Domo Genesis - Genesis

Domo Genesis
Genesis
2016
Spotify

The promise of the hip hop collective Odd Future was always a bit more high minded than it was reality. They saw themselves as changing the game completely, predicting a wave of new sounds and creativity. However it has been much more of a glacial process, slowly chipping away at the hip hop establishment and in terms of Tyler the Creator even becoming part of it. Odd Future's mission however is realized in Domo Genesis' debut record Genesis. It has been six years since this album was started and that time spent is really evident from the first second. The tracks are extremely tight and for an underground record the production is surprisingly well done. What we get is an underground album that should sound muddled and be more focused on the lyrics, but everything is important to Domo Genesis, so everything is treated with the same respect. "Dapper" which features Anderson .paak is a complete revelation, and if the album was full of these songs it would be a sure fire hit. That being said however the aesthetic is not really all that different from other underground records of the past. The sounds are almost the same, the pace is almost the same and what you loose is Domo's killer flow because you feel like you have heard this before many times. The inclusion of a collect call from jail on "Questions" is not only unnecessary but it has been done so many times over so many albums that it feels at best artistically bankrupt.

The features on the album are quite crazy as well. Everyone from JMSN to Mac Miller Genesis brings in all types. One of the highlights is "Go (Gas)" which features Wiz Khalifa actually being awake through a song and it ends up being one of the highlights of the album. You would think that everything that needs to be said about weed has been said, but this song really works. What is really great about the record though is Genesis' storytelling. He paints this really vivid picture every time he steps up to the mic, and you cannot help but be enraptured by it. "Coming Back" a track featuring Mac Miller is one of the best examples of this where Domo Genesis absolutely takes over and makes the story his own. Mac Miller's contribution is really just singing the chorus, but he manages to input his personality on the song. There are moments like on "Faded in the Moment" where Genesis almost slides in to the Chance the Rapper Hip Hop Gospel style, but He hangs back and doesn't allow himself to fully fall in to that sound like Chance did. What Domo Genesis does on this record is give you a look into his soul and His raps are so dense that it takes a lot more than a couple paragrpahs to really dig in to. While the casual hip hop fan might not really be willing to dig into this record for the true believers this is the record they have long waited for.

7.1 out of 10