Domo Genesis – Rolling Papers Album Review [REVIEW] [HIP-HOP]

Rolling Papers, believe it or not, was released only three years ago. Three years is hardly enough time to dub something as archaic. But given the fast pace at which the Hip-Hop genre morphs and evolves, I’d venture to guess that a good chunk of the current OF fanbase would agree with this rather unflattering description. Three years is a long time. Remember – three years ago nobody knew what a ‘Molly’ was. Hip-Hop’s most favorite drug of choice at the moment had not hit the streets yet. If you wanted to craft a ballad espousing the merits of a lifestyle revolving around recreational drugs, you were pretty much restricted to marijuana. If you were to undertake the same mission now you’d have an entire cocktail of dubious, questionable drugs to choose from. Witness the debacle that Ross’ footed himself in after U.O.E.N.O came out. Had the song came out three years ago, I guarantee you, nobody would have batted an eye. It’s ridiculous.

The name Rolling Papers even, as far as I know, had not been the tinder box it is today. It had not been appropriated by Wiz Khalifa yet. An event that would unbeknownst to [Wiz Khalifa] precipitate an argument between him and OF’s resident pothead, Domo not too long thereafter. But even with this rift in time, newer OF fans may be surprised to know that Rolling Papers was not even a perfect encapsulation of what rap was in 2010. On the contrary, at the time of its release, it was just a tiny blip in the hip-hop radar. A mere ripple in the general progression of the genre. It was not the genre-bending, high-water-mark of creative achievement that Bastard, or even Earl was shaping up to be. It was rather, an intimation of what the future held for the group. What the future held for Domo Genesis in particular. A person who we scarcely knew about and who’s profane and cavalier pretty boy persona contrasted sharply with the juvenile one cultivated by his younger WOLF GANG pack mates.

Unsurprisingly though, Rolling Paper’s production places it firmly in the ‘Bastard’ era. Tyler’s menacing compositions still drip with the same angst that permeated the songs on Bastard. As a showcase for Tyler’s stellar work, Rolling Papers is just as fitting as any of the more recognized OF heavyweights. The best beats in Rolling Papers go toe to toe with those of Earl and Bastard. So at least in that regard, Rolling Paper’s relative merit is assured.

But even with these seemingly self-evident facts, we still can’t deny that Rolling Papers has made far less noise in the public sphere than its sister albums Earl and Bastard. A fact which is I dare say, quite peculiar. Rolling Papers is a great album, criminally underrated. When it comes to the OF solo projects, I would not be so forward as to rank Rolling Papers at the absolute top, but if I had to construct a full-on hierarchy I’d probably have it up there somewhere.

Indeed, only an infinitesimal amount of issues chip away at Rolling Papers’ ranking. It is only a few rings shy of acquiring the coveted ‘classic’ title. I will try to the best of my ability to address these issues in the review. Looking at my previous entries, I can see that my clarity leaves much to be desired as does my ability to stay on topic. I do admit that I do have a penchant for digressions and do tend to get mired them – perhaps too many times to my detriment. For that I’d like to apologize to my readers. This time around I’ll try to be short, brief and relevant. So I urge the reader to bear with me!

1) First Roll

There’s really not a lot that can be said about this ‘track’. It spans a mere 20 seconds and the lyrics are terse. So terse in fact that I’ll throw all good form out the window and risk a superlative. The lyrics are Very Very Terse.

What up biatch?

Nigga, Smoke.

Just 5 words. Really I’m not making this up. And also, unlike one sparse intro that comes to mind (hint hint Wolf), this one is not particularly flavorful or ‘bobyahead’ worthy. How unfortunate. But First Roll’s role as a teaser is manifest. Let me not dilly dally here for too long as it would be insulting to both Tyler’s and Domo’s intelligence. Let us move on. The next track in the Rolling Papers playlist is none other than 3 – 2 – 1 …

2) Buzzin’

The title ‘Buzzin’ is a decent approximation of the song’s actual content. It also serves as a good onomatopoeic representation of the song’s sonic virtues. The beat is quite ‘buzzing’. It is not particularly representative of that Tyler -it- factor that has caused many to hail him as the chosen one, but it still has a nice thump to it. In a bid to make up for the album’s rather uninspiring intro, Domo of course comes out full force. He airs out a bevy of semi-incoherent, marijuana-tinged bars. Tyler also ventures to rap, but his input is well – dare I say – hypocritical?

