In this segment where I somewhat randomly select an aspiring artist (of no particular medium) to highlight, I’d like to introduce a young Emcee who likes to go by the name ‘DoLA’. Now before I go any further into this introduction I’d like to get something off my chest. FUCK ARTIST AND YOUR OVERLY THOUGHT OUT CREATIVE THINKING PROCESS. I really don’t know how else to put it. I completely understand and respect that you are artist and your need to creatively express yourself blah blah blah and all of that bullshit but some things are just so fucking unnecessary. DoLA stressed to me the “importance” of spelling his name just like that. Upper case D lower case o Upper case LA, just like that. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and the same applies to a barely original alias. Don’t get me wrong the kid is nice, but the weight he put on the specifications of his alias wont get the type of buzz he needs to accomplish what it is that he desires. That goes for any over thought out gimmick. At the end of the day consumers couldn’t careless what your calling yourself, as long as you deliver a certain quality you could put a picture of a dick on a ticket and it will not effect the sales, look at Prince.
Continuing on, I first came across ‘DoLA or dola or ___’ by chance on a humble blog called canwekickit.com. They did a small feature on him along with a track he did over Dr. Dre’s ‘explosive’. Almost immediately un entertained by the idea of a mediocre “freestyle” over a popular industry beat, I only decided to give it a listen for shits and giggles. I’m not ashamed to admit that I learned a valuable lesson that day “never judge an unknown underground artist by the super desperate attempts he makes at getting in the game”. After pressing play I was greeted by a surprisingly nostalgic intro that reminded me of old jazz tracks my grandfather used to play in his tacky living room while sucking the life out of a pack Marlboro 100s. This was followed by impressive lyricism, delivery that had a great deal of potential, and more fresh concepts. Just to say the least I wanted to hear more. Unfortunately there wasn’t anymore.
For weeks I listened to this track over and over, mind boggled. How could there not be more? He had his own feature with great photography and a great song which should have been no more than decent. I slowly came to the realization that he had made an amateur mistake. He released a song not because he was a prepared but because he was eager, not an uncommon mistake. He wanted feedback, and don’t we all? But making these type of executive decisions are done best when the pressure is off. All though this isn’t text book knowledge didn’t your mother warn you about grocery shopping when you’re hungry? After months of not giving a fuck about him and the decisions he made I still wanted to hear more, so I decided to contact him and get to know the man behind the song (1, uno, singular) a little better. You’d be interested to find out what I learned, but unfortunately you’ll have to wait until the next installment of The marvelous misadventures of The UNfamous. Until then check out DOLA’S one and only track ‘xplosive’. - Pico De Gallo
