Feardorian and osquinn on Video Games, Clearing Samples, and When the Money Gets Mixed Up

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OK here's what is up today—I've been very into what Atlanta-based rappers/producers Feardorian and osquinn have been doing on their own across the last few years, and they joined forces late last year for a very solid project together, Before You Press Play, that combined each others' strengths to very enjoyable results. I got them on a call near the end of 2025 to chat about their separate and joint work as well as a host of other topics; honestly, we talked a lot about video games, and any time a convo like this has multiple discursive paths towards the history of the Donkey Kong franchise, you know you're in for a treat. Check it out:

Hey, Dorian. How's it going today?
Dorian: I'm chilling. I'm getting over a cold, so I've been slouching around the house.

How are you feeling?
I'm good. I'm at the end stages of the cold, so it's just a slight cough now.

Are you somebody who gets sick often? I don't, so when I get a cold, it's like the end of the world for me.
You are very lucky. I have really bad asthma, so my immune system, especially when I was a kid and going to school with hella germs, it was very easy to get sick every other week. In recent times, I had to build my immune system—the Emergen-C, the vitamins, all that shit. I can definitely tell that my immune system has changed—I've been rarely getting sick as of recently. But it is inevitable if you're like traveling, especially because the weather is changing with the seasons.

Where am I talking to you from today?
I'm home in Atlanta. Let's see what the temperature is like today...it's raining, but it's not really cold at all. It's 71—a good, good day. Later in the week, it's gonna get really cold—like, 26. I guess it gets cold as fuck for some reason.

For some reason, it feels like we're in for a colder winter this year than previous winters.
Yeah, I was in New York in January, but it was really cold. I was walking, and randomly it started snowing. I was like, "Holy shit." And it doesn't snow in Georgia. It snowed for the first time in like almost 10 years last year, so any time I get to see snow, it's wild. It's fire, but it's also like, "Oh my fucking God, we're low-key cooked. This is not normal."

Quinn, where am I talking to you from today?
Quinn: From my bedroom in Atlanta.

Dorian: We're both in Atlanta, experiencing 71 degree weather right now, only 15 minutes away [from each other].

Talk to me about putting this latest record together.
Dorian: This is probably the longest I've spent on making an album, just because a lot of revisions had to be made. Usually, when I'm working on solo projects, I'm able to do it in like a span of a couple weeks—granted, because my solo projects have little to no features. I'll admit, I'm a little impatient. I don't really like to wait on features. So this took a longer time, because of the revisions and making sure it was both what we wanted it to look like. Of course, you probably saw "Bags" [get taken] down. That was a little rock in the road.

Walk me through that.
Dorian: We couldn't get the sample cleared from Clairo. Her label was awesome, they asked for everything, and then they were like, "Nah." I really wanted that song to come out, it's very sad. Maybe one day they'll spin back and be like, "We were wrong."

Quinn: Maybe she'll bring us out one day. She loves performing with rappers.

Dorian: Very true. She played the tambourine with Freddie Gibbs for some reason.

Quinn: Yeah, I remember. That's actually rap music. Maybe she didn't even hear the song.

Dorian: What if she heard the song and just didn't fuck with it?

Quinn: That's, like, a 50-50 chance. As much as a rap fan she is, she could also be a rap critic.

Dorian: I just hope that's not the case, bro. I really hope it's not the case.

Did having to go back to push things around afford any time to make other adjustments to the record?
Quinn: Yeah, a lot of adjustments. I think it's been through three different drafts—technically, four, because when "Bags" got taken down, we had to do a few more revisions because of certain samples that we may or may not have been able to get cleared. Also, we had to take off a song because I had to re-record a verse that got deleted, and I didn't think the re-recording was good, so I was like, "Let's just scrap the whole song." So we replaced those with solo songs for both of us, because there wasn't enough of that, originally.

Dorian: But we produced everything on it.

Quinn: Yeah, then we added another song with both of us, which might be the flagship song for this whole project, honestly.

