THE D.O.C. (December 2006) | Interview By: Nima

       Dubcnn had the honor of speaking with a true pioneer and a legend in Hip-Hop this month. The D.O.C. [sat in the room next door to Dr. Dre who was going over Detox material] talked exclusively to dubcnn about what he has been up to in recent years, the eagerly anticipated Detox record and his role in the project and writing once again with Snoop Dogg. We gauged The D.O.C.'s opinion on trying to please the mainstream as well as core fans, find out what is happening with his artists including Six-Two, movie plans and even discuss...another D.O.C. record executive produced by Dr. Dre once again? All in this exclusive dubcnn interview. No one can do it better!


As always we have the transcript and the audio for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: nima@dubcnn.com



Interview was done by phone in December 2006


Questions Asked By : Nima


The D.O.C Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here (Audio)

Full D.O.C Interview : Here

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Dubcnn: Dubcnn has the fantastic opportunity to connect with a true legend of Hip-Hop, a man who helped create a lot of classic records, The D.O.C. himself. How you doing Doc?

Hey hey man! I'm cool, just kicking it, you know?


Dubcnn: It's great to hear from you man, you know that to a lot of West Coast fans, you're like the magic fairy who is needed to sprinkle its magic on to records for them to become classics. How do you feel about that?

*laughs* Haaa, aw shit, that's cool man! It's a blessing, absolutely. I tell them all the time, it's not a D.O.C. thang, it's a G.O.D. thang!


Dubcnn: You have discussed your past many many times, so before we get to that, let's start it off by talking about the present time. You told me you've been in the studio with Dr. Dre?

Yeah, Dre is in the other room right now, making some beats.


Dubcnn: So ya'll working on Detox?

Yes sir! I'm trying to get this muthafucka done by the summertime. I need it to be out in the summertime, I need that badly in my life.


Dubcnn: So what is "Detox" really?

I can't tell you that. That's classified. *laughs*


Dubcnn: People are expecting a mind-blowing record, do you think the pressure makes it hard to put out a record, fearing a flop?

Nah man, if you love the shit, you're gonna make great shit. And I love the shit. I love great sounding rap records. I love great rap songs. So that's what I try to make.


Dubcnn: How much has been recorded already?

Can't tell you!


Dubcnn: Ya'll ain't letting nothing out the bag, huh?

Nope!


Dubcnn: People were expecting it to drop this year, cause he waited seven years to drop 2001, but I guess not...

The key is 007! It's always a 7 in it. You got part of it! But it's about 007.


Dubcnn: Do you think it's going to be comparable to the first two Chronics, as far as having West Coast guests on it and everything?

I can't tell you!!! All I can tell you is that it ain't what you expect, so don't expect nothing. But, it's some crazy shit, and I love it.


Dubcnn: How is it working with Dre in the studio, compared to back in the day?

It really hasn't changed. As a matter of fact, right now it's more like it was in the beginning. He's really able to concentrate on making these drums work, and I sit in there and try to concentrate on making these words work.


Dubcnn: What do you think of Bishop Lamont? Have you worked with him yet?

I haven't had a chance to work with him, but Lamont is something else. He's bananas. He's one of the young gorillas around here.


Dubcnn: Do you think he has it in him, to become the new star of Dr. Dre, similar to Snoop and Game blowing up?

I think Dre could make you a star. If that's what he wanted to do. All that is Dr. Dre. It all starts with that cat. If you are half way alright, if he's touching you, you're going to be great. And if you're great, and he touches you, then you're supposed to be super-human. But that's only if you can listen. Cause the guy is something else.


Dubcnn: Dre has been criticized a lot, producers talking about he stole work from them, or put his name on stuff. You're right there in the studio with him, so maybe you can clear that up!

Yeah! It's just drama. That's all it is. I see what this guy does with those buttons. Anybody should be happy to be affiliated with this dude, because it's something really different about his ear and shit. The truth is... Uh nah I'm not even allowed to tell you that. It's something else though. The guy is crazy.


Dubcnn: Sounds like ya'll have been going in a piano direction, judging from the tracks on Jay-Z and Snoop's record.

He makes beats all day long, and whatever song comes up, came up. We just try to make great songs. When it comes to the people and stuff, ain't really no masterplan to it, just trying to fit them to good music.


Dubcnn: Snoop told me he worked with you for his Blue Carpet Treatment, on "That's That Shit". Tell us about that.

"That's That Shit", "Round Here", "Boss Life" and "Imagine". Those are my pieces on Snoopy's record.


Dubcnn: Tell us about working with Snoop on his new album.

