Dave Free is a manager, producer, and co-founder of the at-service company pgLang and former co-president of record label Top Dawg Entertainment. As the co-founder of pgLang, he oversees management for its other co-founder & rap legend Kendrick Lamar, along with rappers Baby Keem & Tanna Leone.

Free met Kendrick Lamar at age 16, and co-directed music videos together under the collective name The Little Homies. Serving as Lamar’s manager & creative video director, Free began to receive production credits for multiple songs released under TDE, and formed the production supergroup Digi+Phonics along with TDE producers Sounwave, Tae Beast, and Willie B. Forbes listed Free on their “30 Under 30” list for his work with TDE.

In 2019, Free announced he would leave TDE in pursuit of founding pgLang, saying

None of the tactics we used back in the day to break Kendrick, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, or Schoolboy would work now. It’s a whole new game. Blogs were very influential back then and I’d have to build a lot of relationships with blogs and now it’s just more about streaming. You have to have the relationships with the streaming sites and it can’t just be a fake relationship.

In 2021, Lamar announced he would release his final album with TDE to join pgLang. Free has received credits as video director on all of pgLang’s releases, including Baby Keem’s The Melodic Blue, Tanna Leone’s Sleepy Soldier, and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Top Song