DOESY

Beware: The content in this article may result in you becoming a super fan of hot, new artist, Doesy! Doesy is a Hispanic Hip Hop artist and songwriter born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. His style is disruptive and danceable with dynamic lyrics. During this interview, I laughed, I cried, I heard about the up’s & down’s of his journey, his rock bottom, the inspiration behind his new single ‘Loaded,’ and his advice to his younger self. To learn more, keep reading. You’ve been warned. 

What do you love most about music?

I like how it makes me feel. Without it, I would probably lose myself. I would lose my mind. Like, video games, movies, tv…all that other stuff is cool or whatever, but it doesn’t give me the feeling I feel when I hear music or when I’m making music.

Who’s some of your musical influences?

Future is one of my biggest influences. Another one would be NBA Young Boy. I like how he talks a lot about his life, not just money and cars and stuff.

You opened up for PBNRock. How was that? 

It was pretty cool. I had fun. It’s starting to become more fun the more I do it. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him though. Everyone was bombarding him to get pictures and stuff so I decided I would just wait until all that pressure went away from him. It’s always a pleasure to open up for big artists.

What was your favorite city? What crowd gave you the most energy?

I would say ‘Dababy.’ That was in D.C. The energy was crazy. The line was so big that they didn’t even let everyone in the venue! The PnB show was cool but it wasn’t as live. 

Have you ever had a performance you weren’t proud of? If so, what happened?

Yeah, but it wasn’t on me it was on the venue. The crowd was more for west side music. It’s a different style rap. I’m kind of more of a mainstream popular kind of guy. It was just different. But it was good because they all liked me. They were vibing. They were like ‘wow, that’s really good.’ They said they never heard anything like that.

If you could go on tour with any artist dead or alive, who would it be?

I would say Young Thug and if I could go on tour with a dead artist, it would be XXXTENTACION.

Have you ever had any hurdles or challenges as far as your music career?

I feel like my biggest challenge is, not necessarily getting validation from the world, but getting myself out there. So far everyone who’s heard my music, not to sound arrogant or anything, but they like it and they enjoy it. They tell me they love my sound and what I got going. So I would say my biggest hurdle is getting heard. I don’t really have an issue with people liking my music. When they hear it, they like it. Exposure, that’s what I’m battling right now. I feel like everyone nowadays is trying to make music, even professional athletes. Back then sometimes it discouraged me because there’s so much out there, that it’s hard to get heard. Everyone is trying to get signed. But I just listen to my music again and just remind myself how special my sound is. I’m not just a regular artist that just puts a song out there.

Knowing what you know now…What advice would you want to give to the younger Doesy?

I picture myself somewhere; sound good, look good, but not really doing my shit. I would say to the younger me, or even the younger folks that’s looking to get into any type of industry. Stop worrying about the wrong things! Let all the distractions go. All the stuff we worry about, I feel like, aren’t really truly important. Instead of talking about it, just go out there and get it!

When you’re feeling down, are you the type to reach out to loved ones or do you seclude yourself?

I try to keep it in. Very rarely will I open up. I feel like most times, people can’t understand or even relate. It’s almost like I’m talking to a brick wall.

Do you ever make music during those times?

I definitely have. I have this one song called ‘Alone’ basically about how I feel like no one can understand me. And how I see through all the bullshit. It’s definitely a different vibe for me because lately I’ve been doing trap music or love songs. But this is different.

Name a time when you felt like you hit rock bottom.

Right before I got locked up, I was making music as a youngster on the laptop and stuff like that. I was mostly making money doing street stuff. The police built a case around me and people started snitching and all that. They came to my house at 3:00 in the morning, the whole FBI teamed busted down my doors. My whole family was there. I traumatized my family. They had assault rifles all in our faces, it was crazy. They took me out of my home in just my boxers and shoes. My family watched me get handcuffed, while the police are ripping apart my house, ripping apart everything. They trashed the whole house and left it like that. While I’m going through all this, walking to the cop car at like 3 or 4 in the morning, I was just thinking ‘where did I go wrong?’ I was sitting in my cell for probably like 3 or 4 months. And then they put me in a probation house for like a year. I just kept thinking to myself…‘where did I go wrong? Should I have done this or should I have done that?’ And I had a moment with God. It wasn’t who I did it with or how I did it. I shouldn’t have been doing that at all. I mean, I hated not being around my friends and family and being in jail, but it was more hurtful seeing my family cry and always seeing me in jail. My whole life changed then. I’m not going to lie or sit here and say I’m the most innocent man. I’m not perfect either. But as far as taking things from hard working people and then treating it like it’s mud, I don’t do that anymore. If anything, I just get it myself.

Wow, that’s incredible. Do I have your permission to share that?

Of course! This is me. And I’m not ashamed of it. This is who I am. My music is going to say it the further I get in my career. I don’t mind if people know because it made me who I am today and I love who I am today.

Do you have anybody in your life who you FEEL should support you, but for whatever reason, they don’t?

