Interview/All-around Breakdown: doseone & Height Keech Talk About Their New Wood Teeth EP
“Chef” doseone - Left and Height Keech - Right (CREDITS: Don Hicks / Bob Sweeney)
Emcees, producers, etcs. Adam “doseone” Drucker & Dan “Height” Keech have operated within the same and/or similar Underground/Indie Hip-Hop scenes for at least the last 28 years and have one met on one occasion, if you ask doseone—and two, if you were to ask Height. doseone either is or has been a member of many groups, including 1200 Hobos, 13 & God, A7PHA, the anticon. Collective, Apogee, Blud-N-Gutz, Cape, cLOUDDEAD, Communication Project, Crook & Flail, Deep Puddle Dynamics, Go Dark, Greenthink, NEVERMEN, Object Beings, Presage, Stuffed Animals, Subtle, and Them/Themselves. Height Keech has either been a member of and/or previously released solo or group music as/with Height, Height with Friends, Wounds, Dogg & Pony, Bow n’ Height, Shark Tank, WAVE GENERATORS, and The Necessary People. doseone was a co-founder of heavily influential now-defunct Los Angeles, California Indie Hip-Hop imprint and extended collective anticon. and Height used to host his own podcast series dubbed Height Zone World and now runs his own label called Cold Rhymes Records.
Height and I have been friends and frequent collaborators since his 2017 album Mind Moves The Mountain (and, I believe, first credited to “Height Keech”) and I’ve covered most, if not all, of his assorted solo and various group/label projects released since then. doseone is a new friend and contact of mine, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his assorted output over the years, including North American Adonis with Buck 65 & JEL, Circle fully produced by Boom Bip, self-titled album as NEVERMEN with Faith No More/Mr. Bungle’s Mike Patton and TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe, and All Portrait, No Chorus produced by steel tipped dove. So, with that said, when doseone & Height Keech’s inaugural collaborative EP, Wood Teeth, was initially released to Bandcamp this past July 4th, I reached out to dose & Height via email. To my surprise and elation, they both responded back very quickly and the three of us soon agreed on doing a double-header feature boasting both an interview and an All-around (track-by-track) Breakdown. These aforementioned elements containing extensive involvement from both doseone & Height Keech can be seen, experienced, and enjoyed below; the text has been lightly edited for general clarity. doseone & Height Keech’s Wood Teeth EP is now available for streaming online and is currently available to pre-order on limited edition vinyl (333 LP’s,) which are expected to ship on HALLOW333N AKA Halloween or October 31, 2025.
I. When did you two first meet and what made you decide to record the Wood Teeth EP together?
doseone: [Height] Keech & I met at the [Nobody Planning to Leave] (N.P.T.L.) ShrapKnel album release show in [Brooklyn] year [with Controller 7]. We shot the breeze for a bit and, then, re-connected a month ago while all leaning in on Darko The Super’s Bandcamp listening party for [U Don't Deserve This Beautiful Art’s] Beauty Knows No Pain [compilation], which we were both on separately, but equally! A few days later, Keech shot me a pile of beats and the rest is history!
Height Keech: There was a mini-meeting 24 years before the ShrapKnel [AKA Curly Castro & PremRock] show when my group, Wounds, opened up for anticon. [a label once co-owned by sole, alias, doseone, JEL, Odd Nosdam, Pedestrian, Yoni Wolf of WHY?, and manager Baillie Parker] in Baltimore. They crashed at our grimey Punk/Rap house—I ended up sleeping at my parents’ house to free up an extra bed. When I came back to try and see them off in the morning, they were already gone and all my roommates were at work. There was a whiteboard on the wall where my roommate was keeping a list of movies we should all watch for movie night. The whiteboard was exactly the same as the night before, except that “Breaking 2: Electric Boogaloo” now said “Breaking 3: Electric Boogaloo 2.” I always wondered if it was dose [doseone] that was pulling these subtle hi-jinx.