Tell me about how both of your styles, production-wise, come together.
Dorian: Quinn has been making music for way longer than me. She definitely is a veteran in the game. I feel like I'm getting there, but there are signatures that she has in her production—these really intense kicks that she does—that are just fire.

Quinn: Those are inspired by the Alchemist, because he always randomly had lasers and shit in his songs. I always thought that was dope. Dilla would have the sound clips, and I'd also take from that. Two of the sound clips that I use are from his "Fuck the Police" single, because I had the vinyl up on my wall. I like using sound effects in my music. I think Dorian should use some, too.

Dorian: I'm about to start, honestly —probably because of you, I'm about to start doing that shit. Bro, it's so fire. I have these packs in my laptop where it's just sound bites from a bunch of video games.

Quinn: This is where I really got it from: There's this producer on Soundcloud, his name is 5002 Seven, and he has these tapes called Slowed and Hyped that'll be, of course, slowed down—but they have more of a hyper remix to them, with all these different anime samples, samples from Dead or Alive, video game samples, casino samples, slot machine samples.

Dorian: Oh my God, that's crazy that you mentioned Dead or Alive. Bro, I haven't seen Dead or Alive in, like, so long.

Quinn: Amazing sound bites. You should definitely look into that.

Dorian: I could be completely wrong, but I think they have some characters from Tekken in Dead or Alive. I love Tekken. Who made Dead or Alive?

Quinn: I remember I mainly heard about Dead or Alive from all the arcade machines they used to have at Dave & Buster's.

Dorian: It's a Japanese video game company called Tecmo. But yeah, I was playing Tekken all the time growing up um. Shit like that is where we cross over, because I played a lot of video games growing up, and I'm sure Quinn probably did as well—and that's where we have the crossover with the music we listen to and the samples we use.

Quinn: You can hear the "Enemy AC-130!" sound effects.

You guys still play video games, right?
Quinn: I'm playing Battlefront 6 while we speak.

Dorian: I've been getting more into it because I used to play a lot when I was a kid. I had an Xbox 360 and a Wii and a couple DS's. I was just talking about this the other day, how I had an Xbox 360 with tons of demos, like Worms. Worms is fire. I played a lot of Peggle, Spelunky. It's fire. There's this game called N++, that shit is fire. Charlie Murder. Shit. I was playing Banjo-Kazooie again.

I was really into a lot of the Spider-Man games as well, like Edge of Time, Shattered Dimensions, Web of Shadows—where the ni**a is, like, fucking evil in that game. That game is fucking crazy, because it's one of the only times where it was decision-based, and the more bad decisions you make, you can be the black suit for longer. There's a scene where, if you choose to do this, you can pick up Wolverine and snap him in half on your knee. He was on some crazy shit for that game—I don't know what the fuck he had going on. Spider-man don't be on that shit! He's a wholesome guy, and that's my favorite character ever, so seeing him be evil in that game, I was like, "Yo, he's really wild."

Also, a bunch of Wii games—Wii Sports, classic, of course. Wii Sports Resort, classic. Mario Kart, of course, classic. All the Donkey Kong games. Jungle Beat probably subconsciously inspired me to make music.

Have either of you played the new Mario Kart?
Dorian: No. Did they just drop a new Mario Kart?

Yeah, for Switch 2. Mario Kart World.
Dorian: Mario Kart World? What the hell?

Quinn: That sounds fire, actually.

Dorian: There's also a new Donkey Kong game where, I do not fuck with the design, but I will probably play it.

I have to go back and beat the new Donkey Kong, but I liked it!
Dorian: It was fire?

I actually spent the first two hours of the game just in the training room, destroying shit. I locked in.
Dorian: What did you think about the design? Do you like it?

I thought it was good, but it does get repetitive. I don't think Nintendo has really nailed the "open world" approach yet beyond Zelda.
Dorian: Yeah, it's a work in progress. I haven't played Super Mario Odyssey, but I remember that was open world as well. I just used to play a bunch of fucking demos. There was this game called Naughty Bear that was fire. There's also a version of the game where the bears go on this private resort, and they leave Naughty, and he takes the bus to the resort and then you go around killing all of them.

