Getting Out Our Dreams is the perfect acronym for the gang of heavy hitters on rapper/producer Kanye West's G.O.O.D Music label. With artists such as Common, Consequence, John Legend, Kid Cudi, among others, it is no wonder that they stay cranking out good music that we can rock too.
Warren "Really Doe" Trotter is another burgeoning artist who has been down with the G.O.O.D Music family since 2005. Though people may not know his name (yet), the Chicago, Illinois native has been putting in work for some years. In the mid 90's Really Doe was a member of the group the Go Getters, which also consisted of Kanye and longtime friend/rapper GLC.
Really Doe's first big break was when he was featured on Kanye West's We Major also featuring Nas and Consequence's track Disperse alongside GLC. In 2008, Really Doe released his first single Plastic featuring Kanye, which caught a buzz and prepped everyone for what was to come.
After much anticipation, Really Doe finally dropped his debut album First Impressions this past August. The LP was Executive Produced by Griffin Guess' Cartel Records and features guest appearances by Kanye West, GLC, Malik Yusef and Danny Klein of the group LiLA. On this album Really Doe gave a few up and coming producers some shine as well as established producers such as Be Crucial. To date he has released three singles from the project, the third being the track Marvelous.
Get to know more about this rising star Really Doe as he speaks to Yo! Raps about growing up in Chicago, hooking up with Kanye West, his debut album First Impressions, and the heavy G.O.O.D Music roster.
I want our readers to know about Really Doe as a person. What was your life like growing up?
I grew up on the Southside of Chicago, not to far from where Common grew up. My lifestyle was hard as a kid, my pops died when I was eleven, and that changed my household. Chicago is filled with drugs, gang bangers, and things like that. I most definitely turned out to be a prime example of guys falling into the gang life because of my pops not being available or around. I got caught up in the drug game and embraced the gang life at a young age. They were like my father figures or that shoulder to cry on. Kanye raps about me on his first CD College Dropout, on the track We Don't Care. He said a line, "Around the same time Doe ran up in dudes house/ Couldn't get a job/ So since he couldn't get work he figured he'd take work."
That's a lifestyle that I don't rap about or display now because I feel like it waters me down as an artist. There are so many other bigger things to talk about. I always wanted to be successful at anything I did, so when I used to sell drugs as a kid, I would think of marketing plans. I would go to school and miss a lot of money, so all the OG's would say, "Dang lil G you got it popping." They would say, "Fuck school and stand out here and get this money." I was always attracted to school, because I was attracted to women. Plus I would want to show off my new shit [laughs].
Where did your love for music derive from?
I've always been around music my whole life. My parents used to play music and have parties. Not only that, but I grew up across the street from a DJ. I used to just sit on the porch and watch them have these wild ass parties. I would give him my allowance money to basically put together mixtapes for me of new hot songs that didn't hit the streets yet. Imagine having it installed into you, that new NWA hot song, that new Nas shit, that Jay shit. That's probably why I only fuck with the hot niggas now!
How did you link up with Kanye West and what was he like back then?
My boy went to grammar school with Kanye. He would always say to us, "Man this guy Kanye he's into music, he has some crazy ass beats. I got to bring him around, y'all got to meet him." So he introduced us to Kanye and I had never ever in my life seen a guy that driven. It inspired the shit out of me and GLC.
He was a cool ass guy and we were on the same shit. We were basically on some macking girl's type shit, but we were young. We were like let's go to this party; we were always on the rap scene and Kanye was always himself.
Since you are close to Kanye, I'm certain you had interaction with his mother Dr. West. What is one thing that you can say you learned from her before her passing?
She embraced us as sons. She showed us how to come together and how to love each other. She wanted everybody to be educated and different things like that. She didn't want any dumb ass niggas running in the circle. I saw this successful black woman doing her thing and it influenced all us to get money!
Now let's talk about your album First Impressions, which debuted at #6 on the iTunes Hip-Hop chart. How do you feel about the love the album is receiving?
I love it! I put in a lot of hard work into this album. I've been blessed to be around the making of a shit load of great albums. Considering a lot of Kanye albums and different things like that. When Kanye was doing his production for other major artists I usually would be there present with him, sitting there listening and saying one day it will be my time. I was basically just taking notes and seeing the steps to make a great album. I'm really pleased that people are accepting the album. I made it to compete against the big boys!
What was the first impression that you wanted to give your fans and new listeners?
Really Doe is a lyricist, a songwriter, and he's a problem! Not only that, but he's a humble guy that can get along with everyone. No matter how big I get I want to keep myself in a position where my fans feel like they always can touch me and relate to what I'm doing. I want the fans and the people to give me the credit of being a great MC.
When it came to production, how did you choose who you wanted to work with on this album?
I wanted an untapped sound that no one had. It's like how the fuck can I enter that game, say I'm a leader, and plan to change some shit by repeating what's being done? So I said I'm going to target new producers that got new crazy huge sound.
So I randomly picked out two songs off of the album and I want you to give some brief background on each song. RPS?
Listen to the lyrics in RPS, it's for everybody, but it's lyrical for the Hip-Hop heads. I'm expressing how its survival of the fucking fittest to survive this rap shit now. So if you listen to all the lyrics, it's like, "Damn you gotta do something to survive in this shit.," All of the good artists are at war to survive. RPS is most definitely survival and survival tactics.
What about Psychotic?
Pain and me wanting to get a lot of shit off my chest. They say a lot of great artists and a lot of good people that are talented at what they're doing are kind of fucked up and sick in their own ways, so I feel I'm that. I'm also the type of artist that writes on top of the music. If I hear the track the words just kind of speak to me, therefore the whole mental fucked up side of me is where Psychotic comes from.
Think about all of the artists who have died. If you could pick one of them to have been on the album, who would it be?
Only one? I need two! Most definitely I would have put B.I.G. and 2Pac.
What is it like being on such a heavy roster like G.O.O.D Music?
It keeps you own your toes, but you can most definitely get lost in that roster if you're not doing things on your own. You don't want to get caught under the G.O.O.D Music umbrella of only being able to survive with Kanye's hand. I found myself getting caught up and sitting to that because I didn't know how to separate business and friendship. I thought by Kanye being my nigga and damn near my brother, I didn't look at the business side of the entertainment world. I feel like I wasn't going as hard as I should've been going for Really Doe.
Just imagine if I was around all bullshit. When I'm in the studio and I'm creating, I'm thinking like, "Oh shit I gotta be able to press play around Kanye, around Common, and all the guys that's doing it." The roster speaks for itself.
Are there any plans for a Go Getters reunion?
That would be great to actually get a Go Getters album together and get it popping. It would be great to do a major Go Getter album, but right now we're about the solo products. Man who knows, maybe in the future it might be.
What are some elements that you believe uplifts Hip-Hop?
The competition as far as you hearing a good artist and everybody keeping it on that scale. That level of creativity, good beats, good choruses, good music and getting out your dreams. Just positive shit, becoming successful, and showing the next person.
Lastly, there has been a lot of violence recently among school children in your hometown of Chicago. If you could speak to the youth, what would you say to them?
Put down the guns and pick up a book. I'm not just someone that's speaking to them about some shit I've seen, I've done a lot of the dumb shit that they are doing. Therefore that's why I'm respected around my area that I grew up. I performed at an event last year that Common had at a vocational high school on the Southside of Chicago and it was a stop the violence rally. So we do things like that throughout the city to uplift all of the young kids, to let them know we're here, we see what's going on and lets stop it.
- By Isha "Ice" Cole
