THE D.O.C.  (April 2008) | Interview By:

      

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Interview was done by phone in April 2008

Questions Asked By: Chad Kiser

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

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Read Part 2 of this Exclusive Interview: Here
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www.myspace.com/7zup

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Dubcnn: What’s up?

What’s crackin’, goddamn it?


Dubcnn: Well, I know you’re in the studio right now, so what’s going on in there?

We trying to get this Detox record finished, man, this summer. We trying to get it ready everyday. They call it the most anticipated blah, blah, blah, blah. So, we’re trying to make sure it’s worth the wait.


Dubcnn: What kind of direction has that project taken?

You know that guy don’t want me to talk about that stuff.


Dubcnn: Are we going to get a surprise 16 by you?

You know what? My “16’s” are all over the record. You won’t hear my voice, but *laughs*


Dubcnn: So you doing some heavy writing on that Detox record, huh?

Come on, man! I’ve done every writing on every west coast record that’s major since the west coast was major.


Dubcnn: In saying that, do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on, not necessarily Dre, but just anybody out there?

The best record, the most fun I had was probably the Straight Outta Compton record. Only because, you know, it was all so, so brand-new. And after I had had my accident, nothing ever really felt the same. It feels a little better these days because I’m kind of over it a little bit. It feels good to be back in the position that I am with Dre. We haven’t been this close since we met, you know, 20 years ago.


Dubcnn: I know you’ve spoke on it many times before, but can you sum up how you and Dre met, and formed that bond that made you all so close.

We had a mutual friend in Dallas, before I knew these guys. Dre came to visit the guy in Texas, and he heard me rapping. He was very impressed with my skills. When I saw his production skills, I was very impressed with that as well. So, I followed him back to the west coast; words and music go together. As a matter of fact, Mel Man, one of Dre’s producers, told me once that he asked Dre who was, out of all the artists he’s ever recorded with who rapped his beats the hardest. And Mel-Man told me that he told him it was me, and I believe that. I tore a beat up, nigga, back in the day!


Dubcnn: Take us back to the making of No One Can Do It Better. You had written for NWA and Eazy up to that moment. Tell us about making that album, and how you felt about that album.

You know what? We made No One Can Do It Better, and it took us about 2 months. We did it basically on weekends, in our spare time because Eazy & NWA were touring. We was just making my shit when we had a chance to do it. We didn’t really sit down and put a lot of thought into No One Can Do It Better; it was what it was. It didn’t really have a lot of content, it was just a nigga rappin’ his ass off. I was basically telling muthafuckaz that I was better than y’all! *laughs*


Dubcnn: Right, Right!

That’s really what it was. I didn’t have to cuss out bitches or call niggaz out they name. I just basically told everybody, in the nicest way I could, I’m just better than you. No hard feelings muthafucka!


Dubcnn: You got a favorite song off that album?

The No One Can Do It Better album, yeah, The Formula probably my favorite.


Dubcnn: I like that one and The D.O.C. & The Doctor.

That was probably my favorite two. But I’m a huge Marvin Gaye fan.


Dubcnn: Listening to those old NWA albums, how come you weren’t more involved in those albums, as far as being on the mic? Especially on Straight Outta Compton.

Well, I’m not from Compton; I’m from Dallas. So me getting on a record called Straight Outta Compton didn’t fit. That record was about them. I wasn’t really in NWA, I was just there to help them do what they were doing. It was just path to get to me doing what I wanted to do. It was a learning thing. It makes me feel good to have helped so many cats over the years find their voices. I can remember coming to the studio and rapping, and Cube would go home and have to re-write his shit. We did that a lot! He’d come and rap his shit, and I say, “I got to do my shit over!” I’d come rap my shit and he’d be like, “I got to go do my shit over!”

I remember those times and building the skill set that would carry us for years an years. And it feels good to know that those guys, today, that all still have as much love and respect for one another, as we did then. Me and Dre was just sitting here talking about this NWA movie that folks is trying to put together. I don’t know what the deal is on that, you know?. It’s not my thing, but I’d love to see it because you can’t miss me! *laughs* They gotta throw me in that bitch too!


Dubcnn: Is that something that you all are involved with, or is that something somebody else is trying to do, that you don’t have nothing to do with?

Nah, that’s something that they’re trying to put together with the good Doctor. But I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. I’m actually just, really for my own sake, I’m “back in the fold” so that I could put a happy ending to my own story; so that you could have a D.O.C. movie one day. My shit is going to kill all that shit!


Dubcnn: Well, let me ask you this, 'cause I heard the Conspiracy interview you did and you were talking about this album “Voices Through Hot Vessels”, is there anything else you can touch on with that?

There is an album, and you got the title, but that’s also because that’s the title Dre likes. Dre and I decided to do another D.O.C. album after this Detox record. We decided to do one more together and end our story the right way.


Dubcnn: How did that idea come about?

The idea came about when we were in Hawaii recording for his Detox record. We were having breakfast and I asked him what he thought about the idea of me writing 12 songs, and having the people I love and respect the most in this rap business rap the shit for me. He thought the shit was brilliant. So, therein was born the idea, and he named it Vessels Through Hot Voices or some shit. It really doesn’t have a title yet. But this is the idea as soon as we get done, or we get towards the end of Detox. Then I’m going to start putting energy into building songs and finding the artists that I want to work with.