It's just love! It's me, Snoop and Dre getting back in the studio having fun. I'm just trying to put some love on my nigga's record because that's the love that we had back in the day. It's easier for me to write for Snoop than it is for anybody else, because that was some shit that we developed
together when he was a kid! I know him in and out!


Dubcnn: We know you used to coach Snoop Dogg write songs back in the day, how is it sitting next to Snoop in 2006, compared to back then?

Come on man, Snoop! I love Snoop exactly the same as I did back then. He was a star then. Before anybody else knew it, I knew it. I love him the same way now, he's a star now. It's all love on mine when it comes to him. We are the same, me and him.


Dubcnn: What about you, how different is D.O.C. now?

Not a whole lot different. Maybe a whole lot wiser. Maybe a lot more humble and appreciative of the opportunities that a muthafucka gets to have. It's a cold game, and it's easy to get swallowed up in bullshit, shit you could never make it out of. But your boy made it through and I'm right back in the
same spot I was 20 years ago, but with a whole lot more sense, and my skill sense is still bananas! *laughs*


Dubcnn: How do you think the game has changed? It's hard to please everybody, you have all the old school fans, and at the same time you have to please the young crowd and the mainstream crowd. How hard is that?

Aw man, it's all good songs. None of that shit really matters. It takes a great song. You know a great song when you hear one, everybody does. So if that's what you thrive to make, then you really can't miss! I don't give a fuck if it's a 20 year old or a 40 year old! It's all the same shit to me anyway! I thrive to be the best, that way I can't loose. A lot of the shit is so ughhh, but it is, what it is. And if you're young and you're black, and this music is affording you the opportunity to make money, I say make your money! But not that I listen to a lot of the stuff out here man.


Dubcnn: The way you're saying it, it sounds like when you hear a good song, you hear a good song. But, I don't believe that skill is all that matters no more. You have all these artists that make good songs, good music, that can't get no radio play, no play whatsoever.

Yeah, well you know, that's a part of the game too, kid! It always has been! It didn't just show up. It has always been like that, that shit goes all the way back to fuckin' Gladys Knight and the Pits probably. It is what it is. You have to work with that in this system, and try to accomplish whatever goal it is, that you set for yourself. You can't expect to change this system from the outside, unless you are the coldest muthafucka that ever rapped. And I ain't heard him yet! I probably am him, and they took my voice so I couldn't talk shit! I understand exactly what you're saying, but I don't believe you can fight that war from outside. It's gonna have to be a cold ass rapper to say that shit and muthafuckas got to play it anyway. He doesn't exist anymore, cause they took my vocal chords, kid! But if they give it back, I got you!


Dubcnn: You still managed to make your mark in the game, even without your voice! You used your talent in another way.

Man, it's all God's gift. It's what he allowed me to do. If this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now, that's why that happened.


Dubcnn: Do you still sometimes think back, like "What if that didn't happen? Now I would be sitting right there next Snoop and Dre on TV doing all the shit?"

No, no. It's probably more likely that if I wouldn't have lost my voice, I
probably would be dead by now, kid!


Dubcnn: You were too wild?

Yeah yeah, it was too much. We was too young.


Dubcnn: Doing too much?

Tooooo much! I think we're going to do a movie about this shit in a minute. So you'll get to see it, it's gonna be bananas. We're talking about it.


Dubcnn: What's up with your artist, Six-Two? Is he still around? You were pushing him hard for a while.

Six-Two is in Texas. I had to take a break from Silverback for a minute to concentrate on my ties to the West Coast. I had to build my shit back up, so I can do what I do back at the crib. But I came through for Silverback. But right now, I gotta be in L.A. where it's kinda popping. But I can't be up
here with all them niggas! I ain't got it like that yet!


Dubcnn: What about Up-Tight?

Both of them guys are around man, and both of those guys are solid!


Dubcnn: Six-Two had some good story telling tracks on the Deuce album!

Come on man! He is the truth! He is the truth!


Dubcnn: Didn't he have a solo record out there?

Who, Sixty-Double? Just featured on a lot of other shit, he ain't have a solo record yet.


Dubcnn: I think there was an album out, something called "Mac-A-Roni & G'z?"

That's like a mixtape. "Mac-A-Roni & G'z". *laughs* Yep man!


Dubcnn: How do you feel about your album "Deuce", looking back to it a few years later?

You know what, that's the first record I ever did myself, without nobody. I was trying to prove a point so bad, that I went one way when I maybe should have went another way. Today I might do it a lot differently, but it is what it is. I appreciate the opportunity.


Dubcnn: Your debut "No One Can Do It Better" is still praised as one of the classics in Hip-Hop, when is the last time you listened to that record?

