A lot of rappers say shit like, “I don’t write”, which is stupid if you’re trying to become a emcee, or you take the shit seriously. Yeah, it’s nothing like watching  or hearing a dude kill a freestyle, but when they’re good at it, it makes you want to hear more from them. And unfortunately, that’s the most you’ll ever get from em. Notice how I differentiate rappers from emcess. Because most rappers don’t write, and only half of the emcee’s freestyle.  Sure you been hooked on your favorite emcee’s mixtape, DVD, &  battle rap freestyles, but you can’t possibly be that nieve to think that a nigga who smoke as much as most of us do actually came off the top with 30 bars of mistake free piff! Or that your favorite emcee’s last platinum album was a no pen, no paper effort. If so, you should stop while you’re ahead cuz this music biz is gonna eat yo dumb ass alive! Niggas write long drawn out verses about nobody in particular, and have em chock full of insults and negative or embarrassing generalizations. Most battle rappers are improv rappers. They freestyle and know how to change the appropriate lines to make it look like they specifically battling their opponent, but they’re really just adjusting the routine. Most mixtape freestyles are throw away verses, or even a verse from an album over another beat. If used to watch Rap City back when everybody who walked in the bassment hit the booth for a free with Tigger or Joe Clair, if y’all remember who that is, you probably can recall a few cats spitting right off the album. To real hip hop heads like myself, that shit is a sin! Freestyling is a requirement. Point blank! But, when you start wanting to BE a rapper/emcee, writing is mandatory! Freestyling is way of practicing, staying sharp so to speak. It’s ok to fuck up or get stuck, especially in ciphers. That’s how you keep everybody on they toes. When one cat fuck up, the next person in the cipher is supposed to pick up where the last dude left off. And fucking up a cipher is just like fucking up rotation, it’s very much frowned upon.

The long verse spitter is easily spotted in a circle of real emcee’s, and any respect or fear they had of your skills will be forever gone! There’s nothing like respect you get when stumbling in the cipher and quickly picking it back up and continuing on while still making it make sense and sound good. Or picking it up after somebody else’s slip up and keeping the rotation intact, or beginning with the line they ended with, that’s how freestyling is done! Writing on the other hand is much more complicated, but not like most freestylers who don’t write believe. Writing is actually a freestyle that you can revise and polish up before anybody ever hears it. The hard part is figuring what to write about. Off the dome needs no subject matter, just whatever you can think of at the spur of the moment. When you’re a writer, you gotta be more strategic. If you gonna get gangsta, do it more articulately. If you gonna get lyrical, do it more arrogantly. If you gonna get serious, do it more humbly. And if you gonna drop knowledge, do it less preachy. You MUST go through a though process for the entire song, not just verse for verse. A lot of major label artists haven’t been told this and really don’t give a fuck because the kids and most females don’t care for skill and they are the ones buying store sold albums nowadays. So an upgrade is risk of monetary loss, which may ultimately lead to fans abandonment, or worse, the loss of confidence from the label. But that’s why hip hop is in a coma. Not dead, But not live either. Some artists spit freestyles on wax with others who wrote and look subpar. And then there’s hip hop’s dirty little secrete that everybody knows about but ignore… the ghost factor. Ghost writing, ghost producing, and executive producing. Most “ghost” agreements and/or contract have a confidentiality requirement in them stating that you the actual writer are not to reveal yourself as the writer publicly or expose the artist or party you wrote for. From now on start reading the credits in the CD booklets and see for yourself. Two of my artist’s, Hitman & Q.P. didn’t like to write because they were so vicious with the freestyle, but after convincing them to write, they still vicious, but now I can make more money off them and with them, because you can only get so rich off the dome, while the sky is the limit for writers. There’s no such thing as a ghost freestyler. I do both exceptionally well, and I rep the legendary 1500 crew and head the well respected 1500 Entertainment label. I am Doughboy, the leader, the coach, the future! Think about that!

Dubbed as one of Chicago's next big stars, Doughboy has been at it for a while now. Receiving his name as an infant from his grandfather due to the resemblance to the famous Poppin Fresh character, Doughboy felt no need to create a pseudonym to perform under. Since founding the crew 1500's in 1996 with former schoolmates Lupe Fiasco, Napo, and Bishop G, Dough has been through his share of ups and downs. But now better and stronger than ever, he is primed for the big time. Dough found out the hard way that the streets are a dead end road to prison and death; on August 1, 1998, his cousin, Diamond ''BeBe'' Henson was killed. After the 1500s crew went their separate ways, Dough, like his friend Fiasco, decided not only to embark on a solo career, but also start his own label, 1500 Entertainment, named to pay homage to his humble beginnings. Seeing potential in his running mates, Hitman, QP, and Trigga Gunnz, he recruited them to join his label roster. Through his younger brother, Dough hooked up with producer and budding emcee Rob Dutch, putting the most important piece to any musical team: fitting production. Now with Vol. 2 of his Golden Mic Mixtape series on deck, and a slew of albums in the vault, 1500 Entertainment is poised for greatness. Opting to put the drug and gang life on the backburner for his destiny, Doughboys ready to hit you with Chicago hip hop classics. Currently he's putting the finishing touches on ''The Golden Mic Mixtape Vol.2,'' prepping his ''50 Gats EP'' and ''The Bluelight District DVD'' with the help of Whats Da Bizniz Marketing and Management. He has garnered interest from a few labels, mixtape enthusiasts, and DJ's alike, as well as performed throughout the Chicagoland and Midwest region. Get ready world!