Doza is a hip-hop artist from Los Angeles, California. Mixing the lyricism of his predecessors while combining it with the new melodic-driven rap of modern times, Doza brings a refreshing take on hip-hop.
Taking inspiration from the more lo-fi side of hip-hop (MF Doom, Madlib), Doza raps over the ThatKidGoran-produced beat for his latest music video, “Played Out.” The song itself is Doza’s take on the struggles of growing out of youth, especially as an artist based in a youth-favoring genre. “
The song is pretty much about me growing older and not quite getting current trends as easily as I did before.” says Doza. “I really wanted the music video to reflect those emotions you’d have when you hit that point in your life.”
Teaming up with director Wendy Wang, they collectively worked together to make sure that vision was met. The video cuts in between scenes representing what was popular in Doza’s youth and what’s popular currently.
“For the dancers, I was pretty adamant about having a bboy, a tutter, a pop locker, and a krumper for them to represent my era. Granted, a lot of these are still popular today, but I definitely think they take a backseat to the more meme-able dances.”
Though the shoot almost didn’t happen due to budget constraints. But the sudden death of Kobe Bryant cemented the decision to go on ahead.
“I was supposed to have a meeting with Wendy and our producer Sam that Sunday, hours after Kobe died. Prior to that I was tempted to postpone production on the shoot, but I couldn’t say no after hearing the news. I knew that I wanted to honor my hero somehow and this music video was the way to do it,” admits Doza. “In fact, outside of me wearing the jersey, there’s multiple Easter eggs that reference Kobe. Try to look for them.”
He adds “The song is just a trek back in time through my life about the influences who made me the type of artist I am and the struggles of staying relevant in the hip hop genre as those same influences start to fade away to make way for new ones. I think the experience of not being familiar with what’s new in pop culture is an experience that any who was a crazy kid like myself can relate to and I wanted to make sure the video captured that”
“I think my director Wendy Wang really took the message of the song to heart and absolutely nailed it with the visual. A lot of the references were her idea and I believe she needs to be credited accordingly. My biggest request was that I wanted was to wear my Kobe gear and looking back on the message of the song and his untimely passing I think this is the best way I can pay tribute to my biggest hero of all time”
