HNHH presents "The Damon Campbell Show," in which our interviewer, Damon Campbell, conduct in-depth interviews with Hip-Hop artists. For the first segment, we have Skeme and Dom Kennedy in the seats to talk about their background and their current musical projects, while Dom kicks off his first show for the "Get Home Safely" tour in Detroit.
Starting off the interview, Damon asks Dom about rapping Karaoke into his little sister's tape recorder, way back when.
"I did a little bit, you know what I mean? When I was a real young guy, yet that was the easiest way to hear yourself." Dom says. "To hear yourself back."
And that is similar to how Skeme got his start as well, seeing as he had so many songs memorized.
"Yeah, mine started with my pops being kind mean, [for lack of] a better word for it," Skeme reveals, "He was like, 'Man, you remember so many songs down, why don't you start making your own.' And then we started making our own."
Dom Kennedy then spoke up about bootlegging 2pac's 7 Day Theory, saying, "It was that and the Mo Thugs compilation... We would sell them at school to people for like... You know, whatever - I wasn't trying to make no money, I was just trying to get people to listen to it."
Although Dom was able to make money back in the day, as it is revealed his first neighborhood nickname was Easy Money. But now he is headlining his own tour, the "Get Home Safely" tour - the name being a tribute to his late friend. But, as Damon points out, it is also important to leave home safely, mentioning an old incident where Dom crashed a Cadillac into his garage when he was little, to Dom's surprise.
"Yeah, that's old. That's a real, like, family throwback story," Dom says, laughing. "One of my great Aunts[...] I guess, I was probably four years old, and jumped into the car and hit the gas and sat on the gas pedal and it went into the garage."
The two then detail their first time working together, over an "Ice Cream Paint Job" instrumental, at a pool party. Of this, Skeme says:
"I'll never forget that[...] It was at a JBC lil' pool party, they threw cool little parties over the summer I wasn't at, so they had a little party over at the Roosevelt hotel and I remember seeing [Dom], I feel like was [Dom] and I feel like it was Carter with you[...] and they sent me a little joint." Dom says. "I was probably, like, eighteen or seventeen at the time."
Damon than asks Skeme about an incident involving his Grandpa pulling a gun on Marvin Gaye, to his considerable surprise.
"So, this what happened," says a laughing Skeme. He then relates a story about his Grandfather's friend, named Sugar Grey, who with his buddy were among the most well-liked "motorcycle guys" in the city. They would all put together race cars in the city. One day when playing dominos in front of his shop. His Grandfather then noticed a man screaming "That's the fuck why you can't finish my bike, 'cause you fuckin' around with these Dominos." His grandfather then "reached under the table," before realizing the man was Marvin Gaye.
Check out the exclusive, illuminating full interview below.