Is it cliche to start an article about Really Doe with a reference to the now infamous line in Kanye West’s “Diamonds (From Sierra Leone)”? The one in which Kanye declared that Really Doe was in fact in the studio and that he was “next up”. That was nearly five years ago, and with the release of his debut album, First Impressions, in the summer of ’09, Really Doe’s time to step up to the plate has come a little bit behind schedule. But Doe is not bitter or upset at the change in plans, instead putting the responsibility on himself.
“I think g-d puts us in different positions for a specific reason,” Really Doe told us. “I’ve grown so much mentally as an artist, and now it’s my time. I’m able to bounce from track to track and do what I want to do as a musician because I’ve been put in a position to be around the making of a lot of great music. I feel like the timing is perfect because I’m more of a beast.”
Really Doe delves more into beastdom, his debut album, and how he deals with negativity from his hometown.
“I hear a lot of s**t talking from Chicago artists, and I say to myself, ‘if I was to give you guys a budget to put together an album, you’d put together a s**ty ass mixtape album with block songs. A lot of people don’t know how to structure an album at the end of the day. They think they do, but they don’t know.”
Check out the full interview below.
RubyHornet: When you started to promote the album it kind of just showed up really almost out of nowhere. A lot of talk in Chicago was, ‘oh, wow, you have an album coming out?’ What went into the choice of how it was promoted prior to its release and how do you feel about how it came together?
Really Doe: I think it was a genius way to do it. It was a little unexpected as you said, but I had been doing a lot of talk in the past about an album. I just wanted to put my work where my mouth was and put something out there to the world. I feel it was creative as far as the marketing strategy we took… It was sort of like a genius move to let people accept the album first on the Internet, then once the video visuals and our radio picked up, we hit them in the head with the hard copies.
RubyHornet: You built up a name and worked with a very talented artist in Kanye West. How important is it for you as an artist, or just as a personal goal to establish Really Doe as an artist on your own? Do you care when people bring up those associations?
Really Doe: I mean, I really can’t get caught up in that. It’s like the gift and the curse… A lot of people will say, ‘ah man, he’s here because he’s Kanye’s friend,’ but who wouldn’t want that stamp of approval? But, by knowing a lot of people have that in the back of their mind, going into this album, Kanye wasn’t involved in anything beyond his verse on “Plastic”. I totally did want to separate myself. That’s why my video for “Mesmerized” and things like that, I didn’t even call and ask for a cameo… By me trying to establish Really Doe, this whole album, I didn’t even call and say “I need you in the studio to construct this album, or tell me where to go,” because I’ve been a student too long with him. I’ve been in those studio sessions watching him create for other artists. I’ve always been that artist on G.O.O.D. music where sometimes other artists will be like, ‘why are you going to the studio with Ye? He’s working on another major artist’s project.’ And I would say, ‘first of all I’m going cause I’m a fan of music. Second, I need to learn. One day it’s going to be my turn and I need to know how to put together a crazy album.’ It’s good to have the stamp of Kanye West and anybody who would say it’s not good is lying through their teeth.
RubyHornet: So you titled the album First Impressions…
Really Doe: I feel like First Impressions is appropriate as far as my first introduction to the world. This is like my baby and how the world is going to take me in and just judge me. You only get one shot as Em says.
RubyHornet: And you have very few guest appearances. Does that fit into the whole theme of the title?
Really Doe: Yes. Most definitely, and that’s one of the reasons why I did that. I want this to be Really Doe. But not only that, I did say I was going to save a lot of major features for remixes and things like that. With this being First Impressions, how can this really be my first impression if I had 8 or 9 features on it? And that would murder me when it came time to tour.
RubyHornet: “Psychotic” is one of my favorite songs on the album. One of the lines that stuck out to me is when you say, ‘that’s when things got real hectic, word on the street is that they don’t respect us.’ What are you referring to in that song, and what does respect mean?
