_banger - "Let's start this off with the basics. How long have you been making music, and what inspires you to keep going?"
Whiteout - "People ask me how long I've been making music all the time, and I'm pretty sure I have a different year amount every time, so I'm just gonna start going with, "for as long as I can remember", cause I obviously can't remember.. too much weed. I do know that Doorway was started my 8th grade year, so when I was 13. It was a different group back then than what it is now, different faces, some of them the same, all still my homies. That's also back when my identity as Whiteout was created. Both Doorway and Whiteout was something we came up with one day, and stuck with it from there. The name Doorway and Whiteout stuck, but the product has definitely grown and changed.
What inspires me to keep making music is kind of a win/lose type of situation. Success inspires me to keep making music. Failure inspires me to keep making music. Every time something happens that's the next level in our progress, I get inspired. Every time that their is a lull, and it seems like we might be stalling, I get inspired to work again, and hunt for that next step. Chasing success and escaping failure inspire me to work, and as for my subject matter, I look towards this crazy world we live in. Being a talented rapper to me is all about paying attention to detail, and conveying your message. Things are always happening in this life that's too hard not to pay attention to, and my emotions are always involved as well, so conveying my emotions about what I witness and what I perceive as life is what inspires my music's subject matter."
_banger - "You guys do shows all the time. What's one performance that will always stick out as one of your favorites?"
Whiteout - "There's a handful of shows that are always gonna stick out to me for their own reasons. I think my homie Tef Poe's War Machine Release Party, in Spring of 2011, was really one of the first high energy shows we had at The Gramophone, that kind of set the tone for what our shows would be like for the rest of the year. After that show we realized our show is meant for people to jump around on, be high energy, and get the blood pumping. Also every show we've done with Parlor Knights has been pretty memorable, whether it was at Fair St. Louis opening up for Steve Miller Band under The Arch, or opening up for Gavin Degraw, or playing at The Pageant, or even at our home town spot Blue Agave in Belleville, Illinois, IT DON'T MATTER!! Whenever we get together, the show is amazing. Also, as the list continues, another show that stands out is our show at The Shelter in Detroit. It was our first tour, and to play in Detroit, and The Shelter, and just having that realization set in like "hey, we're on the road, on tour, playing in Detroit, at The Shelter, cause of this rap shit", it was just a good feeling to feel, and still is."
_banger - "Who's shows are simply amazing in your point of view?"
Whiteout - "Maybe I'm biased, but Doorway and Parlor Knights shows are pretty amazing. I know I've said it before, but I'm just saying lol. All jokes aside tho, my homie's Tef Poe and Rockwell Knuckles performance gets me every time. Their high energy and delivery is powerful, and they both really inspired me for my performance. Also, Black Spade is amazing as well. I got crazy respect for someone who can go back and forth from singing and rapping the way he does, it's flawless to me, I love that shit, and I was blessed to be on tour with all of them recently on the Doorway To The Force Tour."
_banger - "What don't you like about the mainstream music industry today? What do you like about it?"
Whiteout - "Ummm, Mainstream music today is funny to me, however I don't like talking bad about it too much, cause in all honesty, that's what all rappers want to be, don't let it fool you, we want "our stream" to become mainstream, that's ultimate fortune and success, but sometimes, it's hard to avoid talking about it. First of all, I avoid listening to the radio, so that should tell you something. I hate the repetitiveness of the bulk of the mainstream world. Every now and then you may stumble across pioneers onto some shit, but other than that, everything is cookie cutter. There's a formula that Mainstream accepts and pushes more than whatever else is out there, and I'm not a fan of it, but it is what it is, like B.O.B said on that BET cypher, 'They call my music pop, I call it buying a crib for my Momma, and shaking hands with Obama'."
_banger - "If you could do a collabo with any artist out right now, who would it be and why?"
Whiteout - "If I could do a song with ANY artist right now, at this moment in time, after smoking the finest of the finest bud all day, I would really like to do a Big K.R.I.T collaboration. Something about his beats, and his humble rhymes, mixed with that reality flow, I like. Also in all honesty, I feel like he's a leader of the New School, along with some others, and I feel like I'm part of the New School, and eventually one day will be considered a leader as well, at least that's my goal, so I think we'd just have a good chemistry and same mind frame. Pretty much all summer, I would start my day off with some Kush, and some K.R.I.T, or some Kendrick Lamar, or J Cole, either of them would be righteous, or some Devin the Dude lol. I also love working with people from my city, and my area, or people that I link up with out and about across country. I'm always down for doing collabs and building bridges. STL and ESTL have some of the illest cats, and I got a lot of tracks with those people already, but I look forward to keep making more and more to boost the catalog."
_banger - "Appreciate the time, any shout-outs or plugs you wanna throw in?"
Whiteout - "No problem man, always down, and yea of course I got some shout-outs and some plug-ins! I'm always making music, like it's something I pride myself in, is being productive, so I got a bunch of projects coming out, which will all be on http://www.doorway618.com, along with Constant Daze, and a few other places. 'Kush N Kung Fu: Kick Ass Week Shit Volume 2' is my next mixtape dropping, it's a follow up to the first "Kick Ass Week Shit Volume 1". It's got 22 tracks of craziness I promise. We're working on the cover and final post production for that, so that should be out sometime in the middle of November. Also, my homie Dj Hustle Sity from Houston hooked us Doorway folks up with a nice compilation of some of our tracks Chopped N Screwed, which is bananas, so be on the lookout for 'Dj Hustle Sity and Doorway Presents: Screw Us!? Screw Ya'll". ALSO, my solo album 'THE GOOD' is completed as well. That album is in post production as we speak, and should be out in December, it's got some classics like 'The Good", "I'm Trying", "Winner", "Bunkum Road Bum", "Lotta Things", "Kaboom", and "We In the Club" on it, which can all be found on Youtube. I'm looking forward to getting that out to the people, I'm very proud of it. With that project I wanted to make something I know people can listen to straight through over and over again. ALSO ALSO, 2012 is gonna be the year of the EP for me. I'm looking to connect with a lot of producers, and work on collaboration EP's, and just hit people over the head really hard next year with them, so far I got EP's with Tech Supreme, Loose Screwz, In-House Productions, and The Great Joint Commission in the works, slated for 2012, all of which are gonna have their own feel, but still be dope as fuck. ALSO ALSO ALSO Doorway is working on a joint EP with Family Affair, and my homie RT-FaQ has his projects dropping, "A Part of RT" and "FaQ or Fixion" coming soon. SD the Dizzle Man has got his solo project dropping; VEO, the newest Doorway member and RT-FaQ's kid brother has got his project coming, L-Gifted's follow up to "Subtract Negativity" is coming, along with an "RT and WO Show 2" and a DOORWAY COMPILATION. So, with that being said, shit's gonna get crazy. SO MAKE SURE YOU WATCHING AND LISTENING!!!! Shout-out to Constant Daze for hooking it up, shout-out to you Matt for all the work you do for us, shout-out to everyone in the 618/314, all the artists, shout-out to the Doorway Behind The Scenes Team (Scott, Cory, Dawn and Jane) and my sponsors Streetmade, check em out at www.http://streetmade.com. If you wanna download any music from us go to http://www.doorway618.com, peace~"
