Dom Kennedy On The Gap Between Luxury Rap And Chief Keef

There’s been no label wars, massive marketing campaigns or groping Rihanna at the VMAs stunts, but post his break out hit “My Kinda Party” Dom Kennedy has kinda crept up on the hip-hop world to become one of the most sought after Cali rappers, without the industry even realising.

I caught up with him at a packed out Livin’ Proof, on his first jaunt to London, to talk luxury rap, why people need to lay off Chief Keef and how champagne is actually a really good multivitamin supplement.

Noisey: Soooo, why has it taken you so long to get to London?

Dom Kennedy: Maaan! I think I’m right on time. I look at it like I’m on perfect time.

Really?

Yeah.

So, I was watching this interview where you got mad about rappers being lumped together by journalists. Like, if you’re from LA people assuming their must be a connection to Black Hippy?

I mean there’s more to it than that maybe, but just cos you all rap, don’t mean you’re from the same place or you’re comin’ from the same place in your heart. Are you hanging around the same people? Are you even believing the same thing?

Right. Is that the only annoying go to “rap” question in interviews?

That and probably like, “Are you signing with Rick Ross? Are you signing with this guy?!”

Ugh, awkward.

Yeah, why would you ask the most obvious question? Y’know? It’s like when you go up to a girl and say the most OBVIOUS thing.

Speaking of tha laydeez, we did a feature a while back about awkward sex music. What’s yours?

Awkward sex music? I listen to Tha Dogg Pound haha, it’s universal…for all occasions, you know what I’m sayin’? You got somethin’ on there for everybody.

You can’t listen to them while smashing someone!

Nah, there are some nice love songs on there…

That is not romantic!

I think it is… for me anyway, haha.

What’s the worst thing that could come on? And you didn’t realise it was on your playlist

Really, that’s hard to say. I don’t know. I try to stay far away from the worst music possible as I can, you know? Just music with no soul in it…

[Tour manager shouts “Lil Wayne!”]

Are you a fan of Lil Wayne? What do you think of his skateboarding venture?

I know the one time I saw him talk about it, he said he was passionate and I know if you’re passionate about something and you got a lotta money, you can do whatever you wanna do.

…

All you gotta do is dash in some money, then you can take over everything.

What about something really hard like gymnastics?

He could do that too, maybe not the Olympics, but he could still do it.

So if you throw enough money at anything in life?

I’m sayin’ money and passion though.

Ah, passion too…

You gotta be passionate and then if you have money it speeds it up for you ‘cos you can hire the best people to train you up. I mean, if Wayne was in the ghetto he couldn’t get a ramp and have all the best skaters come to his house and show him tricks you know? It would take you longer to learn it, so you’ll just have passion.

Agreed. So how are you liking it out here, I find the UK scene kind of deifies the American, what do you make of that?

If I was a guy from the UK and I wanted to rap, I mean, what are you really inspired by? Why do you even care if America even like you? I’m in America and I don’t even care if they like me, so why should you care? You shouldn’t try to impress the US, they don’t wanna do shit. They just know how to make everybody feel like they know how to do shit. They take their selves serious. In New York, where you guys probably look to, they take they self really serious.

Yeah? I mean, it’s also fair to say, five years ago, hip-hop didn’t have the monopoly on the charts. What changed? White kids in Britain listen to Kanye, like, it’s not even music heads anymore?

Hip-hop runs the world now man. It doesn’t really have a leader per se, but when it gets one it’s like the only thing that unifies everybody kind of. A rapper can speak to fans all over the world.

But there’s also the argument that artists like Kanye, Jay-Z and Rick Ross only make this kind of luxury rap for the one percent. Do you agree with that or is it all aspirational?

I think they do, but that’s who they are in the world. It is aspirational, but it’s not like the people who have the power to control countries, that one percent that started rich and stayed rich. It’s different.

In comparison, Chief Keef has come under a lot of flack from the media, but you could argue he’s representing people who don’t have a voice. Do you think there’s a place in the industry for him?

Honestly, people said the same thing about Eazy-E. When Eazy-E first came out he was just as shocking and far more terrifying than Chief Keef. But now people say, “Oh, he’s the Godfather”, he’s a cute lil’ pop figure now. But when he was out, people hated him. They boycotted him, but he represented, like you said, a part of society that needed to be heard and people identified with him. They say yeah, “He’s tellin’ the truth”. Ultimately, regardless of whether you like it or not, it’s the truth. That’s how that type of hip-hop is supposed to do.

Do you think it just makes people feel uncomfortable?

Definitely. They’d rather hear Maybach and the Jay-Z , that’s better than hearing Chief Keef shootin’ at the police and talkin’ crazy. It’s a lot better to hear “Niggas In Paris”. It goes down easier.

Like, it’s palatable? Speaking of that song, We did a canvas at Watch The Throne and asked some people in the queue how comfortable they were singing along to “Niggas In Paris”…

Whether they’re saying it outta context, in context. It’s whatever, I’m not saying it’s right. But it would be really stupid to be like, “you’re supposed to stop when you get to that word!” I don’t agree with it but..

Right. Back on the whole luxury rap thing, like, money, groupies…

Groupies?!

Yeah?

I’ve always been pretty OK, I never really had too many problems with women.

Oh really…

I’m a nice guy!

Ha, indeed. OK, I was going to ask, how much do you indulge in the hip-hop lifestyle then or is that just a myth?

I have drunk champagne about 40% the days this year, but that’s just what I drink. I calculated it to show you how serious I am!

Shit, doesn’t it make you feel really ill after a while? Doesn’t it make you wanna take like vitamins or supplements or something like that?

Champagne is a supplement…it’s better than vitamin C.

It gives me cotton mouth, don’t you ever wanna be like “I just wanna have some fruit”?

I do. I just had two oranges. You can still have two oranges and Hennessy and Scotch right?

I’ll try that. To wrap it up, are you going to be coming back here soon?

Yeah.

And collaborating with loads of UK artists?

Of course.

Any final words?

Young Nation Vol.1, y’all download that. TheOPMCompany.com. Obviously TheYellowAlbum.com and my new album is called “Get Home Safely”. That’s it man, but watch this space.

You wanna say “Hi” to any labels or is that a no-no?

Nah, OPM till it’s over, that’s it.

Thanks Dom!