If you happened to be at an L.A. Lakers game before the last season ended, you probably jammed to "Lakers Run L.A.," which has quickly become the team's unofficial theme song. What you may not have realized is the number is actually a reworked version of "We Run L.A.," the debut hit by Beverly Hills-bred hip-pop duo Dr. Hollywood. The team of Lex Larson, 25, and Louie Rubio, 26, have spun the track right onto major radio rotation, amassing over 3 million downloads and over 2 million YouTube views — all without a record deal!
I decided to catch up with the fellas to find out just what they're about and got an earload about their high school trouble making in the process. Read on for the full story.
UsMagazine.com: Where did you form Dr. Hollywood and where did they whole idea come from?
Lex: We grew up together and went to school together. We were always really into music. Louie and I have the same taste in music, old school. We actually came up [in the business] as producers and writers for other people and we ended up opening up a studio in Hollywood. That's pretty much where we sharpened our skills and we were able to do hundreds of sessions with a bunch of other [artists] we always looked up to when we were younger. On our record we've got one [track] with B-Real from Cypress Hill and another with Shwayze.
Us: I read that you guys met in high school detention. True?
Louis: Yes, that's actually true. I forget what I did to land myself in detention, but there would be an assembly and I would literally just walk up to the stage and make myself part of the presentation, part of the play.
Lex: I had a fart machine that I would put behind the teacher's desk and then I would pretend to go to the bathroom and the buzzer thing would work outside of the class so I would press it and I wouldn't ever get in trouble because I wouldn't be there in the class. It was always someone who ratted [me out].
Us: Were you aware that your song "We Run L.A." is one of Ryan Seacrest's favorite songs?
Lex: He's like the gatekeeper. He was the person who put us on the map so we always give him the first look at everything.
Us: Then the song got mixed into the unofficial L.A. Lakers theme song. Did you guys go to games?
Louis: We were just at Trousdale for Magic Johnson's Lakers party and we performed "Lakers Run L.A." and we were hanging out with Ron Artest. We would've never actually thought that Ron Artest was a rapper! I'm a fan of the Lakers so I like anything that they do.
Lex: We made the song for our city, Los Angeles. We wanted our own theme song and obviously, yeah, it did come at a perfect time.
Us: How do you guys feel being the only unsigned group playing on popular radio right now?
Louie: It's amazing. We've put in so much hard work and we take care of everything, so just to see "We Run L.A." come out without a label, that just builds our confidence so much. We shopped that record around and labels weren't really intent with picking it up but we knew that it had commercial potential.
Us: You said that you went out partying one night with the Lakers after they won their championship. Do you have any sort of relationship with any of the players?
Lex: Some of the players know what we do so they like the song, but as far as that goes, I was really excited to meet Magic Johnson because I grew up watching Magic Johnson play as a little kid. I thought that that was the coolest thing.
Us: How did he treat you?
Lex: He was really receptive and thanked us for coming, but it was our honor, that's the funniest part. I thanked him!
By Ian Drew for UsMagazine.com. To read more of Ian's blog, click here and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
