Text Peter Agoston

Photo Chris Woodcock



Kirby Dominant is no simple character.

"You got a dude who grew up in the hood, sold dope, gangbanged, been shot, shot at, locked up - all that shit - all before I was 17. And then I started going to school (UC Berkeley) and getting straight A's," Kirby plainly states, abbreviating his adolescence.



The outspoken MC/producer from Oakland is an anomaly in that his decade-plus music career mirrors a similar sentiment. Kirby is illicit but articulate, with a finger on the pulse of the rich Bay Area milieu and an ear for bubbly tastemaking. On song, he's both politically-gully and fully groping of cultural taboo. In person, Kirby is contemplative and kind, with a stout build, long locks tied down his back and the mouth of a forlorn pimp devoted to settling old scores.



Planting his foot in highly active underground of a late '90s Bay scene, Kirby refined his childhood talent of freestyle on Berkeley's college radio KALX (90.7FM). Kirb found confidence to turn craft from hobby and created his debut album Rapitalism: The Philosophies of Dominant Pimpin' (Dominant, 1998). This cassette filtered its way along the West Coast and beyond and found a young Kirb introducing his brand of assertive musical politics: Part Oaktown-brand braggadocio, part Berkeley-based activism, all colored in with a pimp's paint set. Six albums later he returns with Starr: The Contemplations of a Dominator (Rapitalism) a full length some 2 years in the making. Kirby alludes to Starr's down-to-earth process being about "dealing with the topics of life... shit not so esoteric. Human emotions, basic things, like tree and cup and water and juice and food."



A humble idea in theory, but modest considering Starr follows up the devilishly-addictive Niggaz and White Girlz (Rapitalism, 2006). A marketing move for the ages, done with brash class and attitude, Niggaz - with labelmate, Chris Sinister - looped and chopped the new wave pop that molded the '80s with comically interracial sex-raps; it's hard not to laugh and love it. For Kirb, it's just another step with the times: "It [can't just] be about rhyming anymore. The public don't wanna see two niggas walkin' back and forth on stage. No one wants to see that shit. They want excitement now, it's back to some glam shit."



An intriguing difference indeed, but a calculated move to be appreciated, for his last widely distributed release Savage Intelligence found Kirb - alongside Fundamentals producer/MC King Koncepts - at his most aggressively politicized. Brandishing faux boar-snouts on the cover, Kirb is fiery on tracks like "Black Anger and "Flawless Execution."



While it was nearly 6 years between those two albums, Kirb also released full-lengths with Vancouver's Moka Only (2002's Super Future Stars) and Saskatoon producer Factor (2004's One Way Ticket) in preparation for his return to form in Starr. Vividly produced, with Kirb manning the boards mostly throughout (and contributions from Pismo, Roddy Rod, and trumpeter Roy Hargrove), Starr captures the fun of Niggaz and White Girlz along with the grab-your-throat realism of both "Savage Intelligence and Rapitalism.



On his latest he says, "I'm really trippin', because I make this stuff and I don't know who is gonna like this shit [or] what they're gonna like. I'm pacing myself because I don't feel like I'm at a peak with my music. That's one thing that keeps me grounded. A lot of people think they're there and I'm not there. Musically, we got a long way to go as rap musicians in this hip-hop world."



And experiencing him live is another story, "It's not a bunch of old fans showing up to my show, it's usually new people that never heard of me which I find great, because I feel like I'm reinventing myself. A lot of the older people that know me, they don't even know I put out six fuckin' albums since Rapitalism."



Hopefully now they do, Kirb. •



Article from RE:UP Magazine issue 13

KIRBY DOMINANT

Starr: The Contemplations of a Dominator

(Rapitalism)

In a moment when Bay Area hip-hop is synonymous with hyphy in most people's minds, it's radio-shock savvy of Kirby Dominant to throw down a solo effort that follows no trends while his Niggaz and White Girlz project with Chris Sinister continues to generate word of mouth. Though its cover art features the same fuchsia hues of Niggaz and White Girlz — according to the man himself, fuchsia is the current signature color of the Rapitalism label — there is no denying that Starr: The Contemplations of a Dominator finds its creator on what he's described as "some Jack Pollock shit," throwing different ideas and sounds at your head and seeing what sticks.

The first thing that does is the leadoff track, "Shenanigans," on which Dominator taps into an Irish atmosphere derived from time spent in Saskatchewan — but make no mistake, the guitar riff–driven result is no Leprechaun in the Hood pure silliness, and he steps far outside any record collection you'd find in a house of pain. Tapping into various space scientist and chemist cadences (much like Kool Keith in Dr. Octagon mode) to formulate what he deems musical style number 1,576,384,979, Dominant mocks faux producers with no range and knowledge, informing them that "Gil Evans would stab your ass with a toothbrush."

From there he journeys through the warm soul of the title track, lowering a voice that can be as mischievous as early Q-Tip in order to target MCs with no vocabulary whose rhymes are "fermentin' like orange juice in prison." Going "solo like a nigga at the rodeo," he moves through "Come Outside" to a rock jam coda and then pays tribute to homegirl Joni Mitchell during "The Power of Stephen Padmore's Shirt." On "So Right" he even gets so loose mentally that he turns instrumental, collaborating with Roy Hargrove to create a trumpet-inflected epic. In the near future Dominant plans to spread the new wave thuggin' gospel further with Bloody Tuxedos, and he's even venturing into classical music with Ensemble Mik Nawooj. Starr proves his wild wordplay can comfortably occupy and redesign any space between those wildly different zones.

Link to review

Wassup, ya'll! Finally what you've been waitin for...another album from your boy Kirby D. Yes, it's been awhile and hopefully you'll think it's worth the wait. My highly-anticipated album titled "Starr: The Contemplations of a Dominator" will be available for all you players and playettes on November 14th. It features A-Plus of Hiero, Pismo, up-and-coming Canadian MC Ishkan, and Grammy Award Winning trumpeter Roy Hargrove. If you're lucky and are able to cop it early you'll be able to get my free bonus DVD which has all kinds of things for you to love. So there it is...Kirby Dominant's sophomore effort for you. It's goin down. Holla.