In a back hallway of the Wiltern theater in central Los Angeles, Kendrick Lamar is sitting on a director’s chair next to labelmate Jay Rock, dutifully waiting to welcome every single one of the fans trickling in to meet him from a line that stretches seemingly all the way to Malibu.
It’s the last show of his Kunta’s Groove Sessions, a concert series at theaters that can fit only 2,000 people or so, roughly one-tenth the size of the arenas he appears destined to sell out in the near future. After this performance, he’ll head to his dressing room and sign 1,000 copies of his latest album, To Pimp A Butterfly, which helped Lamar earn 11 Grammy nominations this year, second-most by any artist in a single night after Michael Jackson’s 12 in 1984. In the meantime, he’ll sign anything his meet-and-greet visitors put in front of him.
“He wanted to make the fans feel like we’re still there,” says Dave Free, Lamar’s 29-year-old manager, a few moments before the show begins.
Like Lamar, the understated Free looks about five years younger than he actually is. But like many of his peers on our 30 Under 30 list, he’s already accomplished more than most people twice his age. In fact, of all this year’s honorees in the music category—including big names like Fetty Wap, Selena Gomez and Shawn Mendes—Free came the closest to a unanimous selection amongst our blue ribbon panel of judges.
The reason: Free has helped launch the career of the most significant West Coast rapper since Tupac Shakur. He met Lamar in ninth grade, and with the help of Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and later Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records, Free has guided Lamar from the streets of Compton to the fast track to Grammy glory.
“It’s more like working with a brother that just so happened to love what I do, too,” says Lamar of Free. “So when you put these two individuals into creative spaces, it’s a different type of chemistry, it’s a different type of bond, it’s a bond that really can’t be broken … whether it’s in the studio or behind the camera. It’s like Voltron.”
