Author Spotlight
The Believer interviews Doseone
Doseone is a true original among the rap shits. Pretty much any record he touches (from cLOUDDEAD to his solo discography to 6-piece band Subtle), dude is going to be doing new things not only with the music he is rapping (or singing) over, but with the words he puts on top of it. Where a lot of rap is made of repetitions and nonsense, Doseone invents science and languageisms that are often just as new as the words coming out on Diagram or Fence or wherever you wanna talk about.
I tried to do this interview for the Believer but couldn’t get a hold of my man. Anyway, you can read the interview now fully online, and it is a fun weird one, as would be expected of a man who wears suits made out of plastic spoons and writes huge poetry manuals to accompany his most recent project’s trilogy of albums (all of which are really good and worth checking out, if you like experimental but still catchy music):
Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:
I went in to talk to them about doing music and being a rapper. They want to know about battle rapping. That’s the thing they’re most interested in. They think 8 Mile is real. I was like: “Y’all don’t know shit about battles.” …
I try to teach these kids that there’s a difference between freestyling and battling. You want to have a line between them: when you are battling someone you should be able to serve them into the ground; when you’re freestyling try to keep it creative, steer it away from a fight. With freestyling it’s not about “Say something funny!” That has nothing to do with it. It’s about becoming quicker on your feet and knowing that your entire day can go into your rap if you’re on it.
Here is a video from ’97 of Doseone battling (there used to be a vid on YouTube where he hands a not-yet-famous Eminem his ass, but I can’t find it):
Here is a fan video for a cLOUDDEAD track:
the second video made me think ‘haha’ very hard, i liked it
if someone wants to email me their album i can trade you ‘enema of the state’ by blink 182
the second video made me think ‘haha’ very hard, i liked it
if someone wants to email me their album i can trade you ‘enema of the state’ by blink 182
i went to a black dice show and 13 and god was opening. everyone really liked them but i just stood there. the guy in front of me asked me if i liked it. i said, “not really” but i wasn’t trying to be a dick. he got really pissed like i was trying to be mean to him and he said, “who are you here to see.” i told him the black dice and he laughed at me. i don’t get that because the black dice were the headliners. when the black dice went on, there were only like 20 people left at the concert venue. i really like the black dice. it was the loudest show i have seen and it made me feel really weird.
i went to a black dice show and 13 and god was opening. everyone really liked them but i just stood there. the guy in front of me asked me if i liked it. i said, “not really” but i wasn’t trying to be a dick. he got really pissed like i was trying to be mean to him and he said, “who are you here to see.” i told him the black dice and he laughed at me. i don’t get that because the black dice were the headliners. when the black dice went on, there were only like 20 people left at the concert venue. i really like the black dice. it was the loudest show i have seen and it made me feel really weird.
black dice would be weird to see live.
13 & god sucks ass compared to his other projects, i never could get into that
black dice would be weird to see live.
13 & god sucks ass compared to his other projects, i never could get into that
ha yeah the second video makes me laugh too, i have heard that song probably 50 times at least and didn’t know a large % of the lyrics, they are funny
ha yeah the second video makes me laugh too, i have heard that song probably 50 times at least and didn’t know a large % of the lyrics, they are funny
thanks for this. i spent three hours last night watching youtube rap battle fights.
thanks for this. i spent three hours last night watching youtube rap battle fights.