Released on December 7, 1993,
via Outburst Records.
Who remembers Domino today? Probably not many people.
And yet, back in the day, after appearing under the name Genuine Draft on the infamous Bangin’ On Wax by Bloods & Crips, the Long Beach rapper scored a major hit during the eventful year of 1993. “Geto Jam” – later name-checked by both Biggie and Jay-Z – became a defining track of the era. It was followed by another successful single, “Sweet Potatoe Pie,” and a well-received self-titled debut album.
Shawn Antoine Ivy’s recording career began in close association with the two rival gangs (he himself was affiliated with the Crips). Musically, however, his work leaned toward the laid-back side of gangsta rap. The man who introduces himself on the opening track, “Diggady Domino,” comes across as a carefree party lover.
Above all else, Domino is preoccupied with sex, approaching the subject from several angles. He raps about voluptuous women on “A.F.D.” (“Ass For Days”), about underage girls who lie about their age to deceive men on “Do You Qualify?”, and about the importance of wearing condoms on “Raincoat” (incidentally, he would later take part in the AIDS awareness project America Is Dying Slowly). The album’s other major theme, often intertwined with its focus on women, is the good life (“Geto Jam,” “Jam,” “Sweet Potatoe Pie”). He also reflects on the cash – that rules everything around him – on “Money Is Everything” and pays tribute to his hometown roots on “Long Beach Thang.”
Domino is sun-drenched gangsta rap, with a loose, occasionally jolting flow, heavy basslines, and buzzing synths – the stuff g-funk was made back then. It’s also one more step, for California rap, toward ever more sweetness, more melody. Met through the Bloods & Crips venture, producer DJ Battlecat crafts him delicate settings carved from samples of George Benson, Sly Stone, Teddy Pendergrass, and Kool & the Gang. And then there’s Domino’s vocal style. Like many African Americans, he was trained in church choirs, and he also spent time around Nate Dogg. And like Nate Dogg, he’s smooth, and he breaks into song. The hit “Geto Jam” is the most striking illustration of this, delivered throughout in a sweetly sung-spoken rap.
Aside from “That’s Real” – the rather underwhelming closing track, produced and co-performed by AMG – the album was, and remains, an immensely enjoyable listen. In many ways, Domino serves as the missing link between Snoop Dogg’s debut and Warren G’s first album. But in 1993, California rap, like the genre as a whole, was overflowing with talent. It was the biggest heavyweights that ultimately remained etched in people’s memories.