Tyler has had no shame in admitting the fact that he is straight edge. Straight edge is, I believe, a term that was added to the English lexicon via the Punk Movement. It’s a term used to denote a drug free lifestyle. Let me just set this straight before people start pouring gas on this review. I have no issue with Straight Edgers. You don’t want to do drugs? Sounds good. More power to you. Moreover, Tyler’s life is his. If he has no interest in drugs of any sort then that’s certainly his prerogative. Under normal circumstances I’d just leave the issue there. However, the circumstances surrounding this song are anything but ‘normal’. You see, despite his purportedly Straight Edge lifestyle, Tyler’s had no shame in rapping about doing hardcore drugs. When I say this, I’m of course referring to this song in particular. There are also a couple of other similar songs he’s released in the past that have skirted around the issue of drugs as well (i.e. Blow) but for brevity purposes I’ll confine the discussion to Buzzin’. Honestly, it would have helped if Tyler was trolling in these songs. That would have made him more redeemable. The problem is he really wasn’t. Tyler’s conflation of these two utterly irreconcilable lifestyle choices has on the whole been very lacking and juvenile to boot. It calls to mind, the scandal that Rick Ross surrounded himself in, that time the Hip-Hop world unearthed shots of him serving as a security guard (aka Officer Ricky). It was a very difficult time for Ross. Certainly, Rick Ross’ decision to address the scandal im propria persona played a role in bringing about his downfall. However, I think it was the base hypocrisy and the intricate web of lies that he willingly snaked around himself that finally did him in. Tyler’s of course much too loved and too frank to solicit that same sort of fury, but if he keeps this up there’s no telling how the Hip-Hop world will react.

3) Domier

Domier is one of only three songs produced by Left Brain in Rolling Papers. This fact did not impress itself on my mind as such because the atmosphere generated by Domier’s production is none-too different from that generated by Tyler’s production this far into the album. Lyrics-wise, Domo stays true to the previous song’s theme. He continues unwinding the thick and heavy spool of glitz that he’d only just started working on in Buzzin’. And when I say glitz I’m talking GLITZ. The whole shebang; drugs, sex and money. Domo Genesis is far from being the most diverse group member in OF (as far as his ‘subject matter’ is concerned) but the subject areas in which he tends to stray in in his raps – namely, weed, sex and ‘gwap’ – are areas in which he ranks supreme. A top class song in my book.

4) Rolling Papers

In Rolling Papers, Domo explores the theme of drugs even more fully than in Domier (see a trend here?). Tyler also ventures outside the production end of the creative process and raps again. The title is as good an indicator as any on the song’s subject matter. It’s the same old, same old. Tyler espouses all the wonderful merits of recreational drug use. Domier keeps unwinding that spool of his, weaving the never-ending thread into a complex (and rather monotone) tapestry. In the background we’ve got Tyler’s thoroughly hypnotic production; it is this hypnotic, drug-induced bombast that more than anything else, makes Rolling Papers stand out from its peers.

5) Dreams

Domo strays away from his mainstay just a tiny bit in this one. Domo refrains from doing the ‘hardcore flexin’ he usually does. Like many an adventurous rapper before him, he muses on the illusive aspects of reality. He addresses the smoke-and-mirrors illusions that is life and gets a try at the many paradoxes that encumber our daily existence. The beat provided courtesy of Tyler fits the tone of the song perfectly. Dreams is not too long, just over one minute, but its creative virtues grossly overshadow and compensate for its short length.

6) Cap N Crunch

Similar to Dreams, Cap N Crunch also errs on the short side. Its production is also vaguely familiar to that of Dreams. Cap N Crunch therefore bleeds into its predecessor in these two respects. For the listener who probably out of fatigue may fail to perceive a break in between the two, a feeling of inadvertently walking into a tight, uneasy melange may probably envelope him/her at this point. But let me not completely rob this song of its identity. I said that the production is familiar to Dreams. That’s true, but not wholly so. In Cap N Crunch Tyler borrows the previous song’s template but adds a bit more excitement to it. There’s synthesizers galore. The synthesizers gives the song a gritty 70s disco feeling. And as for Domo Genesis, he goes back to flexing his microphone holding arm but he does so with renewed vigour. He ‘kills’ the song both literally and figuratively. He references Ted Bundy, gives compliments to Zac Effron and warns every other rapper to stay away from him.  He’s a ‘serial-killer’, he says, and when faced with danger he is liable to ‘Cap N ‘Crunch’ his enemies/detractors. Get it? A fantastic pun this, that ends the song on a high note.

