D-O-E has found himself awkwardly optimistic lately. He’s spent the last nine years as a struggling artist, producing and releasing albums and online singles completely on his own. His small victories have been brief bursts in between battles with severe depression and alcoholism, issues which have contributed to the dark tone that his songs are often prone to take. Now that D-O-E has gained control of his personal demons, it seems that the rest of the world is falling apart. Perfect fuel for the fire that burns behind the concepts for his latest album, Be Middle Class or Die Trying.

“This album is very heavy in subject matter, bringing up a lot of social issues and current events,” says D-O-E. Songs like the first single, “Everyone is a Hustler Now,“ address the economy in an entertaining yet brutally honest way. With a recently clearer perspective of the world, D-O-E uses his lyrics to bravely battle oppression faced each day by many people from many sources. He says,"For the first time, I am making an album that is not just for me but for the rest of the world.” While 75% of the musical content consists of beats and rhymes, notable moments of rock guitars, dark melodies, and electro-ambient textures preserve the diversity of the sykophunk style.

So what exactly is sykophunk? D-O-E himself has described this hybrid genre as “underground hip hop influenced by metal, gothic, and electronica, bitch-slapped with humor and sarcasm, and then power-bombed into an ocean of social and spiritual consciousness.” With 21 self-produced full-length albums under his belt (including his various side projects), D-O-E has definitely put in the work to hone his craft. His tracks have topped the charts on music sites like BetaRecords.com and SongVault.fm. His song “A Ghastly, Misplaced Grin” earned a spot on the soundtrack to the upcoming indie film Sweat. He has toured from New York to California and collaborated with other artists from all over the globe.

As he envisions his future as an artist, D-O-E is humble yet confident: “I’ve learned how to accept my place in the music industry - my place in the world. Mainstream music and major labels live on a different planet than I do. I’m not an American Idol, that’s for damn sure! I’m a poet for the fallen soldiers, a voice for the lost souls. Music is my job, but more importantly it is my passion. I’ll keep doing it, not because I feel obligated to or even because I want to, but because I have to. It’s like telling a bird to stop flying - you can’t not do what you were born to do.”

	Everyone is a Hustler Now A brutally honest but kind of funny take on the economy and mainstream hip hop, with a banging beat.		Hip Hop/Rap
	Cemetery Flowers ft. Christel South Gothic hip hop with a haunting mood and a positive message.		Hip Hop/Rap

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