Really Doe: Respect means a lot to me. That’s when things got hectic. That’s when I started to go hard, and really build the Really Doe brand. When I started hearing a lot of s**t like, ‘Kanye isn’t going to put out a Really Doe album.’ And what’s really f**ked up is you got all these fake friends and fake people in your life. When they see you with Kanye, and you’re on the tube with him and touring with him and different things like that, and if you fall back for a second and concentrate on yourself, a lot of these people that you thought loved you and cared about your career, they disappear. They vanish into f**king air. So, it’s sort of creates you into a monster and just independent. It molds your mind to be independently successful. That’s what I mean by that line, ‘that’s when things got real hectic… feeling disrespected, dismissed, not involved.’ Man, I’m a f**king problem and I’m gonna make it regardless if you think Kanye is not stamping everything that I’m doing. Ye is Ye, Ye is always going to be there for me, so why wouldn’t I build my own brand?
RubyHornet: On “Opera Love” you speak of your relationship with the pen. There are parts of the song where you seem happy with the relationship and other parts where you are unhappy, but can’t give it up. Are there times when you have perhaps thought about giving up the music business, and what’s kept you in it to see the fruition of the album?
Really Doe: I’ve never been a quitter so I never thought about abandoning the rap game. I have thought about other outlets of getting money and things like that. You know, rainy days and things like that, the music business is tough and I’ve hit some bumps in the road and things like that. On “Opera Love” I dug in and focused on that for the song. “I pick her up, drop her back off…’ I used to be inspired by a lot of other artists in the ‘90s. Now, a lot of artists don’t inspire me to do music so it has to come from my heart, my soul, and my dedication to what I want to put out. I used to hear artists like Raekwon and Ghost, and Nas, Jay, all their early albums, I grew up across the street from a DJ and heard stuff from guys like Spice1 and NWA, and Cube and these guys motivated me to want to write. When I was creating First Impressions, I wasn’t even listening to rap. I was more listening to rock and R&B, and things like that… I’m not really inspired by a lot of this s**t I hear today. It sucks.
RubyHornet: On “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” Kanye raps, “In the studio with Really Doe, yeah he’s next up”. That was ’05, your album just came out in the summer of ’09. Can you take us back to your feelings when you heard that and what you thought the next steps would be? How much does the reality match your thoughts?
Really Doe: When I did that I was there in the making of that album everyday. We were bouncing around from 3 different studios that year. We would get up at like 9AM and hit one studio to do vocals, then go to another studio with Jon Brion (who is a monster) and watch him play every major instrument over this album. Then we would go to another studio and record more vocals and mix. I was there on the input of a lot of that whole album. It taught me how to separate business from friendship when it comes to music. It’s a line that people still respect me for, and I still love to hear it to this day. “Diamonds” is one of my favorite songs. Of course a lot of people are saying, ‘damn that was ’05, why did it take so long to drop an album?’ It goes back to the saying, ‘always keep your life in your own hands when it comes to your dreams and things you want to get out.’ I think g-d puts us in different positions for a specific reason. I’ve grown so much mentally as an artist, and now it’s my time. I’m able to bounce from track to track and do what I want to do as a musician because I’ve been put in a position to be around the making of a lot of great music. I feel like the timing is perfect because I’m more of a beast. I’m able to do things on my own instead of needing a hand and needing Kanye to be in the studio with me 24 hours.
RubyHornet: An easy answer to that question is ‘label politics’. But you’ve taken ownership of your own career, growth, and responsibility in why it’s taken this much time. That seems to be an important step for any artist, to own up and be like, I can control it.
Really Doe: Yeah! I need to control my own destiny. I used to have that problem. Don’t get me wrong, of course I had that problem like, ‘the label’s on some bulls**t, or why aren’t I being pushed?’ I had to fall back and look in the mirror and be like, ‘damn, this is me. If I say I’m going to be the artist that’s going to run this s**t, how can’t I control my life? I’m f**king up by not moving forward and not taking over.’ At the end of the day it’s me, and it’s me not taking the steps and making the moves I had to in order to drop a Really Doe album at that time. When ‘Ye dropped that line, if I felt like G.O.O.D. wasn’t going to put out my album that year, maybe I should have started looking elsewhere.
RubyHornet: Speaking of G.O.O.D., there have been several additions to the camp over the years. You have a crop of young artists such as Kid Cudi, Big Sean. How do they fit into the crew? Do you, GLC, Consequence other artists that have been on G.O.O.D. for a long time, do you feel any responsibility to take them under your wing at all or mentor them?