7) Steamroller

It is an irrefutable fact, amongst OF fans, and general hip-hop fans at large that Rolling Papers reaches its apogee in SteamRoller. There’s a variety of reasons why. For one, SteamRoller is a posse cut in every sense of the word. It has more of an eclectic cast than any other song in the album. It marks the first induction of Hodgy Beats into the album. Tyler jazzes us all with one fantastic ass beat. Finally, Frank Ocean’s vocals right at the end are absolutely beautiful, like a warm tide, lapping on the shores of a deserted beach. Another reason for why many have marked it as being THE song in Rolling Papers could be that following its termination, the album’s sense of cohesion starts to unravel. Given our always human need to pigeon-hole important events into clearly definable boxes of division, I’d venture to guess that SteamRoller serves as good a ‘box’ or ‘summit’ as any for most listeners to prop a flag in and declare a victory: “Like, yea, this is where the album peaked … ” At any rate, even if SteamRollers’s status can be disputed at a philosophical level, the vast majority of hip-hoppers out there still consider its status to be an objective, almost scientific fact. If you’re a skeptic then this song deserves your utmost attention. Why? It could be because your motives are pernicious (you want to thoroughly debunk it) or because its peculiar qualities have attracted your curiosity. Just listen to it. I guarantee you, you’ll be hooked the first two seconds in.

8) Kickin It

In Kickin It, Domo Genesis brings to the forefront the conflicts that typically arise when males and females interact platonically (aka ‘Kick It’). Domo doesn’t beat around the bush in this one. The conviction and sheer sincerity in his voice more than makes up for the song’s short duration and Domo’s somewhat uninspired delivery. Domo’s credo is one that everybody’s aware of and has heard. It’s as old as time itself. It’s ever evolving nature has caused it to materialize in a wide variety of forms. However, its core meaning always remains the same. ‘Smash & Dash’ / ‘Smash & Trash’ / ‘Fuck & Duck’. These expressions are part of every school-boy’s lexicon. Every male alpha-to-be knows these sound precepts by heart and recites them at night during bedtime.

Perhaps a couple of pertinent sound bites from the song will more properly illustrate this school of thought:

No love involved, she know niggas just kickin’ it

I mean, we ain’t gotta do nothing risky, we just kickin’ it

The production in this song is handled by Tyler. It is quite peculiar and doesn’t have the typical chords and synths that Tyler always likes to use. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its own merits however. If I had to rank the production in Rolling Papers I’d probably put Kickin It at 2nd best or 3rd best at worst. The beat is very strange and experimental. It doesn’t follow any prescribed ‘Tyler’ formula and perhaps that’s what makes it so attractive. It’s quite unfortunate that Tyler never fully explored the sounds he was only starting to develop here.

9) Supermarket

The premise behind Supermarket is a bit ridiculous. In fact I would say it is THE most humorous (& creative) song in the album by virtue of its premise alone. Basically it goes like this. Domo’s standing in line at the local ‘Supermarket’. Tyler comes into the store. In typical Tyler-attention-whoring fashion, Tyler causes a spectacle. How? He cuts the line. Domo, high and probably out of weed, takes a strong dislike to this turn of events and proceeds to call Tyler out, in a none-too friendly fashion. Tyler responds in kind. As the bewildered Supermarket patrons start to disperse, Tyler and Domo duke it out. In a hilarious string of back and forths the listener is treated to a bevy of funny metaphors, double-entendres and Star Wars references. Quite a lot actually. The ones that left the biggest impression on my delible intellect include:

Don’t make me shoot up this place with light sabers and guns (Tyler, The Creator)

I’m a fucking ninja, and a jedi, and I’m from Compton (Tyler, The Creator)

If you’re the type that tends to zone out when listening to albums, then I’ll just say this: Don’t zone out when this song comes on. Pay attention to the lyrics. YOU WILL BE ENTERTAINED. Seriously.

10) Drunk

In the wake of my feverish advocacy for Steamroller, I mistakenly dubbed it THE posse cut of the album. Well that claim was wrong. ‘Posse cut’ in its strictest definition restricts participation to four or more rappers. Steamroller had four different and unique minds in its roster, but some of the participants only had terse input on the rap side of things (Tyler). In Drunk we also have four people dropping a verse. But these verses aren’t mere five-word, let’s learn our A-B-Cs 1-2 syllable verses; they are more extensive and have greater substance. Mike G makes his first and only appearance in the album here. The themes and subjects professed in the song, correlate strongly to the title. Domo, Mike, Hodgy and Tyler express their own individual takes on inebriation, it’s virtues (which going by the general tone of the song seem to be many) and associated vices. The production, is again handled by the Tyler The Creator. Tyler has gone on to state that Drunk, may perhaps be the best beat he’s ever made. While I’m at odds with this rather spurious claim, I can certainly see the reasoning behind it. In terms of sheer artistic merit, both in the production and in the raps, Drunk is definitely up there with the big boys.

11) Clear Eyes

The set up to Clear Eyes is kind of interesting. In a lot of ways it harks back to the classic ‘running-dialogue’ type tracks of the 90s (think Biggie’s Suicidal Thoughts). These were the songs where we had the main rapper engaging in dialogue with another individual (usually through a phone) and where driblets of conversation sometimes bled seamlessly into the song – so seamlessly in fact that the song itself had the feel of being an interlude instead of it being an actual core track. Other than Suicidal Thoughts there’s also another old Cam’ron song that I used to love whose plot-line followed a similar thread but its name escapes me right now. At any rate, Clear Eyes travels these same worn out thoroughfares. In it we have Tyler banging on a door (supposedly) leading in to Domo’s room. All the while Domo talks, or raps; half to himself and half to Tyler. He mostly talks about the positives and negatives of sobering up (hence ‘Clear Eyes). At the end Tyler gains access to Domo’s room. Luckily he finds that his friend is safe. The latter event renders the song incongruous with it’s predecessors (remember that Biggie ‘died’ at the end of Suicidal Thoughts).

12) Basic Bitch

In track 12, Hodgy & Domo, discuss the many oddities and idiosyncrasies  of the vapid, ‘Basic Bitches’ they encounter regularly. This is one particular species of female that hasn’t been discussed at all in any OF projects. For Domo especially, there’s a manifest, almost tangible air of resignation (annoyance too) in his voice.

I ain’t got love for them only bout the grind

Hodgy too, doesn’t ‘hold any love’ for ‘basic bitches’ either.

Same old, same old, bitch you’s a lame old

Hodgy and Domo have both clearly had one too many terrible experiences with dumb, gold-digging ‘basic bitches’. Left Brain crafted the beat in this track. Unlike the first track he produced in Rolling Papers (Domier) this one has a less ‘Tyler’ and more ‘Left Brain’ feel to it. It lacks elaboration, and is much less ornate than any of the production in the first half of the album. However this works to the song’s benefit. Somehow, the subject matter lends itself well to the sparse and discordant thumps of Left Brain’s hollow beat.

13) Last Roll

Rolling Papers reaches its denouement in Last Roll. While this song spans four whole minutes, the actual rapping doesn’t start until the halfway point. The first two and a half minutes are taken up by Bob Marley talking some shpeel about weed and some other arcane stuff. His lingo and harsh accent make what he is trying to say a bit difficult to catch. Domo Genesis takes up the last half. He raps with less vigor than he’s put forth in any of the previous song (probably because it’s the ‘Last Roll’). The production is credited to Tyler. It should be noted that Tyler did not compose the beat himself. He sampled it. He also didn’t add any elaboration to the original sampled song by way of his keyboard. He basically just took the song and slathered Domo’s raspy voice onto it. This habit of self-producing every track in an album except for the last is one that he would repeat later on in various projects. In Wolf for instance, Tyler does the exact same thing for the last track, Lone.

7 droopy reefer joints out of 10