II. What made you decide to title the EP Wood Teeth? Is there any kind of intended meaning or significance behind this title?
dose: Yeah, [it] was hard to not title it something more obviously anti-American… I’ve always been far from patriotic and one of my first art motifs was abusing George Washington’s likeness started in, like, 1999. So, as I sat to write for this record, the old “[George Washinton] had wooden teeth” lie came to mind, as a less “on the nose” encapsulation of all things American contradiction. So, Wood Teeth kinda rose to the top as a title from there. For those that don’t know, G.W. did not have WOODEN TEETH; he had a composite jaw, which only the wealthiest people had at the time, it consisted of wood and lead teeth painted white. The lead teeth contributed to G.W.’s demise. It, also, consisted of dog, filed down hippopotamus, dead soldier, and slave teeth… I see that Frankenstein smile thatched out of various [sources] being exploitation in my imagination and it somehow looks/feels just like this f***ed country ‘tis of thee.
III. What can you tell us about the Wood Teeth EP cover art, who designed it, and how does it relate to the songs and/or themes heard within?
dose: I did the art. After I write and record, I sit for a day or two and try to envision the art. These are, actually, ground cover/wood chips from my yard. I made a few different “grills” from them and, then, got messy with paint and ink for the rest. All the G.I. Joe wanna-be-cop adjacent dudes in America wear some kind of [modified] American flag, so I didn’t want to use/alter the flag proper in any form. Hence, just the red stripes and the black bile drips feel pretty “American” to me these days…
IV. How was the Wood Teeth EP recorded? Were you two in the studio together at the same time or did you swap the beats and rhymes back-and-forth via email?
dose: It’s was all recorded via satellite. Keech sent the beats and my pen just started pouring out poem. I’ve been and will be struggling with all things current America, racism, White privilege, patriarchy, genocide in Gaza, Zionism, Capitalism, the list goes on, and this EP was a way to do something constructive with that. Turn my anger and depression into something others can do something with even if it’s just listen and seethe. I wrote everything in a “fever” for four days and recorded it all on the fifth day while the No Kings Protests went down. [It] felt like the most I could do, as person/artists/white dude in the throws of feeling frustrated and powerless…
Keech: I have to give the producer Controller 7 props for giving me some insight into how to effectively pitch beats to people outside my immediate squad. He, basically, told me to do the opposite of everything I was doing (presentation/organization-wise) and following his protocol opened things up and made it possible for something like this EP to happen like it did. I'm totally astounded by the doseone work ethic. I've had projects where I send people beats and it takes days for someone to respond to the email, weeks for people to even get in the headspace to listen, and, then, months or years to write and record. I respect everybody's process (whatever you need to do to get it done right,) but this opened my eyes as to how fun it can be to just knock it out with a quickness and get it into the world while it's still fresh to the people that made it. With that said, I think that only works when there's a level of mastery involved. I think you have to know your craft well enough to more-or-less do all the writing, delivery, recording, and mixing exactly right on the first try and that only comes with experience.
V. What is your absolute favorite song or release from each other's discography? (Height for doseone and doseone for Height!)
dose: Man, I [definitely] dig all [of] the WAVE GENERATORS’ work. [I’m a] big NOSAJ [from New Kingdom] fan, as well and “Wave Generators” is [probably] my [favorite] song of the same name (“FATBOI SHARIF Purple Devil Emoji” 😈.)
Keech: If we're talking all-time I might have to go with “Directions to My Special Place.” My man, MRS. PAINTBRUSH [previously known as Mr. Pennsylvania] from Grand Buffet, put me on to that [Themselves AKA doseone & JEL’s] Them album with an attitude like, "these two guys are the truth" and, simultaneously, gave me some context by putting me onto some of the West Coast antecedents to the style (like Saafir) that I wasn't yet hip to... with all that said, multiple heaters off of [doseone & steel tipped dove’s] All Portrait, No Chorus are giving these classics a run for their money.
VI. What's planned next for Height Keech & doseone either together and/or separately.
dose: [I’m] always here to make more music with my dude, [Height Keech.] This EP was short and incendiary because I don’t know how many perfectly angry songs anyone can absorb or that I can write and not feel like I’m beating a dead steed. Next, for me is many new LP’s; sadly, all secrets currently, but I’m super-close on this Armageddon-centric duets record with all [of] my favorite rappers sharing a long song with me. Hopefully, that’s ready to roll out later this year!
