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“Shmoke,” on the surface, is a defiant trap track in which a man reacts to a faithless lover. It is also Freemvson putting down a marker.
“This is just a start,” he said. “It’s the first single I’m promoting under my record label.”
That label is Luminosity Records LLC, founded in Freemvson’s hometown of Dayton, Ohio, in 2020 with the goal of producing “timeless music,” his and others.
Timeless, as in the people who inspired him to music in the first place. Snoop Dogg, Three 6 Mafia, Outcast, Lil Wayne, Rich Boy, Pretty Ricky.
“Pretty Ricky was big when I was younger. People still bang on Pretty Ricky, you know? They’re just timeless. I love timeless music, and I want to make timeless music.”
His music also features influences from the experimental hip hop/pop of Purity Ring and Juice Wrld, Grimes and the music inspired by the Grimm fairy tales.
“The type of music I go for is like pop, R&B, pop R&B and psychedelic hip hop. I just like that sound. I’m inspired by many different genres to put together hip-hop and psychedelic hip-hop.” He calls the result “trip hop.”
“Shmoke” is more straight trap than psychedelic trip hop, and not, he said, necessarily timeless, but it does carry a statement of intent and a message.
They say that Freemase be off the chain
I got that dog in me
They say that Freemase be in his lane
Nah they can’t hit me
“What I’m saying is kind of like figurative, but it’s also literal. I got people behind me. I got smoke.”
Smoke. Juice. Power. Ability. Drive. Shmoke.
I’m too high I’m outta reach
I’m too high I’m at my peak
Always up I never sleep
I told cashe to bring the heat
I got shmoke I got shmoke I got shmoke I got shmoke
Or, “You know, I got weed. However you interpret it. It’s supposed to be multi-meaning.”
The message includes telling people to do what they love, “come crazy, come aggressive, write about whatever you want to write about.”
“I want to turn people up,” he said. As in turning up the heat. Shmoke.
“That’s what I want to do, turn people up to make people feel good.”
“Shmoke” is not a heartbreak song, but: “A particular ex inspired me to write something. I had a little hate in my heart.”
You can throw that into the multiplicity of meaning. It adds some extra heat.
I got shmoke I got shmoke I got shmoke I got shmoke
Freemvson is about drive and ambition. He grew up poor in a single-parent family in which ambition and hope for success were in short supply, “particularly the men in my family.” He and his sister were the first to go to college.
“When I have kids, I want to put them in a better position for success, and I want to help others, as well, to pursue their dreams and reach a certain level of stability and success.”
His own dreams were early on channeled into music. His older sister helped him write his first rap song when he was 10, but his career to date has been mostly as a producer and an audio engineer, but it includes Freemvson the artist.
His album Freemason, released in 2020, placed No. 13 on Billboard’s Heatseeker’s Chart and No. 35 on it’s Hottest New Independent Albums list. The 11 tracks feature various artists from Dayton, including YelloPain and Quranic The MC.
When he talks about his career, what comes through is that music is where his ambitions, hopes and dreams are because music is where his heart is.
“I will say this and, you know, take it with a grain of salt if you want to, but I’m not big on attention. I’m not big on fame. That was never my goal. My goal, ultimately, is to own a record label and run it and help others. That’s what I want. I spent the last five years studying the music industry and building up my skills as an audio engineer and producer, and even as a songwriter. I got people working close to me, that really look up to me and that are betting on me to do this. And that’s where my drive lies — that I have people dependent on me. So, me being famous and being in the spotlight is not my priority.”
He has written a lot of songs since that first one at 10 — pop, R&B, rap, even rock.
“I love rock music. My favorite band is Bullet for My Valentine, a metal band. They inspire a lot of my lyrics when it comes to heartbreak and women and life in general.”
He wants his music to include psychedelic elements, the “spacey” sounds, the instrumentals and synths that go into songs that “you want to smoke to, or chill to, drive to, or just kind of escape to.”
He is at the beginning of a new phase of his career, one in which he will put more emphasis, for a while, on recording and performing. He enjoys performing, but for him it has an added zest.
“I do enjoy it,” he said. “I do, but I’ll be honest with you — I have anxiety. So, I like to get on stage to face my fears.”
About this new phase of his career, he says, “I want to continue the journey, starting with ‘Shmoke.’”
Take the journey with him and connect with Freemvson on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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