We made a phone call to Jay Reaper, aka one rap-third of Europes actually most discussed hip hop crew: Dope D.O.D from Groningen, Holand. In contrast to the aggressive behaviour and blood-sympathy of their music, Jay Reaper seemed to be very relaxed but stil a bit provoking when we catched him at his home in ghost town. That was shortly before the release of Dope D.O.D.´s second album „Da Roach“.
TM: Where are you right now?
Jay Reaper: In Groningen.
Why do you call Groningen in your lyrics „ghost town“?
When you walk around you can see that the streets are empty. You can hear and feel exactly every wind breeze. The weather is most of the times bad…
So why do you still live there?
I feel well in the misery right here (laughs). No, I mean it´s just the place where we came together as a group. It´s still our place: we work together with Noisia, whose members are also living here. Our studio is also located in Groningen – and there is a lot of production going on. So it wouldn´t be a smart move to leave right now.
Are the Dope D.O.D. members the most popular inhabitants of Groningen?
I don’t know, I mean we also have Noisia. Who else do we have? Have you maybe ever heard of Abel Tasman (laughs)? He lived back in the 1500s or so and it´s a quite funny fact, that he was from Groningen. He was a seaman and made big expeditions. He went all the way to Australia. There he founded his own country: Tasmania. He might be the most famous person from our city, but probably no one cares about him anymore.
You said in an interview with The Juice, that you are fluent in German, and that you listened last summer often to the „SchwarzWeiss“-album of Samy Deluxe. Are there any other influences from Germany or even Austria?
I used to live in Stuttgart for about four years. Mein Deutsch ist also noch ziemlich flüssig, wenn ich spreche. But yeah, I´ve listened to Massive Töne, Freundeskreis and a bunch of other stuff. Actually I was into Stuttgart-rap a lot. They had their own New York kind of style in a tribal way, whereas Berlin or Hamburg seemed to be more orientated towards gangster rap.
Last year you played a small Austrian tour with stops in Vienna, Graz and Salzburg…
Yeah! I mean Austria is one of my favorite places. We made a lot of friends there. But I was also surprised…those motherfuckers in Austria got some good weed!
Is it even better than in the Netherlands?
Yes, I pretty much think so. People always think that Holland has got the best weed in the world, but it´s not like that. There is a big weed-business in Holland, so there has to be a lot of shit as well.
„Branded“, your first LP, was re-released some months ago in North-America by Duck Down. Did you also gain some popularity there?
Until now we are in the States or Canada not as big as we are here in Europe, but we can see that Duck Down actually did something for us. We got a lot of collabos with American artists that came about not primarily because of Duck Down, but they supported us in an indirecetly way. People know the label, so it´s easier for us to ask an US-artist to collaborate than before.
Dope D.O.D. played a lot of concerts all over Europe, do you have any favorite crowd?
Every country has its own vibe and the people always react differently. But the french people are maybe the craziest. One of the reasons is that they are taking a lot of drugs and shit…They get really crazy. The ladies as well…they would do anything. The Germans instead really know how to bang their heads to some hip hop shit. Austrians are like Germans, but still different. They have a german vibe but still in their very own way.
You had collaborations with Sean Price, Onyx, Redman, Kool Keith and others. How did you get into contact with those artists?
In various ways. We met Redman for example in Haarlem, not Harlem in America, but the original Haarlem here in Holland at one of his shows with Method Man. We just started talking and Redman liked our style. After some while he said, that he would be down with it, if we were interested to record a track with him. Already the next day we hit him up with the beat.
Despite those rap-collabos your audience is not a classic hip hop crowd…
Yes, we get a lot of comments, from people that say things like „normally I´m into metal, and I don’t like Hiphop, but I love this.“ We got more some kind of a rock-appeal to people, than most acts. It´s still HipHop, but I think our style is more abstract. I think that people who are more into rock music can connect with our music more than with some dude, who is talking about his baggies and bitches. Of course we were also very influenced by rock. I´ve listened regularly to shit like Jimi Hendrix or the Rolling Stones. I like that more than listen to Rick Ross. Well, in fact I don´t listen to Rick Ross at all…
What sound can we expect from the new album in comparison with the first one?
It´s not different, but our music has grown. Our style is still the same, but we turned it up. It´s like 2.0. The quality of the sound was upgraded, as well as our rhyme-styles. I think we are ready to hit the world with some new shit.
You once said that you decided to call the album „da roach, because the cock roach is the only living creature on earth, that can survive a nuclear disaster.“ Do you think that it will come to such a disaster?
Might be, you never know. Let´s see what North Korea does. It´s crazy but a lot of countries have nuclear weapons. All it takes is a push to the button and kaboom! But I hope not that this happens ‚cause I want to continue making music. (laughs)
Is the apocalypse the main topic of „Da Roach“?
I wouldn´t say that. What we want to create here is just like an own world. But of course we have talked a lot about apocalyptic settings and the apocalyptic shit will be always a part of Dope D.O.D. We will stop talking about it when the world actually ends.
Is there any apocalyptic reason why you release the album on the 20th of April?
There is no special reason. It just felt right.
I asked because it was Adolf Hitler’s birthday…
(laughs) Well, I didn´t know that, but that´s definitely a nice little fact.
Interview: Jan Braula
Support: Julia Gschmeidler
Photo: dopedod.com
We will meet the whole crew in May for another interview.
Live-Shows in Austria: 21st May (Vienna, Flex); 3rd August (Szene OpenAir; Lustenau)