Doe Boy Details His New Life As A Major Label Artist And His Enduring Business Relationship With Future

Doe Boy is weathering the quarantine better than most. Cleveland-bred but currently based in Atlanta, the rapper maintains a productive studio presence, much as he did prior to the pandemic.

“We’re just being real strategic and taking advantage of this downtime,” he says, referring to himself and Future. Affiliated with the trap superstar’s Freebandz for much of the past decade, Doe Boy signed to Epic Records in 2019, a move that has kept him incredibly busy. “He be on me real heavy now. He ain’t letting me let up a little bit.”

Released today, “Split It” was born out of that relentless work ethic, with those long hours yielding prolific results day after day. “I get so geeked up, I just be cranking joints out,” Doe Boy says of the new single. “I didn’t even know what I was saying!”

Taking the advice of his trusted mixing engineer back home in Ohio, he opted to pursue it as a single, securing a guest verse from Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo within a matter of days. His pride in the end result is evident from our conversation. “Once you hear the song one time, you going to know it,” he says. “If we like decide to force it on the radio, it’s going to be one of those songs you can’t hide from.”

The corresponding music video features a veritable deluge of self-isolating cameos from familiar faces in hip-hop, presented in successive TikTok-style bursts. Among those dancing or pantomiming to the track from the safety of their homes are Lil Yachty, Trippie Redd and Young Thug. Shortly after the clip dropped, Doe Boy took to social media to announce a “Split It” challenge, promising a Cash App prize to the first person to name all of the celebrities featured in the clip.

“It’s like the industry is behind it and the streets already been,” he says. “I got a good feeling about this record.”

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your work? Are you able to write or record right now?

I’m in Atlanta right now. Me and Future, we’ve got our own studio, a Freebandz studio. Only family allowed in there anyway. We haven’t been letting anybody from the outside come and record. We normally let people book sessions there in the other room that we’re not using. During quarantine, we’ve just been working with each other.

You’ve been affiliated with Future and Freebandz for awhile now. What prompted your signing with Epic Records? 

We waited till the right time. I could have been with Epic a long time ago. We just waited until we got the right offer and that everything was correct. Now is better than ever. My career is at the point where we feel like we’re right there. We just needed that extra little kick behind it.

The first project to come from the Epic deal was last December’s Streets Need Me II, which had a real old school West Coast vibe to it. Did West Coast rap music influence you much when you were younger?

It’s actually crazy because it didn’t really influence me that much. I was really influenced by like 50 Cent and Gucci Mane, How the whole West coast thing came about, it was an accident. I did the “Mini Vans” record and when we put it out everybody was like, you sound like the new Eazy-E. I don’t sound like Eazy. I used Juvenile samples for it! If anything, I would’ve thought somebody would say some New Orleans s***! On the verses to “Mini Vans,” I was using some old Gucci flows! I don’t get where people was getting the Eazy-E thing from.

When I first started doing the Streets Need Me II campaign—this was way before we were even thinking about Epic— I had put out the first cover, the promotional cover. It was like Doughboy from Boyz N The Hood, in the movie when he went to jail when he was a kid. I put the cover out [and] Future called me ten minutes later like, man you just created a whole picture in my head. Hurry up and go claim that old school sound because it’s about to be the new wave. Now, I went and did a song like that on purpose, “Walk Down,” which ended up probably being my biggest record.

How has your working relationship with Future changed over the years?

We always had a brother relationship. Now it’s more business because now we are exchanging millions of dollars with each other. We really get money off this s*** now, really doing what we was supposed to do.

Your most recent project with Epic was with another Freebandz artist, DJ Esco. How did the 56 Birdz mixtape come together? 

I was in the studio one day and then he called me. So he pulled up and came in the studio. He was like, yo, listen to this beat, I can hear you all over it. So I record the song in like 15, 20 minutes. I don’t be writing, so I’ll be doing s*** real fast. The song ended up not even making the album!

We had so many to pick from. A lot of my favorite songs actually are not on there because I let Esco pick. We did the mixtape in a week. It was just something that we did to put out, to feed the streets a little bit. like it wasn’t no real like you feel me. It was something just to show people that we can do this when we feel like it. I actually was supposed to do a whole series behind it, like 56 Birdz and then 56 something-else. But we’re going to drop them throughout, whenever, so people should look out for that. 

Now you have this new track “Split It” with Moneybagg Yo. Why did you choose to drop that one now?

I was sitting on that, probably for a month, maybe longer. As we’ve been under quarantine, I needed to drop a couple of singles. I don’t want to drop a project right now. I’ve been doing that. Every time I’ve stopped and really put out a single, it works for me. I put “Mini Vans” out alone. It was my first song that really took off. The next song I put out alone was “Walk Down” and that took off even bigger.

You’re also continuing to run the Rubberband Money Gang imprint, which used to be primarily an outlet for your own music. The label just released a project from Bat Boy Bankie. What’s your strategy now for RBMG?

I always wanted to do the CEO thing. I want to bring up my people, just any talented artists around the world. I want to give them a chance and help them. I start early, so I could brand them with myself as I blow. I want them to blow with me, so we could all get big. I just signed Bankie a couple months ago. He’s not one of my childhood friends or anything like that. He’s from my city, just a talented artist that got so much potential. I feel like he could be bigger than me.

The goal is to definitely be rich forever. I don’t want to rap forever. One day, I want to quit and pass the torch. Look at Birdman. He don’t have to do nothing ever again. If you catch a Wayne and a Drake, it’s over with.