Really Doe: Those guys bring something to the table. They’re already molded and they know where they want to go, what they want. They’re good guys. Ye single handily picks everybody out for the label. He puts everybody under the microscope and makes sure they have talent, they can stand on their own, and they bring something different and won’t water us down… I think those guys are going to be quite alright. Cudi’s album is doing quite well right about now. Big Sean is working on his album right now. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be monstrous. They’re lyricists. They study the great artists like we do. I think those guys are going to be cool. We don’t really have to mentor those guys because they know what it takes. If you’re on G.O.O.D. Music and you’re creating an album, you better be thinking about every other artist on the label before you press play.
RubyHornet: GLC is your label mate and a dear friend of ours. He’s also working on his proper debut. I’m wondering if you guys talk about the place you are at in your careers, trade notes, or lean on each other for support? Is that a special relationship?
Really Doe: We have a crazy relationship. GLC, that’s my brother. We’ve been knowing each other since the ‘80s. A lot of this is bigger than music when we talk and communicate. We talk about life, we talk about the steps we need to take in order to grow as a man. We talk about relationships and just waking up every morning, how it’s a blessing. We talk about how much fun we have when we’re touring, it’s all a mix in the pot. Of course we discuss music and where we need to go to stand on top, how the game has changed… What do we think it takes to make a successful album, who do we think is whack in the game, who do we think is strong. Who we think deserves this, who doesn’t deserve s**t at all. But who am I to judge anybody at the end of the day? That all goes back to self-evaluating Really Doe. Of course, GL is working hard. That’s my brother, I got nothing but love for him. I ride or die with him. He’s coming hard right about now.
RubyHornet: To Chicago you’re fairly well-known… Do you ever have to remind yourself that what you’re going after is bigger than the city of Chicago? And even in this city it’s really a very small niche that are on a rubyhornet or fsd.
Really Doe: Most definitely. When I was working on First Impressions I had that in mind. That’s why I dropped tracks like “Mesmerized”, “Roll Out” and “Checking In”. I see a lot of Chicago artists that have talent, they get caught up in their own selfish ways of making music just for themselves, just for their block, or just for their camp. That’s why they’re losing, and they don’t expand outside of Chicago. Most definitely as an artist you can never get caught up into that, ‘oh, s**t I’m just gonna show all the Chicago underground heads at Sub-T that I’m a super lyricist.’ And you will stay underground for the rest of your life lighting incense and rocking kari shells…Some people are OK with that. I can’t knock anybody in what they’re targeting. If you want the mainstream, if you want the MTV and BET, you most definitely can’t be a selfish artist and say, ‘I think this is dope, and it is what it is.’ You have to think towards other people. That’s what I do as an artist, and that’s how I created First Impressions. I had so many different races inside the studio. I had Chinese, white, black, Hispanic… I was in L.A. and I threw away every lyric I had written from Chicago and sized up all those faces and said, ‘I want everybody to be able to relate this album. Line for line, track for track, I want this s**t to play in Tokyo, Australia… By saying that, that’s how First Impressions came about.
RubyHornet: In terms of reaching the people that don’t know you yet, what is the ideal First Impressions?
Really Doe: First of all I’m humble. When people hear the word G.O.O.D. Music they think cockiness, they think arrogant and s**t like that. I’d like to get that out of the way, and get across that when someone personally meets me it’s like, ‘oh s**t, this guy is cool as hell.’ And soon after it’s, ‘I love his music, I love what he stands for, I love where he’s trying to go in the world, and damn he’s naturally a cool guy to be around.’ It’s not like I’m on another planet, or on Jupiter. That’s something artists should always fight for. No matter how big I get, I never want to get to a point where my fans feel like they can’t touch me or I’m out of tune with them. They got to look through a telescope to see Really Doe or throw a paper kite over the ocean to mail me a letter or something. That’s something I want to stick with throughout my career, just being a cool individual, a lyricist, at the end of the day when I hang up the Really Doe belt, when you mention music when you mention entertainment I want my name to be among the greats… An album is like shooting pool. You want to shoot the ball into all corners in order to win the game. Creating a solid album most definitely has to be that. A lot of artists aren’t structured and made like that. I hear a lot of s**t talking from Chicago artists, and I say to myself, ‘if I was to give you guys a budget to put together an album, you’d put together a s**ty ass mixtape album with block songs. A lot of people don’t know how to structure an album at the end of the day. They think they do, but they don’t know…
RubyHornet: Do the negative comments bother you?
