Jeremiah Freed, formerly known as Dr. Funkenberry & J7, is a musicologist, writer, and Prince scholar with expansive knowledge of the entire Prince catalogue who worked with and for the artist. With a background in radio and music retail, he soon became the company’s youngest person to handle singles distribution on the west coast. As a side hustle, Mr. Freed went into music promotion before creating the immensely popular blog Dr. Funkenberry, which focused on all aspects of entertainment with a heavy focus on music as that is where his passion lies. Jeremiah has been interviewed and featured on CNN, 20/20, Nightline, Rolling Stone,  OK Player, US Magazine, GQ, Marie Claire, and other international magazines & news media.

Jeremiah has been writing & covering Prince for almost 4 decades, starting with articles in junior high & high school for his school papers. He created the Prince Newsletter entitled “The 777 Update” which quickly got Prince’s attention for his positive views and writing style. He then was brought on to write articles and help secure content for Uptown Magazine. Jeremiah’s writing was also featured in the book entitled “The Vault” with uncredited segments. His updates, and then posts, were breaking news worldwide regarding new Prince music and concerts. In this role, Jeremiah suddenly had incredible access to exclusive events and insights.

In the mid-2000’s, Ruth Arzate, Prince’s manager, reached out to Jeremiah and enlisted him to cover Prince’s legendary house parties.  This brought Mr. Freed further inside the purple world. Arzate came up with an idea to write a blog entry on the NY Post teasing the guest list for Prince’s upcoming Oscar party. Jeremiah decided to take that one post idea and create his own blog.  DrFunkenberry.com was born. Prince then started using Jeremiah/Drfunkenberry as the true official source through the rest of his life. The two often had discussions about the music industry and in-depth conversations about Prince’s music and vault recordings.

Jeremiah created social media accounts for Prince at the artist’s request. However, Jeremiah really wanted Prince to post on the social media accounts himself. Even though it benefited Jeremiah tremendously to be the main source for Prince information, he consistently encouraged Prince to not only join social media but to be active in it. In a conversation before Prince played the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2013, Freed brought it up again more forcefully that it needs to happen. After returning from Montreux, Prince started his relationship with social media. Because those posts still exist on social media, fans still visit and share on them to this day. During this time, Jeremiah started the Prince Spreecast with co-host sports broadcaster Seth Everett. This weekly video cast of Prince news & interviews included current & former Prince band members and protegees. It was around long before the video format was readily available.

With DrFunkenberry, Jeremiah was able to promote and work with musicians and established artists in addition to Prince. Such artists included Billy Joel, Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Eric Benét, Chaka Khan, George Clinton, Maroon 5, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, Van Halen, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, OneRepublic, Beyoncé among others in addition to new up & comers, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, & The Weeknd. After Prince’s passing, Jeremiah decided to hit pause on DrFunkenberry.com, feeling that the priority needed to be protecting Prince’s legacy. He continued the Dr. Funk Podcast and worked on 3 Prince Documentaries, including the released “Mr. Nelson On The Northside.”

Mr. Freed continues to concentrate his efforts on promoting and protecting Prince’s legacy.