I love Halo. It sucks that Halo is Xbox-exclusive, because I have a PlayStation 5 now.

I got great news for you: They're bringing Halo to PlayStation 5.
Dorian: What?!? That's great. Wait, is it all the games, or just one game?

They said the remake of the first game is coming to PS5, and all future Halo games will be coming out on PlayStation as well.
Dorian: Whoa, that's crazy. I was thinking today about how I'm really sad because I can't even play Halo anymore without getting a whole new console. I was really obsessed with Halo 4—I'd play it over and over.

I have a PS5 and an Xbox. I got the latter because they own Bethesda now, so I wanted to make sure I could play the next Elder Scrolls. But now Microsoft is crashing out so hard that now they're just licensing everything cross-platform. What's the point?
Dorian: Well, it probably sucks for them, but it's good for me, because I fucking miss playing Halo. I also used to play Destiny a lot, so I'm getting back into that This is kind of silly, but I play Fortnite a lot.

Have you played with the Simpsons skins yet?
Dorian: No, I haven't downloaded my shit yet, because I was out of town when the update came. Me and my girlfriend, we've been playing mad South Park recently, like Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole now.

It's been a minute since I've heard anyone mention the South Park games!
Dorian: Well, they're some of my favorite games, honestly. I'm not even gonna lie.

Quinn, how is the new Battlefield?
Quinn: It just crashed on me, so I'm trying to reopen it—but this shit is fire, bro. Like, I ain't played since Battlefield 4. So, playing this shit again, it's back in that gritty environment. Bro, I'm hyped, yo. I'm kind of fire with it, too. I've been cutting up. I got it on both my PS5 and my PC, because my roommate, he playing it on the PS5, so I can't play it when I want to play. I got to let him have his fun.

I grew up playing Call of Duty campaigns—that was my main thing. I was so invested in the story of Task Force 141, Captain Price and all them people. Battlefield 4, of course I played that. Saint's Row 2, that's a big game for me as well. I was on that more than GTA—I still am. I still got Saint's Row 2, I still be playing it. Other than that, I'm not a real big gamer. I don't know what it is, but I'll go through periods where games cannot capture my attention. I think I'm back out of that period because of Battlefield 6, thank god.

I've been playing a lot of Borderlands 4.
Quinn: I played a ton of Borderlands as well—Borderlands 2. I cannot forget Skyrim and that Elder Scrolls. Same with Fallout.

Dorian: I just started Fallout, but I got all the cheats, and I felt really guilty, so I stopped.

Quinn: You can't really do that.

Dorian: Bro, I was playing it with no cheats. I was like, "Okay, this is cool." But then I was researching, and I was like, "Bro, there's mad cheats." And then I just got all of them and after, I was like, "Bro, I literally can't play this anymore."

Quinn: It's not right. Hoofing it out really pays off. You got your whole separate life in that game. It's people you gotta take care of.

Dorian: I don't even know why this reminded me of it, but Skyrim reminded me of this shit called Skylanders—which I never played, but there was a Disney version called Disney Infinity, which I really loved. I missed that shit so bad.

Quinn: I did nothing with it.

Dorian: Bro—bro, you should have played that shit, bro. It was fire. It's actually one of my favorite games still. I wish I could play it. I probably will get a Wii to play it.

Quinn, I actually want to go back to something that Dorian said earlier about you being a veteran at this point with all the music you've put out. How do you reflect on the long arc of what you've done in your catalog so far?
Quinn: I first began as a producer because I was infatuated with the idea of being responsible for something great, but not tying my entire identity to it. But as I was making the beats and whatnot, I was thinking, "Man, not only do I have a small amount of people to send these weird-ass beats to, but also I want to hit them myself." I was making music without AutoTune for a little bit, but at the time, I was not that good of a rapper. I was about as good as a 13 year old could be. So I stuck to the producing thing mainly. I was able to crack FL and get my first copy of Antares AutoTune.

