“…We decided to call it ‘Da Roach’, because The Cockroach, the only living creature on earth that can survive a nuclear disaster…” – Dope D.O.D

SD: Hi guys! Can you tell me what are the differences between this new album and the previous two?
DD: It’s another step further from where we waz at. Its a true follow up to ‘Brande…new sounds, new styles, but all the way Dope D.O.D.!!!

SD: Why is this album called ‘Da Roach’, that is “The Cockroach”?
DD: Because a roach is known to be the only living thing that is able to survive a nuclear holocaust. We are da roach that crawls from the debris of modern hip hop. And Roaches spread like a plague! just like us!

SD: How this album come into being? And why nearly twenty tracks?
DD: Because like the first album, we wanted it to be a journey for the listeners. Modern day formulas tend to make artists keep albums shorter and to bomb fans with separate tracks online…but we like to give the fans a long album, with a new flavour.

SD: I’ve noticed that there are a lot of musical genres in it, from dubstep to jungle, and so on. Is like this “modern” hip hop should be?
DD: No…there is no “way” it should be…his is the way our music sounds…the key to its originality lies in that you can not put it in a box…its a hybrid sound created mainly by Peter Songolo, our producer and Jay’s brother.

SD: There are even a few high level collaborations, names like Onyx, Redman, Sean Price, Goldminerz and Kool Keith: tell me about this…
DD: What I can say about these collaborations is you can hear they are made with a lot of chemistry between us and the guests. All of them showed us a lot of love when we met them and I think each track has a style and vibe to it, that fits the artist we collaborate with. Aside from that its a great honor to us, because these are all artists that inspired us to make the music we make. This way we can show younger fans that are not that familiar with them, as us or our older fanbase, who are the true legends of hip hop.

SD: What are your main interests (like music, movies, books) that influenced you the most, and specifically this album?
DD: Music wise…like i said in the answer above…a lot of the artists we got to work with, both rappers and producers…are also a great inspiration to us musically. Movies vary from shit like braindead to the Big Lebowski…we love all types a movies. Books…well I dont read a lot a books, but I gotta say I loved this book I read on tour, about the Prodigy in their early days. The things they went thru and all the stuff they experienced on their way to succes, was very familiar to me! I’ve been a big fan of Prodigy for many years.

SD: Can you tell me about Dope D.O.D. Crew?
DD: We make music the way we want to make music. We wont change it in order to make hits…or please people that want to hear a certain thing. We grew up together in G-town, NL, aside from dutch, we also have english and african roots. This is the reason we rap in english. Our mentality has always been international. There is also a dope hip hop scene here…most artists rap in dutch tho, so its hard for people outside of NL to understand the words. But there are a lot of skilled dutch mc’s as well!

SD: Comparing Dope D.O.D. to a group from Italy is impossible, maybe it is something between Truceklan and Salmo. Do you know anything about them?
DD: Think I heard of Salmo, don’t know for sure tho…we met a couple of italian rap artists during shows we did in Italy, like Noyz Narcos. And we worked with Maztek on our new album, who made a banger before on the ‘Evil’ EP! called ‘Brutality’! He’s crazy with the beats.

SD: How the members of Dope D.O.D. see the world of graffiti and extreme sports?
DD: Me, Diggles and Dope have fucked with a little graffiti back in the day. Dopey still got the graffiti hand writing, he cant shake anymore…if he fills in a form at the airport, its graffiti! Haha. I only made a couple wack pieces when I waz small. Nothin’ special tho! Graffiti iz sick tho…we love it. Extreme sports? Pffff shit is dope! Big respect to peepz that get their adrenaline rush from riskin’ your life to pull a stunt.

SD: Thanks a lot guys! Hope to see you soon in Italy. You can say anything you want…
DD: Big respect to all the people in Italy!!! We got a lot of support from you guys from day one. We are looking forward to rock for y’all again! Make sure you get ‘Da Roach’ album! Follow us on twitter, facebook and check www.dopedod.com for tourdates.

(Txt by Fabrizio De Guidi; Pics by Rigablood x Salad Days Mag – All Rights Reserved)

Check the previous Dope D.O.D. full interview on Salad Days Mag #14 – The Winter Chapter: