---
title: "Dragon Ball $d"

description: "The third-record pivot: a 2020 DBZ hip-hopera where cartoon chaos becomes a full narrative arc, with Babidi, Gokudaxij, and Nick Belcher."

year: 2020
releaseDate: 2020-02-22
artworkBy: "Grizzard Graphics"

artist: "Scoobert Doobert"
artistId: "#scoobert"

bandcamp: "https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/dragon-ball-d-lp"
spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/7q5q0RcMxVHR381gS3r1ri"
apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/dragon-ball-%24d/1500711275"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OaFBwv0dsw"

tracks:
  - { title: "In Peacetime Goku Smokes Blunts", song: in-peacetime-goku-smokes-blunts }
  - { title: "Prince of All Saiyans", feat: "Babidi & Gokudaxij", song: prince-of-all-saiyans }
  - { title: "Oozaru Transformation / Don't Kill Him, Krillin", song: oozaru-transformation-dont-kill-him-krillin }
  - { title: "Namek Has Dragon Balls! A Chill's in the Air", feat: "Babidi & Gokudaxij", song: namek-has-dragon-balls-a-chills-in-the-air }
  - { title: "Enter, the Ginyu Force", feat: "Babidi & Gokudaxij", song: enter-the-ginyu-force }
  - { title: "Vegeta's Lament / Lord Frieza / Super Saiyan", feat: "Nick Belcher", song: vegetas-lament-lord-frieza-super-saiyan }
  - { title: "Ally to Good, Nightmare to You / Goku or Jesus", feat: "Nick Belcher", song: ally-to-good-nightmare-to-you-goku-or-jesus }
  - { title: "My Dad Sucks", feat: "Gohan & Nick Belcher", song: my-dad-sucks }
  - { title: "A Real Monster / Vegeta's Sacrifice", feat: "Nick Belcher", song: a-real-monster-vegetas-sacrifice }
  - { title: "Party at Capsule Corp. Nah Nah Nah", feat: "Babidi & Gokudaxij", song: party-at-capsule-corp-nah-nah-nah }
  - { title: "While My Beerus Gently Sleeps", instrumental: true, song: while-my-beerus-gently-sleeps }

press:
  - outlet: "Glasse Factory"
    url: "https://glassefactory.com/scoobert-dooberts-new-track-think-about-it-is-experimental-funk-at-its-finest/"
    desc: "Artist note: third record, a hip-hopera covering most of the DBZ story."

draft: false
---

*Dragon Ball $d* (say it “Dragon Ball SD,” same $d joke as [*Finding $D*](/albums/finding-d-remastered/)) is the third Scoobert Doobert album, after [*Swami's*](/albums/wami/) and before [*Masks and Monsters*](/albums/masks-and-monsters/). [*Finding $D*](/albums/finding-d-remastered/) is the lab notebook. *$WAMI$* is the lore dump. **Dragon Ball $d** is the first record with a full narrative constraint: one myth arc instead of scattered fragments. Bandcamp calls it straight: [“dragon ball z fueled a hip-hopera.”](https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/dragon-ball-d-lp) A journey with Gokudaxij, Babidi (J MESA), and Nick Belcher.

**FEiN bridge:** While Luke Walton was still half of [**FEiN**](/music/fein/), [ReverbNation Blog](https://web.archive.org/web/20220628192349/https://blog.reverbnation.com/2017/01/27/spotify-playlists-dragon-ball-z-and-collabs-an-interview-with-fein/) (**Jan 27, 2017**) ran *Spotify Playlists, Dragon Ball Z, and Collabs: An Interview with FEiN*. Asked why [*#Grownupz*](/songs/grownupz/) hit 1M+ Spotify plays, Luke answered: *Hashtags and the letter z. #DragonBallZ* — a punchline about the title’s **#** and **z**, but the headline already put Dragon Ball Z in the public FEiN record three years before this LP. Same interview: Christofi × [*The Disco*](/songs/the-disco-feat-mike-funk/), the duo’s *fourth writer* collab ethos, and *Get ready to be SPOOKED* (biweekly singles). Full spine: [Catalog → Dragon Ball $d spine](/catalog/#dragon-ball-spine) · [Topic](/topics/dragon-ball-z/).

Luke Francis Walton played, mixed, and mastered it, same as the other early records. This is also the first Scoobert cover by Grizzard Graphics. Streaming credits split the work more clearly than the first two LPs: Luke alone on some tracks; Eric Radloff / J MESA on the Babidi and Gokudaxij features; [**Nick Belcher**](https://phineasandferb.fandom.com/wiki/Nick_Belcher) on his: Los Angeles singer-songwriter, **Hammer City / The Hammers** lead vocalist ([*Heartquake Saga*](/albums/heartquake-saga/) EP, 2016), and the voice of [**Friend Like Mine**](https://phineasandferb.fandom.com/wiki/Friend_Like_Mine) on *Phineas and Ferb*, brought in for operatic DBZ from track six onward. Silly on the surface, structurally much more disciplined than *$WAMI$*: peacetime Goku, Vegeta, Oozaru, Krillin, Namek, Ginyu Force, Frieza, Super Saiyan, Goku-as-savior, Gohan/dad stuff, Vegeta's sacrifice, Capsule Corp., Beerus. Fan-fiction, parody, mixtape, and indie-pop mini-opera at once.

[Bandcamp *Dragon Ball $D (LP)*](https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/dragon-ball-d-lp) landed **March 16, 2020** ($7 or more, 24-bit/44.1kHz). [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/7q5q0RcMxVHR381gS3r1ri) and [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/dragon-ball-%24d/1500711275) show an earlier **February 22, 2020** date: eleven songs, about twenty-two minutes. The tracklist here follows Bandcamp (~22:22). The [YouTube visual album](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OaFBwv0dsw) splits the same story into seventeen chapters (*Captain Ginyu* as its own beat, medleys broken apart). Same plot, different packaging. Spotify also lists Gohan on *My Dad Sucks*; that's a fake collab joke about Gohan hating Goku, not an actual feature.

The bonus on [*$WAMI$*](/albums/wami/) already pointed here: [*Next Time on Dragon Ball SD*](/albums/wami/), **instrumental**, same recording as *Aaahh!!! Real Monsters* on [*Finding $D*](/albums/finding-d-remastered/).

**Closer:** *While My Beerus Gently Sleeps*: **instrumental** (no song-meaning page; nothing to quote). Title riffs on *While My Guitar Gently Weeps*; **Beerus** naps after the party. Ends with a chopped-off snippet of [*Coca Cola*](/songs/coca-cola/) from the next record: same song, cut short, a teaser wound into the outro. Ten lyric tracks on the LP now have annotation pages; the closer is tagged **instrumental** on the tracklist.