Born and raised in the 108 Projects of Orange, N.J., Dougie F. attended Virginia Union University on a basketball scholarship until he left to pursue rap full-time. Paying for studio sessions with money from his part-time job at FedEx, Dougie's buzz turned into something more when he caught the ear of famed DJ, producer and record exec Diplo. Based off his hype tracks, the eager upstart was signed to Diplo's Mad Decent Records along with his DJ, DJ Fire.

"At first I had to YouTube Diplo and I just seen a crowd full of White people going crazy. A crowd full of White girls, they twerking, doing all this extra shit," he said to XXL while in New York City. "But it was still definitely part of our culture, the Jersey club music."

Having just dropped his debut EP, Block Party, the tri-state native now aims to show his depth beyond the house party bangers. Get to know the hip-hop rule breaker in this week's installment of The Break.—Sidney Madden

Name: Dougie F.

Age: 25

Hometown: Orange, N.J.

I grew up listening to: I grew up listening to radio because I was mostly outside. It was like whatever I heard in the car. I was big on mixtapes and stuff but it was never like no artist I could remember. It was just me being outside hearing stuff. I was running the streets playing basketball.

I was playing basketball all throughout high school so certain music just fueled me to workout or go crazy on the court. But when I got to college that's when I really started paying attention to music and finding myself really wanting to be apart of it. So I went from just being a listener to like really sitting down writing and then getting drunk with the homies, freestyling. And then taking that to recording a song. Then, I got home for the summer. Next semester I came back, my homie gave me a bunch of beats and from there we just been going hard with it. My producer, my boy Lurks came along, years later now we here.

In college, I was inspired by J. Cole. Being down at school in Virginia, they was bumping him heavy and he had the whole storytelling aspect. And there's not too many people that tell the story about Jersey as a whole, so I always made sure I incorporated storytelling even if the song's about a female or a homie that went through something. It's still some kind of story that it follows. It's not just a bunch of words.

Most people don't know: When I'm out, I don't really talk much. But, I have a crazy personality and people are attracted to it. So it's like anybody I meet. I'm like a social magnet, even though I don't talk that much. I just got jokes. And the ladies feel me.

My style has been compared to: No one really. Like, Fetty [Wap] does what he does. And I fuck with it. There's a bunch of other artists that have their lane, but as far as the music, I create. The sound doesn't sound like Fetty or whatever other Jersey artists that's working, but that's just based off of me and where I travel to and the life I live. The concepts are different, the vocal presence is way different. But there's a Jersey thing, we got the wave right now.

Standout records and/or moments to date: For records, "Back Up On It" would be one. Like I said, I got to travel off of it. I got to meet more industry associates. Another one would be "Dope." That's what got the streets of New Jersey on it. That's what got me comfortable performing. I was gaining more and more fans just off performing that record. The energy, the content and the surroundings, it was just perfect for that.

The Block Party at Coney Island, that was dope. There was like 18,000 people. That was the biggest block party they had. Diplo brought me out. I had the New Jersey Devils hockey jersey on. That was a super crazy moment.

My goal in hip-hop is: I'm not just honed in on hip-hop, I want to tap into other genres. My goal in music is like, show the versatility to be able to travel international and perform music in front of people that don't even speak the language and have them rapping the words back to me. To put on for my family and my team. To create opportunities for my team, have them in position to where they can be in buildings. You know, keep this going for generations so they can put on for their families and shit, because you know we came from nothing. So, for us to even be where we at right now is a blessing.

I’m going to be the next: Dougie F. is the next nigga on the charts, man. We got it coming, Top 40 on Billboard type shit. The next XXL Freshman for next year. The next thing smokin'. The next nigga out of Jersey to put my foot in the door and open this up for more artists.

To check out more of Dougie F.’s music, follow him on SoundCloud, Twitter and Instagram.

Standouts:

"Back Up On It (Jasmine)" by Dougie F. and DJ Fire

"Dope" by Dougie F.

Block Party EP

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