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You know him from the hit single, “The Way I Are”, but there’s much more you need to know about Queens bred rapper D.O.E.

Thanks to his talent and a lucky break, the rapper's mixtape titled Me Unit landed into the hands of super producer Timbaland, who quicky inked up the emcee to his Mosley Music Group imprint.

Since then, life has been good for D.O.E.

He has gotten to tour and appear on a major hit with arguably the best producer in the hip hop industry.

The Queen spitter has also gone on to appear on a soap opera and put a lyrical smack down on a certain 'Piano Man' (Scott Storch).

With the world in the steady grasp of his palm, D.O.E. recently spoke to Sixshot.com about his influences, old school rappers in cowboy hats and...soap operas.

That Me Unit mixtape had me crackin’ up. What were you trying to get across with that?

Well initially when I was putting that out it was when the mixtape scene was getting real big. A lot of people were doing it. I didn’t wanna be like a needle in a haystack. I knew that once people heard my music, they would love me, but I needed to get their attention first.

I was like let me do a parody of anybody that’s poppin’ right now. It really got a lot of attention and that was like my in, into the business, and it wound up getting me my deal also.

So how long have you actually been rapping?

I''ve been rappin’ forever man, for real. I can’t even give you a fate. It was just so organic; hip-hop was just a part of me.

You’re from Queens. There are a lot of legends in Queens. Did any of them influence your music?

Nas, he had a big influence on me. The Lost Boyz also had a big influence on me. I mean Queens is like the most slept on borough. You’ll be at a party and they’ll be like, 'Is Brooklyn in the house?', 'Is Harlem in the house?'...they don’t say anything about Queens.

We have to work extra hard to prove that we belong in the game and I think that’s why Queens took music to the next level, because we had to go hard. It’s like Cinderella almost. She worked the hardest but had to put up with the most crap. They don’t wanna give Queens dudes credit, they think ‘cause you from Queens you soft or whatever.

Run-DMC took hip-hop to a new plateau. Before Run-DMC them niggas was dressing crazy with cowboy hats, tight ass pants, and cowboy boots. Run-DMC came with the Adidas suits. Dudes are tryna play us so we gotta go hard.

You did well with your deal. Timbaland is one of the hottest dudes in the game. How did he find you?

Through the mixtape. Harve Pierre from Bad Boy, he got it to Tim’s lawyer and he liked it so he gave it to Tim and he liked it. So we put in some work in Miami and had good chemistry. When I came back to New York I just signed the deal.

Tim’s always been dope but he’s hitting like a career high right now. He’s working with a lot of pop acts. How does it feel to be around all that?

You can’t even imagine. I went to the VMA’s this year, I was the first rapper on a soap opera, One Life to Live, I did 'Fashion Rocks' with Dolce and Gabbana, they had a suit specially made for me. I’m on a top 10 single, I’m touring stadiums, it’s crazy.


I’m curious, how was the One Life to Live experience?

It was dope. I never watched a soap opera in my life , so I didn’t know who was who but it was an experience like damn I made it. That’s daytime TV on Channel 7 and they actually announced my name. They were like Timbaland, Keri Wilson, Sebastian and D.O.E.

And I gotta say, I think she was kinda feeling the kid. [Laughs]

You must be traveling everywhere right now.

I was just in London. I just did the homecoming in Anaheim. Gwen Stefani was on the bill, Sean Kingston, Fabolous, the girl from the Pussy Cat Dolls...Nicole was there, and I can’t pronounce the last name. [Laughs]

Now one thing I notice about you is that you switch up the flow a lot. Is that intentional or does it just happen?

Well, I just have a rhyme to go to the beat. I don’t write a rhyme and then spit it over the beat. I fit every rhyme to the beat.

If the beat calls for me to switch it up I do it because I’m by myself. I have a very deep voice and it if you hear the same flow over and over you might get bored, you know.

I want people to be able to listen to my whole album. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to keep your attention. Like Chuck D, he flow the same a lot but he had a Flava Flav to jump out and say 'yeahh boyeeeeee!!!!' [Laughs].

Tupac switched the flow a lot and he didn’t have any hype man and lots of his flows were dope. Biggie had Puff to hype up his tracks. I focus on switching it up.

What can we expect from the album?

You’re gonna hear my story, my struggle. I might make you cry, might make you laugh. I'ma be like when rocky was running up the steps getting people amped. When I'm in a good mood ,you’re in a good mood you’re in a good mood, when I feel like bustin' a cap, you're gonna feel like bustin' a cap . But don’t say you did it because you were listening to my shit, know what I mean? [Laughs] I'm gonna give you my soul man.

Anything you want to tell the fans?

I got the song out there “Bottom to the Top”, were about to shoot the video for that and keep downloading them ring tones and stay on that Itunes. Shout out to New York; North Ssde Queens, all of Queens period. Shout out to Saucy PR. Timbaland, Shock Value is out, and hit up my Myspace page at, .

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