Zoey Dollaz walked into G Studios on the 11th floor of a high-rise in Downtown Miami with his head held high as he prepared for a long night in the recording booth. The Haitian-American rapper immediately sat down to work on a new single. As the Jahlil Beats-produced instrumental rattled the room with its magnificent bass patterns, it didn’t take long for the Dade County rapper to come up with a quick 16 that’s sure to stun his fans — and haters alike.
Since our last conversation with Dollaz a few months back, major changes in his budding music career have made the 25-year-old lyricist an hot commodity in the music industry. In the months following the overwhelming success of his radio smash “Blow A Check,” Dollaz, who was born Elvis Millord, resisted signing his life away to other labels until Future came into the picture. The Dirty Sprite rapper eventually helped to fulfill Zoey’s childhood dream of being signed by Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid.
“Man, I met the guy that I always said would sign me from when I was a little boy,” Dollaz told VIBE. “I’m like L.A. Reid will always be the person to sign me, and that’s no story or fabrication. I knew he would be the person to sign me whenever I got signed… As soon as I met L.A. Reid, it was instant. He was like ‘Man listen, I don’t know nothing about you but I know talent when I see it, and I know a good soul when I see one. Welcome to Epic Records.’”Dollaz claims he knew L.A. Reid would be the first one snatch him up ever since he was a young boy. Since joining Future’ Freebandz imprint, Dollaz is changing the direction for his forthcoming project to match the monumental direction his life and career is heading in. After dropping numerous projects like Love, Money, Bullets and last year’s Who Don’t Like Dollaz, the newborn Freebandz artist switched up his previous plans for his forthcoming release to reflect how blessed his life has truly become.
“The new name of my mixtape is Port-Au-Prince. I’m focusing on that more, and the label agrees so it makes sense. I’m not just repping for me as an American rapper. I’m Haitian. I’m repping for a whole culture.”
Before becoming a part of the growing multi-city squad, Dollaz was already a part of the inner circle of pivotal Miami acts like Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Denzel Curry, and Bizzy Crook. After Diddy and French Montana’s “Blow A Check” remix pushed him into the national limelight, Zoey said that he wasn’t pressured by Future to make moves under his imprint. In fact, despite the numerous offers on the table, the Miami rapper said he didn’t feel comfortable joining up with any other label“Everything happened through Future,” Zoey told VIBE. “He gave me his word like ‘Yo listen, I want to do this if you want to do it. It’s not about me wanting to bring you in and making you part of Freebandz. If you want to do it, you got to feel like that’s what you want to do. I never felt comfortable no where else. I felt home. I felt like this was family. Even though it’s business, I feel like it’s family. I can call Future at two in the morning and he’ll answer the phone.”
During our recent conversation, Zoey reveals why he changed the name of his forthcoming mixtape to Port-Au-Prince, and his plans for his major label debut LP Success And Enemies. He also describes how Future made him a prospering Freebandz artist and details his first time meeting with L.A. Reid.
Watch the interview in full below.