Meet Dave Free, Kendrick Lamar’s 30 Under 30 Manager

Camp Kendrick: Dave Free serves as manager of Lamar and president of TDE, the label that launched him. (Photo: John Mosley).

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...