Review Summary: Domo Genesis, The Alchemist, and numerous guests combine to craft a very listenable album, one that elevates Doms from the bumbling stoner of OF to a legitimate artist.
No Idols
You know how when you were younger and would play sports with the kids in your neighborhood, there was always that one guy who simply refused to even pretend to play? He would simply mull about, often times with an over-confident smile on his face, trying to convince you he could light it up anytime?
He always gave you a conundrum; you honestly couldn’t tell whether or not there was any talent there. Go look through Domo Genesis’s discography prior to the release of the Odd Future Mixtape 2, and tell me he wasn’t that guy. Rolling Papers was mediocre, and while Doms dropped a verse here or there that hinted at potential promise ("Pigs Fly" and "Window" come to mind), the likelihood of Domo elevating his game to a legitimate level was about as high as Tyler getting blessed by the Pope.
But with the release of OF Mixtape 2, Domo started tearing it up, sounding confident, providing a much better flow, and dropping some of the best verses on the album (check out "Sam (Is Dead)" and tell me he doesn’t light it up). And now, with No Idols, the kid once content with swinging at every pitch is still unwilling to take any balls, but more than happy to give you a taste of his own.
No Idols is the first album where Domo Genesis has seemed comfortable and adept with his voice. Featuring extensive production from The Alchemist, it evokes a kind of surreal grit, preaching the line “No Idols” while the rappers glorify themselves and their ability. There is, believe it or not, legitimate reason to call the genre of this album, as it is listed, “Gangsta”, as that mentality is present in most tracks and the glue behind the album’s main theme. While that theme is very loose, and certainly one that wouldn’t pop to the head when you think of Doms, it can’t be ignored, and the mentality of a man shunning the people others would tell him to look up to comes up again and again, providing the majority of the album’s tracks the background they need. Most of the rapping here focuses on that mindset to a large degree, and due to the album’s production and length, it stays its course well.
Whoever hooked up The Alchemist and Doms needs a very large pat on the back, because it is a perfect union. Doms voice just didn’t have the quiet menace and type of presence needed to fill the gaps of the spacey production Tyler favors, where in contrast the Alchemist’s dense and lush beats play perfectly off of the rappers warbles and marbled mouthed braggadocio.
And there definitely is some straight-laced bragging going on here, and that is what makes the album worthwhile. Rather than laugh off your dismissal of his skills with a weed-soaked chuckle, Domo takes the time here to assert that he’s the ***, at least showing he cares enough to respond to the shots. Doms is a lovable stoner, so of COURSE those moments are prevalent through the album, but this time around they have weight to them; there’s clearly something at stake, which is what was missing from his prior work.
Album opener "Prophecy" conveys this newfound fire nearly as well as any other track on the album, with Domo claiming his time is coming while simultaneously providing advice to those below him. The lines in the song are strong, previewing the rest of the album:
Let a nigga loose, now you fools sayin' he too wild
I'm a new child who turn booths into Nuketown
Domo’s rapping is still nothing to marvel at technically as a whole, but he is gifted with some very promising traits. He has a workmanlike flow through most of the album, his thick pronunciation making maintaining a steady pace a challenge (and what’s held him back in the past), but one he meets through. He has developed a habit of attacking the most important consonants and vowels within his lyrics and melding them with the beat, often raising his voice at the end of bars to add a nice feeling of cadence. In this regard, he almost has a Jay-Z-esque delivery (it speaks a lot of Dom’s evolution that I even feel comfortable mentioning him and Jay in the same sentence).
Whereas prior you would expect drunken stuttering and mumbling, now that is only one third of his vocal aesthetic, and while it is arguably his trademark its minimal use is for the better. Most of his verses are delivered with clear diction, his voice a bit sprier than in prior works and with a clear undercurrent of dripping cockiness, but still possessing the worn, grainy feel of a throat hardened by years of blunt hits. Finally, from time to time Doms truly sounds angry, and his garbled delivery morphs into a thick growl, almost reminiscent of a more washy Ghostface.
Ironically, while many would have lumped Domo in with Earl and Tyler in having a very one-note vocal delivery, and then proceed to knock him for that delivery being less consistent and intriguing than theirs, through No Idols he displays these three different voices in equal measure and the album’s success is bent on it.
His narratives still need work (mostly because he doesn’t come close to pulling one off on the album), relying on buzzwords and punchlines rather than efficient building:
Get a glimpse of this probably make you go out and slit your wrists
The internal rhyming is commendable, but the overall message is common gangster mongering that means little. Doms actually also mimics Jay in this regard, although it is one of his less desirable traits; he has a tendency to string along lines about one subject for a whole verse but never come to a clear conclusion, relying on technical ability and wit rather than meaning. Ever since his meteoric rise, Jay has had the same issue, his capability to write lyrics sonically astounding, but his content slowly dwindling. On the plus side, when the narrative is strong the ability to put these lines together make more fantastic songs, and when this does occur on No Idols the results are mesmerizing.
Speaking of mesmerizing, there’s The Alchemist’s production, which more than demands his name being featured on the album. I’ve always held a great love for Al’s (as he is comically referred to at the end of the title track in a small jingle) masterful production; in this case, it’s easy to get lost in his beats, and my first few repeated plays of the album were a result of them. Not only is the production a perfect fit to Dom’s voice, it manages to instill a sort of ethereal nature to the album as a whole.
"Prophecy’s" electric guitar SOUNDS prophetic, "The Feeling’s" blaring horns place you at the top of a skyscraper’s penthouse, counting your stacks of green, and "No Idols" hectic vocal sample and numerous changes leave your head on a swivel. "All Alone" takes one of the Russian vocal samples Alchemist pooled for Russian Roulette and it works wonders. "Me and My Bitch", Domo’s inevitable and beyond cheesy yet still heartfelt love letter to pot, is raised from a stupid weed-song to a great joint (pun intended) by the twinkling keys and off-kilter beat. "Till the Angels" Come is the album’s best representation of both the rapping and production found on the album; The Alchemist cannot be commended enough for the beautiful beat on the song.
One or two tracks, admittedly ("*** Everyone Else" and "Power Ballad"), do feel as if they were bad leftovers from Roulette, and these are definitively the worst tracks on the album. Even so, they are not cringe-worthy, just fail to live up to the production standards the rest of the album sets. In general, there are a few vocal-samples that show up more than once, and a few off phrases as well that reappear, giving the album more cohesion and making up for the lack of narrative I mentioned earlier. The production, despite its high variety, creates this sense as well; by the time you get to the end, it’s clear it’s time to go home.
The guest list is mostly well done, with (SURPRISE!) Tyler and Earl providing verses, as well as a slew of other rappers who range from well-known to underground that generally put in good work. Doms holds up against every featured artist, more or less destroying Tyler with less bars on No Idols (though Tyler admits to not trying in his verse, which is perhaps the point OF the song, so there’s that), and holding strong against Earl whenever he shows up, which is no mean feat. Earl, Action Bronson (props to whoever got him on here) and Prodigy, to no one’s surprise, put up the best guest verses, though this is clearly Dom’s album.
Used to hustle suckers for pack of gushers and dubs of sess
And now I puff some pounds every month
I don’t be ***in stressin'
While he rarely wows, Domo puts out more good lines than bad, and keeps you into every song, nodding your head slowly as you dissect his gangster warnings and proclamations and appreciate his hazy voice. Every once in awhile he drops a gem (“Oh so cocky, you can't stop me in this old Versace. Nigga watch me in the streets like it's roller hockey”), and you’ll find that his voice becomes soothing upon repeated listens.
No Idols succeeds on Domo Genesis’s newfound ambition and The Alchemist’s stellar production, becoming a very enjoyable album with consecutive listens. If you peel back the beats and stare at the lyrics at face value, they can bleed together, but thankfully these moments rarely occur. While The Alchemist has little to prove, here Dom’s has truly elevated himself to a new tier, and pushed open future doors to walk through as a result. Maybe it’s unfair to his peers to glorify his newfound adeptness at the mic, as there is still much lacking and to be improved upon, but we all in our own way want to see that kid finally get some maturity under his belt and turn that cocky smile into a determined glare. Dom’s isn’t willing to let the smile fade yet, but he’s more than happy enough to lock eyes with you and let you know why he’s on the come-up.
No Idols by Domo Genesis and The Alchemist: 3.7/5 (3.5/5)
Recommended Tracks:
Prophecy
Me and My Bitch
Till the Angels Come
Gamebreaker
No Idols