Aw man, it's been a minute.


Dubcnn: You should pop it back in!

*laughs* I'm trying to build this new shit. I don't wanna get stuck trying to get off into that old shit, cause at one point in the game, I tried to go back to some of those flows that I used before, and it just don't work with this voice. You gotta be able to push that shit out.


Dubcnn: Do you wish you would have gotten more credit for the work and helping you did in the early Death Row days?

You know what? Of course. A man wants to be acknowledged for the work he does. But I don't know if everybody is supposed to get it all the time. When it's my turn to get it, you can believe I'ma get it. But that always fucked me up back then, not so much now, but it did back then.


Dubcnn: Do you still maintain a relationship to Suge Knight?

Naw, naw. It ain't really no reason to. But I don't not acknowledge the cat. He's gotta make ends too, so god bless him and that's what that is, but I really can't deal with him.


Dubcnn: Have you ever thought about writing a book about your whole life?

That's where this movie thang came from.


Dubcnn: Cause I know there was this book by Ronin Ro called "Have Gun, Will Travel", but I heard a lot of the shit in there was false and everything, so..

Oh, oh! *laughs* There was some crazy shit going on, I remember all that shit! But I'ma get them, you can believe that. But I wanna do it right, none of this is ever about money, for me. It's always about the art. So when I tell this story, I'ma move mountains with this muthafucka. It's not just to
be doing something.


Dubcnn: Aftermath artist G.A.G.E. said in an interview, that you were working on a solo album called "Voice Threw Hot Vessels". Is that true?

*silence* Uhhh... yeah.


Dubcnn: You ain't trying to tell me?

You know what, I don't wanna get too deep off into it, because it's so early. Right now Dr. Dre's "Detox" is the most important on my mind. But there is an idea in the back, and that was the title so far.


Dubcnn: That's all we're getting right now, huh.

Yeah. But don't count me out, kid! He might have one more classic in him!


Dubcnn: Shit, why not? You already have one under your belt.

*laughs* Thank you, pimpin'.


Dubcnn: You have a strong ear for talent, who are D.O.C.'s favorite up and coming artists in the rap game right now? Who are you routing for?

Six-Two and Up-Tight. Who else... Pretty Black from Dallas, Cadillac Seville... You know, we don't listen to anybody new, when we're in the field. It's not good. My daughter loves them all though, my daughter loves Lil Wayne, and Bow Wow, she loves them all. But D.O.C., he don't know.


Dubcnn: So what's D.O.C. listening to? Just your own shit?

D.O.C. is listening to these beats that Dre is making in here, trying to build some Detox shit.


Dubcnn: You should sneak some of those beats out and let us hear them!

Can't do it!


Dubcnn: I heard that Dre got this machine in the studio, where he just be shredding all the CD's he don't like!

Absolutely, right there.


Dubcnn: Why do that, though? I'm sure he's got beats that he's not happy with that he could easily slang to up and coming artists who would appreciate them.

I know, dogg! I be thinking the same thing! Cause he just makes them all day, he spits them out! But it's his art, I can't tell him what to do with his shit. I don't even try, cause it won't work!


Dubcnn: Do you think that a problem with well known artists is that they're often surrounded by yes-men, and rarely get an honest opinion about their music?

That may be. But sometimes, a person can get so good, that they forget that they're not always good. They might be getting the right information, but not hear it. It's all kinds of shit, and it's all subjective. It's really all opinion. Nobody can say for certain, one way or the other. That's why I
say if you're black, and you're making some money, I'm glad you're doing it.


Dubcnn: In Hip-Hop, it seems like we got that first album curse, to where the first album is your best one, most of the time.

Yeah. Because it's hard to love it. It's easy to love the money, but it's hard to love the shit that we do, because sometimes it's thankless, and trust me when I tell you that. I do it because I love it, and muthafuckas ain't been thanking me the whole time. But I do it because this is what I do, nigga.


Dubcnn: So for 2007, D.O.C.'s plans are Detox and then after that we might get the solo?

Yeah, as soon as we get through "Detox", I'm gonna do it. Dr. Dre executive producing the album, D.O.C... Oh my god! He named it! Which is why the name is out! But it's all good, you can call the muthafucka whatever you want! I just wanna do one over your drums.


Dubcnn: Okay man, I think we've cornered pretty much all aspects, do you have any last words for the fans?

Nah man, I'm just here, and I ain't going no where. If you love the shit, love the shit. For real. And I love the fact that the Cowboys will be in Miami this year, kickin' the shit out of somebody from the AFC's ass in the Superbowl. I love that.










 

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