It’s going to be a global-warming kind of thing because it’s not just going to be west coast muthafuckaz, or east coast muthafuckaz or just south muthafuckaz; maybe not even just United States muthafuckaz! I really want to go all over the place with this record and really try to do some real shit; run a mad dash back to content within the music, which is what we’ve lost a lot of. Most of the people today don’t want content back in the music like I do. If you have content in the material you have to sort of pay attention (laughs). You can’t just run and jump, bob your head and dance, and think you’re going to get it. You have to listen a little bit.


Dubcnn: Along with those questions, a lot of people question the moves going on over at Aftermath. With you being so close to Dre, what’s the story behind the Rakim’s, Hittman’s, Truth Hurts and people like that? How come they don’t see the light of day?

Dr. Dre, he’s a hard man to please, man. For real, man. You can’t come in the house if your stomach is weak because they will laugh at you *laughs*. It’s tough! This guy puts a lot of energy into his shit, and either he feels it or he don’t. And it’s his house! You can’t tell a muthafucka how to run his house. Me and Dre have bumped heads plenty of times; we done argued and cussed each other out. We’ll leave, come back together; leave come back together, but that’s love and respect. One thing I’ll never do is take his word, at least from now on, I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not going to fight with him no more. When he say that shit ain’t good, I’ma ride with it. I didn’t hear a lot of the people’s records you’re talking about, you know, Truth Hurts. I know her; never heard her record. I never heard King T’s record; I never heard Rakim’s shit. I was really excited about Rakim because I thought Rakim was one of the few people that motivated me. And I thought that when he got with Dre it was going to piss me off so bad that I was going to write some shit that was going to change the world! But it never came out.


Dubcnn: Mel-Man was such a big part of 2001, then he just disappeared shortly after that. Now we’re hearing that he’s back, but no one I guess really knows. Can you confirm that?

Mel-Man is always around. But sometimes, and I’m going to say this as humbly as I can. Dre is a giver, and he will give you...like a lot of people always tend to give other folks credit ‘cause they’re around when shit is going down. But, if it come out of here, you can bet your last money Dre is on it so tough, that anybody else’s energy that would’ve been on it is being smothered. You understand? It’s no longer there. Like, if I found a sample and gave it to Dre, what he’s going to do with it is going to make it so different from what it was when I had it that in order for me to claim it, it would take a lot of nuts and a lot of pride. And pride is not good.

Dre is not in to ‘I did that’, because he already knows he did the shit. That’s the same shit used when Daz was around. It was supposed to be all Daz’s. I sit and watch these niggaz. They give the nigga [Dre] the drums and he takes them and builds them ‘cause they can’t do what Dre do. They don’t have his ears. So it’s all in the guy’s ears and how he hears the shit. It’s not something so special that he’s doing to the drums that they not doing. You can use the same equipment that he uses, but he’s going to turn that button a little differently than you turn it, and make that shit sound different. That’s the key. That’s the key.


Dubcnn: After 2001, you hit us up with “Deuce”. Did you accomplish what you wanted to accomplish with that release? Do you feel good about that record?

You know what? I really felt good at the time, but “Deuce” was the result of an argument between me and Dre. That record was actually supposed to be an album on a guy called Six-Two, who was in my camp. But as we started building the album, it was coming through Aftermath, me and Dre got into an argument. So I just took my shit and left.


Dubcnn: Similar to what it was with the Helter Skelter project?

Well yeah. I told you we fuss, we fight; we’re brothers. But the Helter Skelter record was really Dre’s record, I just took it *laughs*.


Dubcnn: Just took it and ran with it!

Just took it and ran with it ‘cause I’m the only nigga that could do that! I relish my position as the man, next to the man goddamn it!


Dubcnn: On that Deuce record, that 1-2-3 Critical...that song was dope was ‘cause it reminded me of the Portrait Of A Masterpiece of your No One Can Do It Better album.

That’s exactly what it was! When I did Deuce, what I was trying to do was duplicate my years that I spent. I was trying to make a record that sort of encompassed all that time. And use all those artists the same way Dre used all the artists on the Chronic. But when I made the record, Dre was really adamant that I take my ass off that record. He wanted to take my voice off, and put his voice on it where ever I was. He was like, “nigga, I can make this a hit for you! You can get rich!” I was like, “I don’t want to be rich, I want to rap, nigga!” He said, “I can’t put it out like that.” We argued and fussed, so I finally just took my shit and left. But here 5, 6, 7 years later I realized that it was my pride and I was still trying to find that D.O.C. shit again. Even 20 years after the fact, not being able to rap is probably the toughest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. I mean, ‘cause I’m still better than all these muthafuckaz, man.


Dubcnn: In the stuff that you write for other people, we can hear it. We know it’s there.

And you know what’s funny? When I write songs for them they always fuck my raps up! My rhythms are very intricate. If you don’t know exactly what the fuck you’re saying, you’re not going to be able to say it right. But, you know, people don’t give a fuck. So, as long as it sounds alright, it’s all good.


Dubcnn: So what’s up with Silverback, and more specifically Six-Two and the cats you had with that?



 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this exclusive interview with The D.O.C.