Yeah I do. There are still people around like that right now. There’s many of them in my area. They’ll be the first ones to watch my stories or look at my stuff but they don’t ‘like’ anything or won’t comment. See, a lot of people from my area don’t want see other people doing better than them, especially me. The guy that got kicked out of middle school, went to alternative school, got kicked out of high school, went to jail, went to a probation home, came back to the high school…GRADUATED. They went to college and came back, and I have more money than them. It boggles their mind, like ‘so I did everything right, and this guy did everything the wrong way, yet he’s on a path that I can’t even reach.’ They can’t support that. And it’s sad because I don’t feel that way about them. If anything, I’m happy for everybody. I respect everyone’s brand. I don’t have hate in my heart. Even if I don’t think it’s all there, I’ll tell you if you keep going, I feel like it could be there.

Nice. On the flipside, who was one of the first people to support you?

My best friend Chase. When I got out of jail and that probation home, it was like coming back to the real world. I’m actually walking on soil; I’m actually here with everybody else. I had to make a lot of decisions myself, and figure out what I thought was best. When I came out and went back to the high school that I once was kicked out of, those people I used to hang around were there and they were trying to be friendly and stuff. But I was like, ‘I know how y’all are.’ I was in the position I was in because somebody told on me, they didn’t build a case out of thin air. But I wasn’t calling them a snitch or anything. It was just like, hey you got your life, now I gotta figure out mine. When I got to school there was a group of people, Chase was one of them, and they were just positive influences on my life. I didn’t feel like I had to do bad shit anymore. You are who you hang around; I always heard that as a kid. So I surrounded myself around positive people. As time went by, Chase and I were talking about bettering our lives. Eventually we decided to go to the studio because I would always talk about making music. We went to the studio and from that point on, we knew! We made that one song and we were like, ‘wow, we’re gonna make it.’ It was a song called ‘Mental’ and my friends would all say ‘wow, is this you?’ because they couldn’t believe it. Back in the day, we were young; we didn’t really know what we were doing. We just recently starting reaching out to people, trying to do videos, trying to get our Instagram popping. So yes, I would definitely say Chase is someone who always saw my vision.

That’s impressive! Where can we find your first song?

I only put it out on Sound Cloud. The day I released it, it got like 600/700 views. I took the song off Sound Cloud like two weeks ago so I could recreate it in the studio. I’m going to put it out officially on all platforms soon. That song got like 10,000 plays and we didn’t even do anything. We just put it out there and left it alone. That’s a good song but it’s also deep. Something you would listen to alone or while you’re driving. You’re going to be in your thoughts for sure.

How do you feel about today’s Hip Hop compared to how it was back in the day?

I feel like some of it’s fake. Back then when I was growing up, the top 5 or 10 hip hop artists in the game were no joke. They were really in the field trapping, serving, whatever the case may be. Nowadays, the top 5 or 10 artists paint their nails and wear weird clothing and do a lot of freaky shit. I’m not hating on them or anything. But I grew up listening to Wayne, Jeezy, Gucci Mane, T.I, Yo Gotti; so it’s really hard for me to see artists like that. But I’m not mad at them, I get it. It’s all about marketing now. It’s just kind of kiddish now, not hard and grimy like it used to be. 

What’s your favorite movie?

I have a couple but off the top of my head, I would say ‘Lone Survivor’ with Mark Wahlberg. That was a cool movie. There were like four dudes fighting a whole army, a whole country almost. Throughout the battle, they start going down one by one til there was one left. He goes through the most shit but he survives it and was able to tell the story. It was actually based off a true story about four U.S. Navy seals that went over to Afghanistan. They took out hundreds of men. One survived. He was getting shot at, falling down hills, getting taken by the Taliban. The movie is incredible. Sometimes I feel like that one dude that can really withstand all that. I see myself in him a little bit. 

What’s your favorite video game?

I have a couple. I was a gamer as a kid, so it kind of naturally kept going as an adult. I like Call of Duty and I also like Super Mario. That’s a classic. I actually just brought the newest Super Mario a couple days ago. It’s crazy because my son is going to grow up playing the Super Mario I’m playing now. He’ll never know how much Mario developed. It came a long way. It used to be little ass pixels on a Gameboy.

You mention your son, how many kids do you have?

I have a son. He’s 2 right now. He’ll be 3 in May. I named him after me. My name is John and his is Johnny. I just added the ‘ny’ at the end and gave him a little more swag to it. He’s a cool kid. He’s special. I feel like I’m going to take it as far as I can but he’s going to take it further. I can see it now. He’s sharp. 

Have you ever experienced racism?

Growing up, I hung out with everybody. I had black friends, white friends, Asian friends, Spanish friends. I’ve never been a racist myself so I feel like that’s why I never dealt with that. Even now, I’ll be the only Spanish guy in the room. Even when I did the show for DaBaby at Harvard’s homecoming. The crowd was all black. And then it was me, the Spanish kid.  I feel like we’re all minorities. We all have color in our skin. I deal with the same bullshit that he deals with. They’re going to judge me already just because I have a bunch of color tattoos and my skin has pigment in it. But people in the concert was rocking with me. They were like, ‘yo, that’s hard!’

What’s one thing you want your fans to know?

I’m coming. I’m not going to give up. I don’t live in the best home, so that gives me hunger. I love music and I want more for my family. I want to give my son a life that I didn’t have. And I appreciate my parents for giving him everything that they got and I always tell my parents I love them for that. But when you grow up the way I did, sometimes you want the money. And I don’t want my son to feel like that. So I’m coming. If you haven’t heard about me now, you’ll hear about me soon.