told me I should invest in water. I wish I would’ve listened to him, I didn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I’m a kid fresh out the projects, water? I’m tryna get some syrup, he’s talking about some water. I wish I would‘ve listened, but I didn’t have the mental capacity at the time to understand the jewels and knowledge he’s giving me.
Russell always liked me. He always motivated me. He always talked to me about my work ethic. He even told me that I reminded him of Pac. I’m like “what are you talking about?” At the time, I didn’t understand it because it was such a big compliment. He was talking about my work ethic, I really have a dynamic work ethic if I could say so myself. I’m literally sitting on over 500 songs of recent music. I was just with one of my engineers, I haven’t recorded with him in about 3 years, he said he has 192 songs that we did within a 2-year timespan. I got a lot of music.
AllHipHop: You going to unleash all that music?
FRE$H: Of course! I had to get into a situation that allows me to release music as fast as I make it. That’s the hardest thing, you don’t want to drop music and nobody gets to hear and appreciate it. You gotta get somewhere where they support everything that you do. Being over there at Cinq with Diana and Tmah, they really gravitate towards how rapidly you want to release the music. Every 3 weeks, you gon’ hear something new.
AllHipHop: Talk about your partnership with Cinq, it’s independent right?
FRE$H: Yeah, it is. I’m over here with Diana, she’s Head of Marketing over there. Tmah’s head A&R over there. It’s a good group of people man. They’re very quick to respond, very transparent. Shout out to Barry, get Barry on the phone. They like everything we’re doing so I’m enjoying how we’re able to feed the fans with all this good music we’ve been sitting on and creating.
AllHipHop: 3 things you need in studio?
FRE$H: A good beat, some water, and some weed.
AllHipHop: Any goals at this point of your career?
FRE$H: To make sure that people recognize the brand as much as they know me. Make sure my homies get in a position so they can take care of their people and their family, because I really believe in them as much as I believe in myself. I want everybody to glo up and get some money.