Monday, July 9, 2012

Dom Kennedy Interview With LA Weekly

Interview by J. Pablo.

LA Weekly sat down with Dom Kennedy to discuss the Yellow Album, Maybach Music Group Rumors, Funkmaster Flex's Tupac Comments, and more. Catch a preview below and head over to LA Weekly for the full interview.
What up Dom? Top o' the morning to ya. What're you up to right now?

Just enjoying this summer and working hard promoting The Yellow Album.

Word. Let's backtrack a bit, though. On "1997," you said you wrote your first rhyme in 1997. When did you start taking it seriously?

Well, in 2008 I started actually putting out material. I had recorded material prior to that over instrumentals and stuff but I had never looked at myself as rapping as a job. In 2007 I started working on 25th Hour.

What were you doing in those ten years?

I was just enjoying life and enjoying myself. I worked at a clothing store. I wasn't any different from most kids. I was a popular kid by nature, but I was pretty regular. There are lots of kids like me to keep the balance between gang sh*t and just dressing nice and hanging with girls. How am in my music is how I am in real life, so people know its real.

How do you think you avoided the pitfalls of growing up in LA?

I played baseball in Santa Monica to get out of the inner city. My grandma lived there and my older sister went to high school there. I wanted to slow my situation down because things were crazy in my hood. It kind of worked, because being out there, it kept me pretty safe and alive and it gave me a different outlook on life. I played ball every day from the age of five to the age of 16.

...

Speaking of getting wind of something, you were pretty vocal about how Flex's [2010] comments toward Tupac didn't sit well with you. How come?

Flex, and just bigmouth people in general, love to criticize. They criticize the President; they criticize LeBron knowing they could never do what these dudes have accomplished. Sometimes the sh*t has to stop, especially when people aren't here to defend themselves. It's one thing to say it to their face. But a dude like Flex says what he says knowing he'd never say it if [Tupac] was standing there next to him. You can't just spit on a ni**a when he's dead. And Flex doesn't play my songs anyway, so I don't have the problem that other rappers have who might've wanted to say something but couldn't. I wanted him to know that I know that he'd never say sh*t about Pac if he were alive, let alone standing near him.
Read the fll interview at LA Weekly.

Rewind: Dom Kennedy - Yellow Album (Free Album)

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