The shit that's mainly changed is the genres I've been making. I started out with cloud rap, then it became trap metal, and then it went from there to AutoTune underground shit. From there, I tried to experiment with more of a pop sound. Wasn't really my thing. Now, I just do whatever comes to mind. I try to stick to the bedroom-y sound with any sound that I do take on, though, just to keep that authenticity. I try to be as creative as possible, but my sound has been dragged through some pretty slick mud recently.

As both of your profiles have risen in music in general, what's some of the noise you guys have had to tune out? What have you had to turn down?
Dorian: I guess I don't really turn down too much. Usually, things that people come to me with, it aligns with what I want, because I feel like I had to build that for myself. But I will look at a show that's proposed to me and be like, "Nah," just because things are like pretty oversaturated right now and there's some people where I'm just like, "I won't even do a show or work with you, because it's just not me." It's about tailoring who I want to be around.

Quinn: I've turned down a ton of shit. In the height of my career, I was, like, 15 years old, so I was feeling pretty rebellious at the time, and a lot of the offers I was receiving was in a direction I wasn't willing to go. I turned down a bunch of record deals—some for six figures, some for seven figures. I had Euphoria hit me up to use some of my music in their soundtrack—I turned that down. What else...I got a chance to work with the Avalanches and Danny Brown, which was a while ago, and it's surprising to see the direction he's gone in. Just many offers to work that I blatantly ignored, even from the people that I listened to, because I just didn't really see myself working with them. I kind of still don't.

I prefer to work on my own. I could have other artists come and add on to my ideas, because I see somewhere that they fit into it. But when it comes to getting on someone else's track or incorporating my talents and thought into their ideas, it's a tough thing, because I really just make music for myself. When it comes to music, I'm incredibly selfish, because that's the only thing I can be selfish with.

Dorian: There's a lot of bullshit that people make at the table, and you never know where it'll go. A lot of people love whispering soft promises to you. You have to have discernment with things like that and see through something that might look good on the surface.

Let's talk about what the money is like for the both of you.
Dorian: I am blessed to have a good manager, and I also do as many shows as I do. But I don't think that people should go into making music looking to live off of it. I'm blessed to be able to, but I don't think people should go into music thinking that they're going to make a living immediately, because the industry is really fucking grimy. People will fuck you over and not think twice about it, because at this point, it's people's jobs to fuck you over, especially if you're young and don't really know what the fuck is going on. So get a good manager, get a good lawyer, and don't sign any thing unless you know what it entails.

Also, have a backup plan if this doesn't work out. I have a backup plan. I hate to be like that, because I hated when people would tell me to have a backup plan "until this starts working." But I don't think people ever really tell you to have a backup plan with bad intentions—especially your parents. They aren't telling you that because they're like, "This shit isn't gonna work out for you." They probably understand, just as well as I do now, that the industry is fucking grimy. It's really hard even for people that are more established than me to live off music, because that's just how the industry is designed, unfortunately. Streaming services, people don't get paid that much at all, and it's getting worse as time goes on. It's not designed for us to win.

Quinn: I'm finding myself having to resort to other shit involving music, but outside of music. I created my clothing brand lowlife, and I've been spending pretty much every day of my life just managing that. Not only does it give me something to do, but it fulfills the monetary emptiness that music can leave you with you sometimes. I do still get paid from the streams that I've made from, like, blowing up on TikTok and all those different places. But when it comes to trying to fund your actual life and your career, it's simply just not enough. And, you know, I'm more of a homebody, so I guess that's my approach. Then you got Dorian's approach, which is um the tours that he does. He has more reach across the territory to capitalize from. But the money—the money gets mixed up sometimes.

Dorian: It does get mixed up sometimes. It could be rough.

Quinn: Sometimes it goes faster than it comes.

Dorian: Nah, literally. Sometimes it's like, "Fuck it, I am gonna spend this money to make sure I'm in a comfortable position"—even if it's just doing something nice for yourself, even if you don't really have it like that, because in the long run that's taking care of yourself. But money will always come. Whether it's from music or not, it will come. I have a strong belief in that.