Saturday, July 9, 2011

In With The New: Dom Kennedy's Latest

There's a lot of young new artists in hip hop lately. It feels like more than ever, probably because of the ease with which anyone that wants to record and post their music can. The ones that don't get lost in the pile are the ones that use new media as their most valuable tool to be successful, and use it to their advantage while working their ass off to promote their shit.

Music-wise, some are much more talented than others. And, it takes a lot of effort to sift through it all. Thankfully, blogs do a lot of the work for you (me), and make it easier to lock onto what you're looking for.

One newer/up-and-coming MC I've partially found appealing is Dom Kennedy. He kind of hit or miss for me from the material I've heard thus far. His new album, mixtape or whatever, II: From The Westside With Love is no exception. There are some weak points. At least half for me, it seemed. I don't think Dom is the best on the mic, but he has a good flow and brings a personality to his music, and really hits the mark sometimes. I think he's aware of his shortcomings though, evidenced by the line "I got the most game, never said I had the best flows", which somehow makes it more acceptable as a listener. Hopefully, acknowledgement of his flaws does not mean acceptance to him, and Dom continually strives to improve his skills.

He's being himself, and has some talent for making enjoyable songs, so I wouldn't mind seeing him generate a wider audience and represent west coast music in the mainstream. The songs that work on this album really work and are perfect for hanging out in this hot ass summer heat. See what I mean on songs like "Ice Cream Truck", "New Jeeps" and "2MPH". The 3 of these actually happen to appear consecutively on the project and feature other talent that definitely shine on their own like Asher Roth (I said it, and I stand by it on this verse) and Big K.R.I.T.

I'd say go ahead and pick this one up for some good summer time west coast hip hop. Now, I'm about to check out a peer of Dom's who just released some new material...Kendrick Lamar's Section 80.


Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

No comments:

Post a Comment