The Doppelgangaz

For this installment of New Rules, we sat down with EP and Matter Ov Fact, also known as The Dopplegangaz. This rap super duo hails from Orange County, NY, representing for the 845. These kids are wild on and off the mic, as our interview proves, they have jokes for days. - Mass Appeal

Though the poem itself is brilliant and evocative, Samuel Coleridge’s old poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” has a noticeably bizarre setup: a guy at a wedding bumps into a weathered sailor and the sailor tells him a long and engaging story involving death, loss, wonder, mystery, tragedy, redemption and dark comedy. This scenario is absurd considering the length and sheer weirdness of the sailor’s story, but the subtle lesson is that by tarrying and just taking the story on its own, strange terms, the wedding guest is infinitely enriched, the next day waking up a wiser and sadder man. Emcees and producers The Doppelgangaz offer a similar experience. The world they invoke in their music is unforgivably seedy and immediately off-putting, yet when you tarry, taking this odd world on its own terms, you realize that it’s genuinely a place where you would want to become a denizen.
Curious to learn more about this world as well as its architects, we caught up The Doppelgangaz to discuss their upcoming album Peace Kehd, the difference between the “Smang Life” and the “Black Cloak Lifestyle,” why Reason is an ideal production software, rappers’ annoying conservatism and why weird looking people are just more interesting to rap about. To immediately immerse you into The Doppelgangaz world, the first question has been omitted. - Respect Mag

The Doppelgangaz are the rap team of Matter ov Fact and EP and they’ve been dropping discerningly dirty hip-hop music via their Groggy Pack label since 2008. Next week, they’ll look to build on their grass-roots movement with HARK, a svelte 12-track listen that snaffles the listener inside a freaky shadowy world filled with rappers rocking black cloaks, characters suffering from a smorgasbord of grisly medical ailments, and cougars chowing down on steak at Peter Luger’s. This all takes place against a soundtrack of static-coated beats that chug and boom with a rugged panache. Check out this exclusive album stream of HARK and get a primer on the Doppelgangaz lifestyle.

How is HARK different from your previous projects?

EP: I think this album is more personal. It goes more in-depth and we talk about some real life situations we were going through and delved in on it. Lone Sharks was explaining the black cloak lifestyle but this was getting more personal. I also think it’s a little more upbeat and a little more aggressive.

Matter Ov Fact: I think it’s a more aggressive record and a little more hard-headed. Our first album was very laid back and Lone Sharks was laid back and hard-hitting but this is more full on hard-hitting.

What’s the idea behind those black cloaks you wear?

Matter ov Fact: The black cloak is the lifestyle we live. It represents being able to throw on whatever, having that black cloak over you, that do-it-yourself lifestyle and not really mattering how much bread you have or nothing but to just make the best out of what you have. You could be bare-chested wearing drawers with the hole in the crotch and just throw the cloak over and nobody would know about that and they’ll be cool with it.

There are lots of references to medical conditions on the album, like I.B.S., cirrhosis and gingivitis.

Matter ov Fact: Yeah, you know, we just get patched up daily — we never get fixed up fully!

EP: It’s dealing with a lot of personal problems and we got hygiene problems and I guess we don’t take care of ourselves, henceforth a lot of medical problems. That’s just the way it is.

What’s the worst medical problem you’ve experienced?

Matter ov Fact: I’d probably have to say passing kidney stones. I talked about sewing up my own stitches on a song, but honestly, passing your own kidney stones is definitely painful. It’s like giving birth through your urethra!

EP: I would say it’s referencing back to our first album where we dwelled a lot on using Gold Bond medicated powder. If you let the jock area get sweaty and get that jock rash, that’s no joke, man. No one wants to be itching there. You need to freshen up properly ’cause it’s not very welcoming to the ladies.

You have a song titled “Smang Life.” What’s that lifestyle all about?

EP: It’s just that regular living. A lot of people want to play both sides of the fence: Dudes want to have a main piece and have the side dishes. Me, I got six girlfriends and a wife on the side, you feel me? It’s hard out here to balance it. Smang Life is that portal you can get sucked into.

Matter ov Fact: Smang Life is just having no regard for ethics and morals. It’s going buck wild. You don’t really care who’s in front of you, you’re just concentrating on your own moves. That’s all that counts.

On “Barbiturates” you have a line warning “When you get to heaven’s door make plenty sure to stay away from the seventh floor.” What happens there?

Matter ov Fact: Ha ha, that’s talking about this big-ass brothel. It’s a brolic-ass brothel in Cologne, Germany and the seventh floor is transcendental. We’re telling people to stay away — we let you in to that type of thing, I don’t even mind.

What one track from the album would you recommend people check out first?

EP: You know, I would go with the first song we decided to put out, “Hark Back.” It sets the tone, it was a new cool progressive sound for us, especially for us to be rapping on a track that fast — it was like 97 b.p.m. instead of the usual mid-’80s b.p.m. we rap on. I think it paints the picture properly to get into the album. - MTV Hive

The Doppelgangaz are the latest, greatest new hip-hop duo; otherwise known as Orange County, New York rappers Matter Ov Fact and EP, the pair have been buddies since their school days and have attracted attention by wearing cloaks on stage and drifting around the world like hip-hop gypsies. They are controversial, funny and fully acceptant of the fact that their x-rated on-stage antics and weird lifestyle often freak people out. But these amenable gentlemen were more than happy to pose in Peckham, London for District MTV, as well as sharing some of The Doppelgangaz wisdom, just before they drop their new album Peace Kehd on their own label, GroggyPack Entertainment. - MTV District

As far as I know, The Crow: City of Angels was not an especially well-loved movie, but as a teenager, I had the soundtrack and I loved it front to back. It was a weird mix of stuff. Hole did a Fleetwood Mac cover. Seven Mary Three were on there, and so were The Toadies and Bush and Filter, if that gives you any idea of what was going on in music at the time. There was also “Tonite is a Special Nite (Kaos Mass Confusion Mix)” a dusted collaboration (literally, it sounds like everyone is on PCP) between trip-hop pioneer Tricky and The Gravediggaz, a rap group that featured RZA and Prince Paul and was largely credited for sparking the sometimes embarrassing/sometimes awesome rap subgenre horrorcore. This sound was actually perfect for RZA, who was able to growl and moan his way through the darkly ecstatic verses. At the time, the track didn’t blow me away, but it’s grown on me over the years, and more importantly, has become weirdly influential on rap as a whole. The Doppelgangaz are a duo from New York—New York rap is back! Or it never left! Or it has just figured out how to be relevant again!—pick one of those options. It feels cool living here, seeing young kids pillage little bits from what came before and create something very much their own out of it. Even the most blatant copycat moments feel joyful, like its young creators are discovering their older brother’s CD collection and just jamming their way through it alphabetically until they hit on something they like.

The Doppelgangaz are not horrorcore, but they’re making dark music, and on “Hark Back” they even have that RZA-esque pained growl popping up a few times. Instead, this feels like another track in a lineage of drizzly, frigid east coast rap songs. It’s a well-worn style, but it’s a good one, drawing from both the actual environment of New York and the significantly bleaker world created by The Gravediggaz and Wu-Tang Clan and Cella Dwellaz and Mobb Deep and Kool G Rap….the list could go on. The point is, you can either embrace your city’s history or ignore it, and sometimes it gets dense enough that all you can do is embrace it and take your place in the timeline.
- The Fader