Freeway

Throughout an extended run defined by his notably coarse and combative delivery, Freeway secured his place in hip-hop after the turn of the millennium by joining Roc-A-Fella labelmates Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek on Jay-Z’s “1-900-Hustler” (2000). The Philadelphia native built on the growing attention with Philadelphia Freeway (2003), one of the label’s most dynamic projects to reach the Billboard pop Top Ten; the set drew from high-energy beats supplied by Just Blaze and the then-rising Kanye West. Although he issued just two additional solo albums in that decade and parted ways with Roc-A-Fella, Freeway maintained momentum across multiple releases in the 2010s, among them the Jake One joint The Stimulus Package (2010) and the refreshed Diamond in the Ruff (2012). Think Free (2018), a project that returned him to familiar surroundings, appeared solely under Jay-Z’s Roc Nation imprint.

Leslie “Freeway” Pridgen, who took his stage name from the notorious dealer “Freeway” Rick Ross, established himself as a key Roc-A-Fella affiliate after forging an early pact with fellow Philadelphia rapper Beanie Sigel. The pair, already mutual admirers who frequented the same neighborhood club, agreed that whichever of them secured a recording contract first would bring the other along. Sigel reached Roc-A-Fella—the Def Jam subsidiary founded by Jay-Z and Damon Dash—and honored the commitment. Freeway first appeared on “1-900-Hustler,” a cut from Jay-Z’s 2000 album The Dynasty: Roc la Familia. Over the following years he accumulated guest spots, frequently alongside Sigel and Jay-Z, and performed with the State Property collective, which released the 2002 film of the same name backed by a Roc-A-Fella soundtrack. Once signed as a solo artist, Freeway delivered his debut, Philadelphia Freeway, in 2003. Bolstered by beats from Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Bink!, the album bowed at number five on the Billboard 200, with the Hot 100-charting singles “What We Do” and “Flipside” standing out. Freeway’s next release came via the North Philly crew Ice City on the independently issued Welcome to the Hood (2004). By year’s end his additional credits included Mark Ronson’s “Here Comes the Fuzz,” Memphis Bleek’s “Just Blaze, Bleek & Free,” and Kanye West’s “Two Words.”

Following a quieter stretch in 2005 and 2006, Freeway returned with his second album, Free at Last, in 2007. Only Bink! reprised production duties, while Cool & Dre, J.R. Rotem, Needlz, Don Cannon, and Jake One contributed among a broad roster. “Roc-A-Fella Billionaires,” a Dame Grease track featuring Jay-Z, reached Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart. The album peaked just outside the Billboard 200 Top 40 yet, like its predecessor, entered the Top Five on the R&B/hip-hop tally. After leaving the label, Freeway issued the unadorned Philadelphia Freeway 2 on Real Talk in 2009, then the Jake One collaboration The Stimulus Package via Rhymesayers in 2010. Two years later, amid a steady stream of mixtapes, he released Diamond in the Ruff through Babygrande and quickly followed with Broken Ankles, an EP recorded with mash-up artist Girl Talk. Free Will, his sixth proper solo album and partly composed after a kidney-failure diagnosis, arrived on Babygrande in 2016. While awaiting a transplant, he finalized a licensing agreement with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, which enabled the 2018 release of Think Free—his seventh studio set—featuring support from Fat Joe, Lil Wayne, Faith Evans, and BJ the Chicago Kid. Freeway received a successful kidney transplant in 2019.