Kash Doll
FROM Detroit
AGE 27
LABEL Republic Records
REAL-LIFE HUSTLERS Born Arkeisha
Knight, Kash Doll started writing rhymes
in fifth grade, honing her freestyle skills on
the ride to school. “I would tell everybody,
‘When I grow up, I’m going to be famous,
and all y’all are going to want to be my
friend,’ ” says Doll. After graduating high
school, she worked at local strip clubs
to fund the start of her musical career,
paying for studio time. Soon enough, she
was booking gigs rapping at clubs, public
schools and charity events.
ONE OF A KIND In 2017, Doll’s self-
released single “For Everybody” became
a viral hit. “It changed my life,” she says,
explaining that it let her hire a lawyer
who got her out of a “terrible” contract,
though she won’t say with whom. The next
year, Republic Records A&R coordinator
Ken Jarvis introduced her to the label’s
president of West Coast creative, Wendy
Goldstein. “He walked into my office with
the ‘For Everybody’ music video cued up,”
says Goldstein. “You could feel something
special happening.” That spring, Republic
signed Doll to a recording contract and
released her major-label debut single,
“Ice Me Out.”
HOMETOWN HEROES In the past year,
Doll has been featured on tracks by Iggy
Azalea, Dreezy and Pusha T. Her own de-
but, Stacked (out Oct. 18), includes verses
from Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, Teyana
Taylor and fellow Detroit native Big Sean.
Doll collaborated with the lattermost on
August’s “Ready Set,” which she says
aims to show that “failure is not an option.
You have to stay patient. It ain’t easy to
just get up and become a rapper out of
Detroit — we made it out the basement.”
BOSS UP Doll is also focused on growing
as a businesswoman, running her label
Kash Doll Enterprises and Detroit-based
nonprofit B.A.D. (Black American Doll)
Girls, which donates prom dresses to
young women and sponsors community
events. “I have to keep going harder be-
cause I can’t let [my family] down. If I’m too
content, something’s wrong. There’s always
a new level to reach.” —BIANCA GRACIE
ONE TO WATCH
A
YEAR AFTER OLD
Dominion signed its
first recording deal
with Sony Music
Nashville in 2015, the
band took its inaugural
trip to the United Kingdom as part
of the C2C: Country to Country
festival, lining up additional dates
at 200-capacity clubs and hoping
to build a following overseas.
“We dipped our toe in the water
there and lost some money,” says
frontman Matthew Ramsey, “but it
was more about getting our name
out there — and the next time we
came back, hopefully it would be a
little bit bigger.”
Now the quintet is on its biggest
European tour to date in support
of its third, self-titled album, out
Oct. 25, with first-time stops in
Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
And this time, the venues have more
than doubled in size.
As the Academy of Country
Music’s reigning group of the year,
Old Dominion scored its sixth No. 1
on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart
in April with “Make It Sweet,” the
lead single from its new album. The
band first reached the chart’s peak
in November 2015 with “Break Up
With Him,” which is also one of eight
hits Old Dominion has landed on the
Billboard Hot 100 since the start
of its career.
On its current tour, the group
promises to mix these songs into
its setlist alongside new album
cuts. But there’s one thing that
won’t be bigger on this European
trek: the production. While Old
Dominion tours the States with
seven tractor-trailer trucks and four
buses, Ramsey says it has learned
its lesson in Europe and limited the
budget this time. “Our crew and the
band, we all cram into one bus, and
there’s no tractor-trailer trucks at
all,” he says. “It’s a bare-bones [stage
setup] compared with what we do
at home.”
The group is relying less on
spectacle and instead sprinkling in
more talking breaks to explain the
stories behind its songs. “We’re
built on touring,” says Ramsey. “We
started in a very grass-roots way;
it’s a term that gets thrown around
a lot, but it holds true to us — it’s
incredible that we’ve gotten where
we are.”
Old Dominion is embarking on its biggest European tour to date —
so why is the country act stripping its set way down?
BY ANNIE REUTER
Growth Spurt
ON THE ROAD
Old Dominion before a
sold-out show in Asbury
Park, N.J., in August.
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.42 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 12, 2019