Really Doe: They don’t really bother me. I laugh at a lot of this s**t. I know personally it’s hate. It would get to me a little bit and I would wonder to myself, ‘why do these guys personally not like me?’ I’m sorry if I had sex with your girl, or didn’t get on one of your songs, I’m sorry. I support my city to the utmost. If you’re mad, don’t be mad at me, be mad at your woman. I’m here to help, whatever you want me to do as far as bringing up my city. We need that. We need that domino effect…I go to another city and they’re like ‘oh, s**t Doe is here. The radio station is here, whatever you want to do, we’re available.’ I feel like Chicago, and that’s one of the reasons why a lot of artists like Common, like Lupe, like Kanye, [leave] because Chicago is so full of s**t. A lot of the powers that be are on bulls**t, so when artists make it in Chicago you look at a lot of these guys that didn’t really extend their hand and say, ‘these n***as are getting taxed like out of town guys when it’s on and popping.’
RubyHornet: Do you think that’s out of fear? They don’t want to give up their spaces?
Really Doe: I really don’t know what it is. I think a lot of the times some guys are scared to take chances. It’s the whole Chicago mentality of ‘if my cousin ain’t on, my sister raps and she ain’t got anything popping why would I press the button for this guy? Let’s keep everybody here.’ Chicago is just so f**ked up. To be honest with you, I’ll be at these radio stations, and this f**ks me up more than anything, a lot of the guys that come from different cities and work in the radio stations are cooler and more supportive than a lot of the guys that actually grew from Chicago. I’ll be like, ‘damn dog, you’re coming from Miami, New York, and you work at GCI and all this s**t now and you’re more supportive of a Chicago artist than a guy that’s been here his whole life. I don’t understand that s**t, but it just lets me know that Chicago is so…. At a certain level. Not everybody, you got people like Timbuck at major stations that are super supportive. I’m not shooting down every Chicago personality, but we do need to stand up and support our own cause it f**ks me up when an out of towner and can move he owns the city. He can run the town for the night. Somebody who doesn’t have half our talent, you can have someone come here who is just super s**tty and they’ll just have the whole s**t unrolled like the red carpet. I had to fight with radio to play a song with Kanye West, even GLC. Whereas if we were other artists from a different city and had that feature with Kanye, they would go ‘oh s**t, shorty wink! They got a song with Kanye, let me throw it into rotation. It upsets me.
RubyHornet: Let’s talk about what’s next for you.
Really Doe: Right now we got a lot of crazy shows going on. We got a lot of major magazines going on right now. We got major pushers… We’re going to shoot another video off the album, which we’re deciding. First Impressions is doing pretty well, it’s a classic album. Check it out on iTunes, Best Buy. I need the support. Chicago, please get behind me. I’m one of those artists where I don’t have to stay here. I never have. I’ve always been one of those artists who has had an opportunity, and my guys always told me, ‘Doe, you got some many opportunities. Come to L.A. What are you still doing in Chicago?’ Do you know how many phone calls I get about being in Chicago with my jewelry on? It’s endless. Of course my people don’t want me to be here. Me creating albums and not being where I want to be is like Kanye’s point of view. I didn’t want to live like that. I needed to be around people who’s lives I need to change. I need to walk in and look at the carpet and say, ‘I’m going to change this s**t.’ That’s what establishing and developing yourself should be based off of, not someone else’s Bentley or mansion or s**t like that. It might humble you enough to not make you come as hard as you usually would have came. I’m motivated by things I want too. I was at Ludacris’ house with Kanye and Keisha Cole, and it was to the point where I’m partying and I’m kicking it and I was like ‘s**t!’ It was a Sunday so I turned the volume down on the football, I threw on some beats, and I just started working cause I saw so much s**t that I wanted in my life.
RubyHornet: At the end of the day, it’s Ludacris’ house. It’s not your house.
Really Doe: Exactly. It’s Ludacris’ house…. But not only that, this movement is not just about me. I want to be able to get jobs for my people. That’s what pushes me at the end of the day.
