by Dan-O

I really felt like Little Dominiques Nosebleed was too much. I was especially intimidated when I found out that The Koreatown Oddity had produced it all himself. It wasn’t until my third listen I realized that it feels like too much on purpose. Five of the sixteen songs have multiple guests. Attention Challenge features Swift, Skyler Duf, Fatlip, Giovanni Marks, Nita Darling, Corrine Atkinson and someone who just goes by the name Lewis! Imagine making your debut under the wholly unsearchable rap name LEWIS!?!

No matter how many times I listen and follow the narrative of his childhood through the car accidents that mess up health and functionality in his nose I never feel like I get it all. I have relaxed. One of the very smart people I follow online said it is like an old De La Soul album with chunks of music, vignettes that shade the whole(this might have been one of the DadBodRapPod people but my memory is bad). Have I talked to you about how spectacular these features are? Baby Rose, Sudan Archives, Anna Wise, Jimetta Rose, too many well sung hooks to even mention.

No Llores is a track to study. Layers of hypnotic hooks some gruff some smooth create a hypnotic chanting effect that lulled my cat into a false sense of security. The end of the song erupts in jagged boom bap noise that sent my cat’s ears and eyes wide open ready to defend this house. This is purposeful (not that Koreatown Oddity is pranking my cat) in the sense that Little Dominiques Nosebleed knows it is an old album. This is highly autobiographical down to him explaining he was born in 1984 (Kimchi). All the music reflects the dope ish he and I grew up on. He wants to talk about blowing on NES cartridges and listening to Just Ice (my wholly irrational favorite lyrical moment is at the end of the gloriously nostalgic Ginkabiloba where Koreatown Oddity says “Redd Foxx you big dummy/ Lamont got quotes” because the instant he said it I heard Redd Foxx’s voice calling me a big dummy, Redd Foxx is in that song for me) but he doesn’t want to soft serve you the friendly boom bap you imagine you grew up with. It is important that the audience listen to the story as it progresses to catch the jokes, the calls to justice for people locked up on weed charges as the times change in LA, the relationship struggles and everything that falls in between. He can’t allow the audience to vibe out, feel reassured they are getting the old school they want or feel left out that this is some other generations music. This album needs you plugged in if your going to benefit from it; that is why sounds are jagged, guests pop up at strange times, we find out way more about Napoleons sexual habits than we signed up for. If your first listen leaves you in a tizzy of questions: Is he on beat? Why did he say bitch so much on that song? Who are all these people? Is this a comedy album? Don’t worry, the repeated listens articulate the answers I promise.

For nerds like me the last time we felt like we do playing Little Dominiques Nosebleed was discovering a young Open Mike Eagle baffled at how funny he could be with a flow like THAT and then baffled again at how he could outsmart the smartest lyricists in the world. This is raw make no mistake about it but it is raw talent.

Stream or purchase Little Dominiques Nosebleed below:

https://thekoreatownoddity.bandcamp.com/album/little-dominiques-nosebleed