Record Report
Dom Kennedy
Yellow Album
Producers: THC, Fly Union, Chase N Cashe, DJ Dahi, Polyester, Drewbyrd, J. Lbs, Troy Noka
Dom stays true to what he’s good at on the Yellow Album. He goes about his rhymes in a calm, cool, and collective way I’ve heard on From The Westside with Love, The Original Dom Kennedy, and 25th Hour. The Yellow Album plays out in a similar way with a modern 90s style Hip Hop vibe with slow tempos and chill rhythms. Dom mixes it up with the heavy hitters on his features including Kendrick Lamar, Too $hort, Rick Ross, Nikko G4 and Freddie Gibbs. The album opens with “So Elastic”, a signature slow-toned beat with Dom’s leisure-voiced rhymes. The album continues that way until you find yourself hearing Kendrick’s tough rhyme on “We Ball” and the West coast is represented yet again. This track definitely stands out on the album. Although he follows up with “My Type Of Party”, the tempo of the album still stays the same with no real pick up. Even when the album moves along to “Don’t Call Me” with Too $hort on the track, the slow-toned beats and gradual speed of the lyrics start to run together.
There are points when the slow tempo of the music combine perfectly with the rhymes and an example of this is, “Gold Alpinas”. Rick Ross’ deep-voiced lyrics mixed perfectly on the track. Dom picks up the pace in his rhyme on “PG Click” which is one of the better songs on the album. He salutes 90s Hip Hop halfway through with a sample of Biggie’s “Big Poppa” while he says, “Throw your hands up if you grew up in the 90s”.
We get to see the same Dom Kennedy on this album. He stays himself throughout each song, with his rhymes that give a taste of the day in the life of Dom Kennedy. This maintains the Dom Kennedy we’ve grown to know over the past few years, but doesn’t exactly lift him up to the next level. I can appreciate the slow jam feel of Dom’s music, but at one point or another it starts to sound repetitive. The Yellow Album could be a more well rounded album with a couple songs that have a slightly faster tempo to pick the sound up, but overall it served its purpose for Dom Kennedy’s signature sound.
-Geneva Perezcastaneda (@GeevaBeba)
