Review Summary: Dom Kennedy fails to excite with new mixtape
Dom Kennedy, the progeny of regional West Coast rap, has always been the new voice of an old school paradigm. In all his releases he stayed faithful to the essence of what the westside had been built upon, which is the laidback, sun filled, cool days of pool parties and cruising down the boulevard. He channeled this in his music. Except with
Best After Bobby Two this is the first time Dom Kennedy has actually disappointed and where his signature sound has lost its edge.
Where his previous projects were fun mixtures of hazy grooves and details of Dom’s life around L.A.,
Best After Bobby Two is one long gradual burn of g-funk sounds and mumbling vocals. This mixtape is boring. Most of the songs on the mixtape seem to blur into one another, without one song having the ability to fully create excitement or anything new that the listener has experienced before. There are a few occasions where sonically Dom manages to capture the listener’s attention but never takes advantage of that opportunity. One case is the track “Stop Frontin” where a funky Pharrell beat is used, creating anticipation for such an interesting selection from the rapper but Dom’s rapping is forgettable, his vocals never really connecting. This occurred a track earlier on the “The Last Episode,” a tribute to the west coast classic yet Dom once again fails to embody the beat of “Nothin’ But a G Thang” nor is he able to match the rolling funk of Dr. Dre’s “Let Me Ride.” In fact Dom feels rushed making his rapping seem a little odd and jumbled. The same happens on “Pressure” where “Temptations” by 2pac is used as the instrumental. At first glance it would seem like a tribute for a rapper who’s deeply embedded in the westside music tradition except by now this was already fully established making his efforts seem secondhand, inferior to the masters Dom has studied. Nor does he manage to add anything new.
His inability to spark any combustible excitement seems a recurrent pattern marring all of the songs on
Best After Bobby Two. Dom has always had a conversational delivery and at its worst his music becomes background noise. This is the main problem with the mixtape as Dom fails to deliver lyrics with any rhythm or flare, making it sound like one large laborious monologue. Usually Dom makes his vocals seem effortless, always managing to flow with his instrumentals yet this time around he sounds bored and just uninterested in what he’s saying. Once the mixtape winds down, there is nothing memorable or any lasting imprint of what Dom Kennedy tried to articulate. And what he tried to articulate doesn't stray that far from he's already said ten times better on other songs.
In one skit early in the album Dom proclaims that this surprise mixtape was for the fans and surely this project would generate initial excitement but ultimately
Best After Bobby Two is a disappointment. Where so much talent had been shown on his previous efforts, this tape feels rushed and lazy, lacking any cohesive satisfaction in any of its components. In all honesty, this mixtape is not worth the time and it makes one wonder why Dom would release this project in this condition in the first place.
Best After Bobby Two will hopefully become a footnote to Dom Kennedy’s sound, not a requiem for the man living his life under the California sun.