Keech: I second that! The next thing for me that's fully-formed is WAVE GENERATORS’ album two, which is just around the corner.
dose: [I] was sitting there after I laid the verse down thinking of what to do with the gaps and started fantasizing about “The MAN” being someone you can call and yell at directly. Also, flipped the David Lynch quote about transphobia; when asked about it, he replied to transphobes with “fix your hearts or die.” These lyrics are a titration of the [cesspool] Twitter has become AKA Internet presence and discourse as a whole… constant enflamed contradiction and toxicity flying in all directions. And moreover, how the “future” we’re being sold has invested so heavily in “palm of your hand” Internet, meanwhile, “information” as it relates to truth has become so subjective in the hands of trolls, bots, and bigots that nary an enlightened being does The Internet make… Brands and companies and politicians and dum-dums are all incredibly aware of the slippery slope all this has resulted in and they just let the truth bleed out on the social media floors. So, that “commercial” interlude that happens after the verse is in the tone of “presentable/acceptable marketing speak,” but depicts the cult of personality insanity and corporate absence of empathy I feel scrolling socials embodies… and I don’t care what god you buy stock in, everybody needs to come up off their egomania and apply a little GOLDEN RULE; this empathy sh*t is not difficult, but letting go of ones relative selfishness seems to be practically impossible for all too many individuals…
Keech: For whatever reason, I wasn't really thinking of these beats as “heavy” or “political.” I was thinking of them more as “fun” and generally “a**-kicking.” I think this is why this collaboration clicked into place so well. If I made some beats that sounded as bleak as what we see on the news every day, it would, maybe, be something nobody would want to hear.
dose: So, this verse starts with an X-CLAN reference. [I’m pretty] sure Brother J was dissing 3rd Bass with [the line] “a bunch of cave boys tried to house my drum.” I’ve been listening to X-CLAN since puberty and it was incredibly formative for me and my resolution to be “aware of,” but not “move as” a WHITE DEVIL in life at large and more specifically, as I explore my deep connection to RAP as an art and deep appreciation/reverence for Black and Brown cultures as they forged the form I felt called to… ANYWAY, long story short, before I dig in on WHITE FOLKS and the problems therein, I felt like it was important to say “yeah, I f***in’ know I’m White, too” in the most “I love Rap” coded manner I could, which involved me being said “cave boy housing” said “drum”… From there, things get pretty literal and aggressive regarding all these COP-adjacent White dudes, who seem to be clogging the failed cable guy to I.C.E. AGENT pipeline. You can tell by their posture and abandon they think they are things of strength, but to me, it reads as deep seeded weakness, absolutely broken, failed White male privilege hanging on desperately to a thread of ignorance and phobia, as they flex their over-developed inner-bicep of hate/dumb. It’s obvious words/meaning/facts don’t really permeate their tactical bubble, but it felt good to articulate their ignorance and b*tcha**-ness as best I could. [The] best thing I can hope for is they all die by SON’s GUN on hunting trips…
Keech: I love this song and it's as cathartic for me to listen to as it was for dose to write. I saw an interview with the comedic Country singer Wheeler Walker, [Jr.] explaining his X-rated lyrical approach and he said, "it's 2019... what the f**k is the point of a metaphor?" Now, it's 2025 and we're rounding up people and sending them to concentration camps, so what's the point of pu**yfooting around these issues or wearing kid gloves. It feels good to hear someone so [skillful] style on these Brownshirts.
dose: So, I, actually, wrote this whole poem at the GYM (forgot my phone) in my head and just kept adding a line every five minutes and kept it all in my head ‘til I got home. [The] gym is full of these TRY-HARD, micro-p*nis, gender-affirming TRUCK/TATTOO types, 50 shades of COP... and they all have “I wanna get laid” in their eyes, yet project women are objects and I just started to picture that one out of a 100 COP TYPES who it seeps [through] their walls and they cry when they are alone about no one liking them and have ZERO idea what their emotions are connected to or where they are coming from and they just spiral and I love it…and there is no God. So, sadly, there is no Hell for these fools, but it’s still fun to fantasize about COP HELL and what’s there, like’ constant tear gas and they all are permanently crying into their protein powder and donut holes… Toxic masculinity and over-powered under-educated white males are a blight on humanity…
Keech: We had a brief discussion about how we would handle splitting up royalties if these songs got placements on TV or movies. The next day, dose texted me to say he started cracking up at the absurdity of a hypothetical where we get the news that "When The Cops Cry" was chosen as background music in a mayonnaise commercial.
