Initially the idea was to release an EP. Especially after the voluminous second album ‘Da Roach’ and the tour that followed, you would expect that Dope D.O.D. was going to take some well-deserved rest. But you’ve thought wrong. With the money they earned from their shows they bought a little studio. That sparked an explosion of inspiration and in a flash over twenty tracks were created.

“So the EP idea was dropped because we just had so many good songs we wanted to share with the world it only made sense to us to release a tape. Not an album, nor a EP, just a bundle of songs we are very proud of”, says MC Skits Vicious.

“We decided to call it Master Xploder a nod to a song that Tenacious D play in their Movie (The Pick Of Destiny) but moreover because we feel that this title perfectly describes our sound because we’ve been dropping bombs for a few years in the scene and we feel we’ve established ourselves within the hip hop world with a distinctive sound and approach, which comes with an explosive energy. So Master Xploder sums it all up perfectly”, Skits continues.

On Master Xploder a number of collaborations with new producers can be found. During their last tour through Russia they met a producers duo called Teddy Killerz (signed to Skrillex’s OWSLA label). They produced the rough and rugged for the title track. Another Russian artist called Nphonix, who the group met at Pukkelpop (one of the biggest festivals in the Benelux), delivered two productions. The first (WTF Jay) is a minimalistic abstract song while the second one (Other Side) is a mellowed and spaced out track. And in their hometown they teamed up with young producer Niels Kooistra who produced Barbwire and I Spy. One of the two guest MC’s to appear on this tape is Pavan “Orifice Vulgatron” Mukhi from Foreign Beggars, he gives the track ‘Moonshine’ that extra special UK feel. The other one is old friend of the family Simon Roofless (Da Goldminerz) who can be heard on ‘Desperados’. The latter track is a production of hometown producer Chu Beats immediately taking you to the wild west with his song.

Their own producer P. Songolo made the productions for ‘Mindblowing’, ‘Gutta’, ‘Square One’, ‘Moonshine’ and the incredible banger ‘Ridiculous’. On all these songs you can hear that the investment in an own studio has paid off. The tracks are more diverse than ever, blending space voices and melodic synths with the trademark brutal edge of Dope D.O.D.

All the new collaborations and influences we’re the result of the group touring extensively.

Dopey Rotten: “This record is perhaps not completely something that you’re used to, but it is definitely a true Dope D.O.D. record. We have gone through a lot of shit the last years. Becoming famous to a certain extent, losing people you’ve known for a very long time in the process of becoming it. All this stuff makes you grow, as a person and as a musician and all these things contributed to the evolution of our music.

This does not mean that we deviate from the classic Dope D.O.D. style which can in fact be frequently heard. You can actually say that we’ve brought it a little bit more back to the first album (Branded). While ‘Da Roach’ was more an album with one theme and musically more coherent. On this record we are more diverse than ever. You will get many different flavors.”

In January 2011, Dope D.O.D. crashed onto the scene with their debut music video “What Happened.” The video was greeted with a strong reception, resonating with fans internationally on its way to racking up 16.5 million Youtube views to date. The success immediately lead to two remarkable collaborations. With rap legend Sean Price and underground star Simon Roofless (both from the USA). In June 2011 Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) saw the video and invited the band to become the main support act for Limp Bizkit’s European tour. In September of that year a headline tour followed taking them through Russia and the Baltic States. In October they played the Iceland Airwaves Festival and impressed everybody present, immediately securing a spot in Reykjavik’s most Popular nightclub with a capacity of over 1,000 people. After this the group went straight to the USA to tour with KORN for their “Path Of Totality’ Tour. In between they released The Evil EP and their debut album Branded. At the start of 2012 the group was chosen as “Most Promising Act of 2012” at the Eurosonic/Noorderslag festival in the Netherlands, Europe’s biggest showcase festival by international music industry professionals. The international success of the videos and shows prompted SXSW to feature Dope D.O.D. as a 2012 Showcasing Artist. After their showcases at SXSW and Canadian Music Week they closed a worldwide deal with The Agency Group. As well as a North American deal with the famous hip hop label Duck Down records. During the Lowlands festival (biggest festival in Holland) the group inked another deal with Rough Trade Distribution who will hande the group’s releases for Europe. The group played more than 115 shows in 17 different countries in 2012. They performed at the biggest festivals in Europe, Rock en Seines, Printemps de Bourges, Eurockeenes (France) , Dour (Belgium) Monegros Dessert Fest (Spain) Best fest (Roumania) Lowlands (The Netherlands) Hip Hop Kemp (CZ) The Great Escape (UK), Dour (BE), Paleo (CH), Stuttgart Hip Hop open (GE) and Sziget (HU). ‘Branded’ was re-released in the US on October 9th and the video for ‘What Happened’ has been added immediately to the MTV U playlist and highlighted on sites like www.allhiphop.com and www.hiphopdx.com while the second video with Sean Price (Psychosis) was premiered on VEVO USA in November 2012.

In January 2013, during an internationally broadcasted award show, the group received a European Border Breakers Award for being one of the most booked acts during the European festival summer of 2012. April 20 their second album Da Roach was released. It featured artists who greatly inspired the group, such as: Redman, Onyx, Sean Price and Kool Keith. Da Roach entered the French Independent Radio Charts at #36 this was the first time in Dutch history for an album to reach the French Charts. In Italy Rolling Stone Magazine Premiered the album and the group did many radio and TV appearances during their tour through Europe, taking them to 11 countries in 16 days. The success of Da Roach lead to a new round of Summer festivals, playing the biggest stages at the biggest festivals, like Pukkelpop (BE), Splash & Serengeti (GE), Dockville (GE) and BAM Barcelona (ES). In November the group did a sold out tour (12 dates) in Russia, Belarus and Ukrain.

In between the Russian tour and the upcoming release the group also found time to feature on some remarkable releases, by Hip Hop legends Onyx (Wakedafucup), by Italy’s biggest rapper Salmo (Blood Shake and with the German group Snowgoons (Guillotine Rap).

In April of 2014 the Master Xploder tape was released and this meant a new step forward in the career of the group. The title track and the track Ridiculous got great response from media and public. Their album also got noticed in the US, leading to playing together with Ghostface Killer. Some other remarkable shows the group played during their Master Xploder tour so far are: Monegros Dessert (ES), Park Live (RU), Les Ardentes (BE). In September they appeared as special guest on the massive popular Hip Hop TV party, with an audience of 15,000 people at the venue and well over a million viewers at home.

Now the group is finishing the songs and video’s for their newest EP, which shall be released in February 2015.