ALTHOUGH HIS NAME may not yet BE AS FAMILIAR As THE CATCHY HOOK TO his 2009 single “Ice Cream Paint Job,” Dorrough’s face is everywhere. AFTER BLOWING UP NEARLY OVERNIGHT, the Dallas native secured his home state before accidentally catching on in California. Beginning as a freestyle type track for a mixtape, “Ice Cream Paint Job” was not meant to be a single. Dorrough never expected the song to take him touring across the nation, fuel a debut album release through E1 Music, and put him on the BET Hip Hop Awards stage alongside Snoop Dogg, Nipsey Hussle, Jim Jones, and Soulja Boy. Even though that performance was one of his biggest looks publicly, there were several pivotal moves that brought Dorrough there. The former high school basketball star caught his first big break with a feature on “She Fine” (b.k.a. Halle Berry”). And as the story goes, the song was purchased from its originator, Supastarr, given to Hurricane Chris, and remixed to exclude Dorrough. Rather than be discouraged, Dorrough and his Primetime Click team advanced with the experience they gained and put out more music. The formula was applied a second song, “Walk That Walk,” the original single being pushed before “I.C.P.J.” hit Billboard. Dorrough’s popularity increased with every spin, and E1 Music came on board with a lucrative deal. It was a sweet reward for his past sacrifices. Just after departing a show in Atlanta, Dorrough took the time to reflect on his accomplishments. As he tells his story, the 23-year-old admits to having room to grow and a lot to prove. Fighting the one-hit-wonder stigma that hangs over Dallas Hip Hop, Dorrough is working towards making himself bigger than a #1 song. Here he outlines the goals, the plan, and the factors working in his favor. On a national level, it almost seems like you came out overnight. Do you
feel that way, or do you feel like you’ve been putting in work and just weren’t getting recognized? It’s crazy. I’ve been doin’ mixtapes since high school. I’m 23 now, I graduated in ’05. I started doing mixtapes when I was 16. Growing up everybody knew me as a baller; I played basketball real hard. I always had a thang for music but I didn’t know how to do it. I thought you had to do everything in a major studio. I didn’t know people was doing songs on computers, or that it was as easy as it was. Even being in Texas? The independent movement has always been strong in Texas. But see, I’m from Dallas. It wasn’t like Houston – Houston’s been on the scene. When you think of Texas music all you think of is Houston, UGK, and Screw. The Houston movement was the Texas movement. We had Dallas artists, but they were much older than me so I wasn’t affiliated with ‘em, I just knew ‘em – until D.S.R. came on the scene. When they came on the scene, that’s really when I started seeing it. Cats like Tum Tum and Lil Ronnie were from my hood. That’s when I saw how easy it was to make music. I was always writin’ my own rhymes and just never did nothin’ with ‘em. When I found out you could make music that way, I went crazy wit’ it. That was during my junior year. Was it that basketball didn’t work out? Or you felt like you had a better shot doing the rap thing? It was both. The rap thing was basically for fun. I had a passion for music, it was just what I would do when I wasn’t playin’ basketball. I would listen to a lot of music, but not necessarily write my own music. My daddy was real big on Marvin Gaye and I used to always be with my daddy a lot so I got a feel for old-school music, and of course everything on the radio. I never wanted to be an artist or a rapper at that time. I was so focused on basketball. I was so good and had so many offers – I looked up to people like Allen Iverson who also did music as well. Why did you make the decision to go this route rather than basketball? When I was in high school during my sophomore/junior year, that’s when I really branched out and started doin’ music. I was actually DJing, not on turntables, but putting together mixtapes for other people that rapped. By
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