HipHopReader.com
2004

Free Recommends You Read...

Brenda's Got A Baby
Me Against The World
Dear Mama
Lose Yourself
As I Grow
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
Fences
A Lesson Before Dying
The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream
I Choose To Stay
A Lawyer's Life

Meet Free, the effervescent and very fashionable former co-host of BET's immensely popular 106 & PARK: Top Ten Live. Free and her partner in crime, AJ have been causing a commotion since the show debuted in 2000 with their unique flair for style and their incredible chemistry. Live from New York City, viewers are treated to hip-hop's royalty, the biggest stars and the hottest top 10 videos five days a week.

Free's path to success was long in the making. She studied dance and attended a high school for performing arts in Boston with dreams of becoming a star. Free's television debut was as a dancer for Marky Mark's Good Vibrations video. She was also a member of an all female group and when the group split up, Free transitioned her talent towards hip hop. It was while interning at WILD-AM, a Boston radio station, that Free's musical dreams were re-enforced. It was there that she first met senior vice president of BET's music programming Stephen Hill. Free's enthusiasm and charm were electric, and this talent led her to signing contracts with a subsidiary of Priority Records and Columbia Records, but both opportunities fizzled. Frustrated with everything that had happened, she decided to pack her bags once again and head to New York City. Free and Stephen Hill met up again at a record release party for Busta Rhymes and after talking with her, Stephen extended the invitation to audition for BET's new show 106 & PARK, two weeks later AJ and Free were on the air.

"It's really odd how things happen. You ask for something, and God will give it to you tenfold to see if you can handle it," says Free. Being involved with 106 & PARK for the past three years has re-energized Free to follow her first love which is music, and has led her to sign a contract under Sylvia Rhone at Elektra Records. She has just wrapped production for her debut album, scheduled to be released this year.

Free has also started the Free4Life Foundation, dedicated to helping young people in disadvantaged neighborhoods with programs that encourage literacy, financial education and creative arts. The Free4Life Foundation has created opportunities that inspire, support, encourage and strengthen the healthy development of young people in Boston's under-served communities. The Foundation focuses its efforts on financial literacy, teen dating and violence intervention. As if hosting the most popular show in BET's history, working on her debut album and starting a foundation to help inner-city youth in Boston weren't enough, Free is getting into the fashion business and launching her own line of boots. A confirmed release date will be announced soon.

Free admires women like Oprah Winfrey, Sylvia Rhone and BET's own Debra Lee, she doesn't see herself as being a one-hit wonder. There are so many things she would like to do with her future, perhaps developing a cooking show, creating programming for film and/or television even opening a soul food restaurant. But right now, Free loves her job as co-host of 106 & PARK and enjoys working with AJ. She doesn't see herself hosting the show with anyone else. They are a dynamic duo striving to create hip-hop history. Somehow it seems like the sky is the limit for this incredible young lady.