dose: So, the vocal sample before this beat sent me time traveling, “this is the first song I ever wrote.” Back in the day, I battled/freestyled constantly and didn’t have a lot of written [rhymes], and [pretty] much the first written I ever wrote was about “the White man s*cking.” Go figure. So, I heard that and kinda re-visited that now-ancient sentiment of mine for this song. And, again, some self-aware White boy ‘bout to diss White boys work.“ You can’t choose who f***s on an acid trip, sh*ts you out, [and] then, takes care of ya… but I deeply, completely resent White America” 🙂. I, also, sit and think about all these M.A.G.A. fools and rich Republicans who unabashedly wish for/forge a worse world and are all BREEDERS. How the f**k are you gonna poop a child into a world you are actively de-valuing and dragging [through] the muds of ME-FIRST morality and constriction…
Keech: To me, what dose just said here is further proof that Controller 7's advice to me paid off. One of his theories was to put all the interstitial vocal samples in first and let them inform the rhymes, instead of the other way around. My first thought was "but all the spoken samples I have are absurd non-sequiturs and not related to what people are going to be rapping about," but I tried it anyway. Maybe, my wacky samples worked out just right in this case.
dose: So, this is the title track, but isn’t the hardest hitter on the EP. However, as I mentioned in the questions, WOOD TEETH kinda stuck and felt right. This one’s a little more about government/being American and my childhood therein. [I] was thinking about how I turned out the way I did and was still subjected to the pledge of allegiance and all this public school Whitewashing of all the things. And, then, I started to remember giving up on all things patriotic at the very same time I was being forced to pledge allegiance. I recall the poverty in my single mother’s care and in NJ in general where I was a young one, a brick of “government cheese” specifically being something that just took the American belief wind out of me before I was even double-digits. And, then, once I was double-digits, RAP came into my life, mind and heart and gave me the infrastructure and art I needed to process and fully form my own disbelief in all things eagle and star-spangled and d*ckhead… “3 K’s, no C.”
Keech: This is my favorite track. Every vocalist handles beat switches differently (ignore them and power through [or] change it up for each section) and I feel like dose came with two completely wild voices that contrast with each other in such a bugged out way.
dose: Welp, this one’s about “the STEAL.” Every inch of our country being stolen from Indigenous peoples. Every inch of our culture and arts stolen from people of color (except [for,] maybe, corn hole, M-80’s, and mullets…) Yet these fools are so brazenly unaware of that in America’s melting pot, that in the same breath, they want to resent Black culture while wearing Jordans or slapping rims on their flatbed truck. Same goes for all the hate the L.G.B.T.Q. community constantly suffers while everybody and their mama says “SLAY” and “WORK.” Pick a lane, idiots; [you] can’t remove peoples, immigrants, cultures, [and] diversity, and still have all the crap you copy and pretend to be on a daily basis. Pull up a chair and a mirror and have a stare… This country is a melting pot and at its best, America is responsible for creating some talented/inspired individuals. That’s it. That’s our [gross domestic product] (G.D.P.). Its individuals, unique intense, and steeped in all the pot has ever melted… It’s not beef or corn or JUMBO-sized drinks or revolvers. It’s individuals who were formed in the MELT and respect the difference between them and others as much as they respect themselves…
Keech: When dose cooked up this first round of rough mixes, he gave me a disclaimer that he wasn't sure where I was at with the state of the world and that it's totally cool if I wasn't digging this state of rage that he's in on these songs. I listened and instantly couldn't have been more all for it. All the bile he was spewing was just getting me amped up and it felt good to be a part of something where these problems of 2025 are being spoken about in plain language without softening the approach or obscuring who the target is... These more absurd violent fantastical lines (“don't hate me, but I'd watch eagles eat Republican babies”) had me bursting out laughing. It got me thinking about weird mornings where I'd wake up from a dream that I was dropping Steve Bannon into the Star Wars “spike pit” or something like that. I think that kind of anger is just under the surface for a lot of us and it's probably more constructive to be honest about it and let it out, rather than to try and bottle it up.
doseone’s various ruff “WoodMouths” mock-ups/trials for the Wood Teeth EP cover image (SOURCE: Adam Drucker)
