Dom Kennedy – Interview (3/29/11) Speaks on The Original Dom Kennedy, From The Westside With Love II, & More

Download – The Original Dom Kennedy

Dom Kennedy has been releasing quality music for the past three years with 25th Hour, Future Street/Drug Sounds, Best After Bobby, From The Westside With Love, and his most recent project, The Original Dom Kennedy.

This latest release comes only a few months before the highly anticipated From The Westside With Love II.

HipHopAtLunch met up with Dom Kennedy at last night’s listening session to speak on the meaning behind The Original Dom Kennedy’s title and cover art, how the bonus track came about, his personal favorite song off of the project, and what we can expect to hear on From The Westside With Love II.

It’ll be interesting to hear how From The West Side With Love II turns out, as Dom said to consider it a new chapter to his story rather than a continuation of what he’s already done.

The amount of time and effort that Dom Kennedy and his team put into The Original Dom Kennedy’s cover art as well as the individual cover arts for each track is impressive!  If you missed the Saint Dominic artwork that was used to creatively promote project’s release, check it out here.

Below are the tracks that we spoke about in the interview.

Dom Kennedy – “The Homies”

Here’s Dom’s favorite track off of the The Original Dom Kennedy project, which features his real life homie, ha!  Shout out to Swiff D on the production, “The Homies” definitely has that raw West Coast feel.

Dom Kennedy – “When You See Love” [Bonus Track]

As mentioned in our interview, “When You See Love” was recorded after The Original Dom Kennedy was already mixed down.  The smooth track was too good to not use however, so it was thrown on as the bonus cut.  Shout out to Fresh Chuck on the hook!

Here’s the love song’s first verse:

“Coming live from never never land,
We out in Jamaica getting hella tan,
Adidas track pants on and wedding bands,
When you see love, just go get it fam,
She half super woman, but she down to Earth,
It’s about who have it last, not who found it first,
Them tears on the pillow is the sound of hurt,
Anytime you want to build, I’ll be down to work,
Just call my number up, gotta keep in touch,
Just tell me if it’s someone else, we gotta keep the trust,
You always focused on us girl, just keep it up,
And I’mma take you roller skating before the week is up,
I’m always on the road so we don’t speak enough,
I was told sky’s the limit so I’m reaching up,
The glow in her eyes, it just heat me up.”

I agree with Dom that this is the type of song that you can play years from now to reflect.

Dom Kennedy – “Me Again”

“Me Again” allowed Dom Kennedy to fulfill a long time goal, as he ended his critically acclaimed From The Westside With Love project by speaking words from the heart.

Skip to the 2:49 point to hear the following:

“My mind is the strongest muscle in my body,
I can make anything happen.
You just got to add a little love, a little dedication,
Give it some time and watch it grow.
Hard work can take you anywhere you want to go.
If you don’t believe nothing else you can bet on that.
Keep your head up high and never look back,
Know it’s only one person that can stop you from getting what you want and that’s yourself,
You just gotta push yourself to be the best and don’t worry bout nobody else.
Remember, theirs ain’t got nothing to do with yours.”

Those are the lines that closed out From The Westside With Love, be on the look out for From The West Side With Love II, coming soon!

Thoughts on Dom Kennedy?