Review Summary: Domo Genesis steps up his game in a big way and gets a lot of help with great production from The Alchemist.
Over the last year or so, the California rap collective Odd Future has started to find popularity and hype in the rap world. This isn't because of the rap collective as a whole, but because of Tyler, their ringleader. Although people like Earl Sweatshirt and Frank Ocean are definitely coming up in a very big way, Tyler is definitely the main reason they have their fame. This means with people like Tyler, Earl, and Frank Ocean moving up in the music world fast, some members of OFWGKTA start to get left behind. Domo Genesis was a perfect example of that late 2011. In 2011 you had Yonkers being the biggest track Odd Future has ever put out, Earl Sweatshirt's debut coming out and Frank Ocean's debut also coming out in the same year. Odd Future had a pretty great year in 2011. However, the same can not be said for Domo Genesis. He put out a pretty average to below average in his release that year, “Under the Influence”, and it started to become very evident to me that Domo was never going to be a rapper I enjoyed. Then 2012 came. Odd Future put out a good but not great collective release in the album “The OF Tapes Vol. 2”, and Domo really stepped up his game in a big way in that tape. His flow improved greatly and his lyrics got much more interesting. When I heard the news that Domo was putting out a new tape in 2012 with The Alchemist, I actually became a little excited to hear it.
Hearing that The Alchemist was going to be on this album was pretty shocking to me, mostly because Odd Future doesn't like to step out of their collective to collaborate, let alone someone like The Alchemist. Although I was never a huge fan of his, I was definitely was pretty excited to hear how these two would sound together. He definitely held up his side of the album. The production on this tape is stellar, I would even go as far to say it's one of my top five produced hip hop albums of the year so far. My favorite production track “All Alone” really put out interesting and catchy beats that use the cut and loop feature very well. Then you have really fluttery almost pretty beats on tracks like “Me and My Bitch”, “Like a Star”, and “Till the Angels Come”. The dark toned songs like “Elimination Chamber”, “*** Everybody Else”, and “The Daily News” really have a perfect setting of a dark place thanks to the production. There was also a sort of 80's power ballad beats on songs like “Prophecy” and the appropriately titled song “Power Ballad” that I really wasn't a fan of in all honesty. Especially on Power Ballad, the guitar gets very overused and repetitive. That's not my only complaint on the production either. The beat on the song “No Idols” really falls short to the aggressive vibe that Tyler put out on his verse in the song. It almost sounds to me like they used to wrong beat for that song. The Alchemist really isn't known for aggressive beats, so I really shouldn't complain to much. Overall the production is very solid, and gives Domo Genesis a lot of wonderful beats to work with.
Domo wasn't the only one working with the production, there were tons of featured artist on here. Odd Future surprisingly only had a few features on here, but they did their part well. There were also Odd Future affiliates like Vince Stables on here, and many other rappers that you aren't used to seeing on a Domo Genesis release like Freddie Gibbs and Action Bronson. The Odd Future members were very good on here. Tyler had a very aggressive and funny verse on No Idols, and Earl Sweatshirt was killing it on every single track he was on. His flow is better than ever, and a lot of that is because of the word play he uses on here. There were some not so good features on here too. I thought Action Bronson was awful on here, or at least on Elimination Chamber. He had some clumsy flow and dreadful lyrics. “I'm like a boss on a nintendo game, my brain is on another level”. That sounds like one of Lil Wayne's notoriously bad lines. That is sad to me because I actually enjoy most of what Action Bronson does. Vince Stables was also very bland on that song, I don't know if I have ever seen him with a personality on any track he's on. There was some good features on here too. Smoke DZA and Freddie Gibbs were especially good on the tracks they were featured on. Even SpaceGhostPurrp, who I am really not a fan of, was pretty decent on the track The Daily News. Most of the time, the features were well done and well chosen for this tape.
As I said earlier Domo has been stepping up his game, and it was shown all over this tape. His flow improved tremendously from the last release. Tracks like “No Idols” and “Prophecy” shows his flow off very well. He even has started to gain more of a personality. Like on tracks “All Alone” where he actually shows a little angst in feeling like he's all on his own. He had good flow on pretty much every track he was on, and that wasn't the problem for me. The problem for Domo Genesis to me on this tape is his lack of being interesting. Most tracks on this really aren't about a whole lot outside of a few gems. He tried to be a story teller on the track “Me and My Bitch”, but the whole song concept about pot being a woman is kinda laughable to me, and not to mention overused. However, that was really my only complaint about him on this mixtape. He is really continuing to get better and better, as he did on this tape.
Overall, thanks in part to some very well done production by the alchemist, Domo Genesis put out a very good release that will hopefully be a landmark for him on when he began to step his game up. I expect him to get better and better, and maybe someday he'll be put on the same level as Earl and Tyler.
7/10
