Dave Free has opened up about the formula for success that he and co-founder Kendrick Lamar have been using for pgLang.
In a rare interview with Elephant, the exec explained that their “no-yapping” policy has allowed their artists to become innovative and groundbreaking members of the industry. “We want to treat artists like they’re start-ups,” Free said. “We want them to take ownership of their brand, which is really taking ownership of themselves. You always hear people talking about all these elements of the business that they don’t like, but it’s not like there are a lot of active participants putting their money where their mouth is. We were like, ‘Let’s not talk about what we want to see from the industry—let’s just do it.’” He continued, “We don’t do the yapping. Ain’t got time for all that yapping.”
Free added that when he and Dot concoct an idea, they gather the rest of the pgLang team “to create a system around the idea to make it self-sufficient.” He shared, “We make sure it’s going to be impactful, influential, financially stable, it’s going to shake people up, and it’s going to tell a story. When it’s developed, we ask, ‘Does it move you?’”
He continued, “Eventually, after repeating that process enough times, we get to a place where we can’t poke any more holes. That’s what we call ‘break and repeat.’ Once there are no more holes to poke, I feel comfortable putting it into the universe. So that’s the process. We apply that to everything that we do.”
