by Alex Shtaerman
Haling from South Jamaica, Queens, Domination rose through the same struggle that six years ago claimed the life of his cousin. On March 28th, 1999 Freaky Tah was gunned down early Sunday morning while leaving a party at the Sheraton Hotel in Jamaica, Queens. He was only 28 years old. As a core member of the Lost Boyz, Tah helped nurture his younger cousin’s ability to rhyme by encouraging the boy to practice his craft and battle other MCs in the neighborhood. On September 20th, 2005 Domination, now 23, dropped his long awaited debut album God Giveth God Taketh Away. Working closely with Bang Em, who is presently incarcerated until 2007 and does not rap on the album, Domination touches on topics ranging from police brutality and black on black violence to family values and domestic strife. Kurupt and Tone drop in on the infectious first single Stay Down.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Your album just dropped God Giveth God Taketh Away; as Bang Em is presently incarcerated on a weapons change, has it been hard going through the whole process of releasing the album at a time when Bang Em can’t be a part of it? Do you miss him being here to see your work come to fruition?
DOMINATION: Definitely, I miss him being there but he still has the influence on the album. I speak to him every day and I go see him every week, so it’s like he’s still here in spirit. But, yea definitely, him not being here in the physical form definitely plays a part in it. I have to do much of the running around and whatnot but I think its just part of the grind and god wouldn’t put something on my shoulders that he knew I couldn’t handle.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You are Freaky Tah’s cousin; Bang Em was the one who pushed you to take music more seriously, what role did Tah play?
DOMINATION: Tah inspired me man, Tah came from the same struggle I came from so he showed me that I could really do it. Tah always used to tell me “yo, go in the studio, get in the studio and let’s do it”. I used to freestyle on the block and Tah used to have me battling grown cats. I’m 23 now so Tah woulda been about 34, 35 right now, he died when he was 28. So he was older than me and people who was his age that were his colleagues and his peers, he had me battling them in the Chinese Restaurant and whatnot.
Me and my dude Marty, we used to battle people and I had this one rap where I said “nigga” after every word like – You hype nigga / Scared to fight nigga / Talk about you stole a car / You wouldn’t stole a bike nigga. And I was young at that time and [I remember] Tah retorted with the words “That’s hot nigga / Put it on tape nigga / Don’t be late nigga” [laughs]. So you know, he was always pushing me to go [to the studio] but I was never taking it serious, I was on the block and I was doing school also. That’s the things I was into and I really wasn’t taking rap seriously, I didn’t know I could make a career out of this.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Do you keep in contact with the remaining members of the Lost Boyz?
DOMINATION: Yea I see Cheeks and Lou; the Cheeks relationship is just being repaired right now, I had a little bit of bad feelings towards him after Tah died but all of that is put to the side now. I see Cheeks in the park all the time and I see Lou in the park all the time. Lou came out to my video shoot that I did on Freaky Tah day, it was for a song dedicated to Tah called When You Was Down and you can get it off the free DVD that we gonna be giving out.
RIOTSOUND.COM: What’s the tone and feel of the new album like; you pride yourself on being able to address many different subjects through music, what were some of the things you incorporated with this record?
DOMINATION: One thing I touched on was police brutality, from Amadu Dialo to Rodney King, I addressed that and [went as far] to even address our own people and let them know that what we doing is senseless, killing each other and whatnot. I also address a situation between me and a young lady, or anybody and a young lady, that [you] don’t go out with but do all the things that lovers do. And the song is called We Just Friends so all the ladies will understand that sometimes you don’t have to be in a relationship to have a good time with a guy.
I also did a song for my mother, you know I got a lot of love for my moms. [I just wanted to let her know] that I loved her and even though I have done a lot of wrong she stuck by me through all of that. And off course I got the gangsta shit for the gangsters [laughs]. Also I got another song for women who are in a domestic violence situation to let them know that it won’t stop and they gotta do whatever is within they power to escape that situation.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You got Kurupt and Tone on your first single Stay Down; that collaboration works really well, how did it come about?
DOMINATION: Its been rumored that we’ve been messing with Death Row for a while; we’ve been in communications with Death Row before we signed to Koch. We had love for Death Row and we were actually going to sign over with Death Row but Suge was incarcerated at the time and we just signed to Koch but we still wanted to work with Death Row artists. So it wasn’t a problem, Kurupt expressed interest in working with us and we expressed interest in working with Kurupt, so we just put it together. We flew out to the west coast and we had a good time, we had a ball.
RIOTSOUND.COM: A lot of people know you for your beef with G-Unit; on the flip side of that situation, G-Unit has become known for making mostly commercial sounding music. You seem like you want to make music on a different level than just for the club and the radio, do you sometimes worry people will group you into the style of music G-Unit is known for because they may only know you from the beef situation and Bang Em’s former G-Unit ties?
DOMINATION: Not really because if you listen to my music, I don’t sound anything like them.
RIOTSOUND.COM: But what about people who haven’t had a chance to hear your music, do you think they are going to make assumptions and think you sound like G-Unit?
DOMINATION: Yea they’re gonna think that, they’re definitely going to think that but you know God Giveth God Taketh Away will clear us all the speculations.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You only got one track on God Giveth God Taketh Away that addresses the G-Unit situation; at the end of the day do you want to move past this beef or do you see the verbal sparking continuing into the future?
DOMINATION: No, I want to move past it, I don’t want to stay stuck on this beef. It could never be resolved, we could never be friends again but we could definitely look past this beef, definitely so. And that’s what I want to do, look past this beef.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Your new label is called Gangsta Flip Records, what are your plans for the future as far as the label goes?
DOMINATION: With Gangsta Flip Records we got a 60/40 split with Koch Entertainment and we looking into putting out other artists besides myself. Right now we looking to put out our artist Young Dice. Young Dice is a really talented fifteen year old boy and he’s really learning the ins and outs of what we trying to teach him right now. So he’s gonna be up next. Other than that Gangsta Flip is also involved with Gangsta Flip Rims, we have a rim company as well as our Trees Wraps, which is something to roll your blunt up in. We trying to put our hands in everything.
RIOTSOUND.COM: How did the ventures into rims and blunt wraps come about?
DOMINATION: The companies that were doing it, they needed help so they involved us within their situations. They gave us a part of their company and we love them for that. They was like we got this situation come rock with it, and we was with it. We was like “fo’ sure, you giving us a piece of a company and all we gotta do is promote it?” So that’s our company and we’re part bosses in the company, we have the say so in how the design is and we give a yes or no if we like it or not and [decide] how we going to do it.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You mentioned that you talk to Bang Em every day, what has he been saying to you as your album hits stores this week?
DOMINATION: He said “we ’bout to be rich” [laughs], that’s what he said. I tell him I know that, fo’ sure, definitely; we definitely about to be rich. I’m about to get a stretch Phantom to bring him home in. That’s what I’m trying to get – try to have him established, a nice house with a bathroom in every room like the Holiday Inn; I’m trying to have him looking good.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You got God Giveth God Taketh Away in stores, what else should the fans be looking out for as far as Bang Em and Domination?
DOMINATION: As far as us, just look out for the rim company, Trees Wraps and more entrepreneur shit. Look at us to be grinding and to give back to the community, definitely. When we can we’ll throw out bus trips and whatnot, we’ll give out toys on the holidays, things like that. Anything that we can do to help, we here.
RIOTSOUND.COM: What’s the number one thing you want someone reading this to know about your music?
DOMINATION: I make real music for real people in real situations. My music expresses the normal person, it’s not just a gangster vibe; it’s for normal people that can relate to everything I say. People get mad, people show emotions, sometimes people get sad, then at times people are happy, other times people are depressed and my music explains all of that and my music can help uplift those people who are feeling any one of those emotions.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Is there anything else the fans should know?
DOMINATION: Free Bang Em Smurf, check out GFRecords.com and definitely pick up the album God Giveth God Taketh Away September 20th.
For all news and info on Bang Em and Domination stay tuned to www.GFRecords.com
Comments