The Domino Effect in Long Beach Rap

DOMINO “Domino” Outburst/RAL/Chaos *** Not much more than a year ago, Long Beach was, as a rap capital, somewhere between Chula Vista and Anchorage, a town better known nationally for its adventurous opera company than for its nurturing of hard-core beats. Now, of course, since Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg sold umptillion albums with rhymes about the roughnecks of the East Long Beach streets and Warren G & Mista Grimm having pounded the radio with their own Long Beach rhymes, the city has come to occupy the place in the gangsta-rap mythos that Oakland occupied last year and Compton the year before that.

The newest hip-hop sensation from Long Beach is Domino, who used to rap with Snoop in junior high school and whose first single, “Getto Jam,” was one of the great rap singles of last year, a booming-bass party song that may be one of the most laid-back examples of the relaxed, low-tech hip-hop sound known as “G-Funk.” The rest of the album may be as good.

Domino’s rapping voice is slightly sing-songy, slightly nasal, a flexible instrument that insinuates itself into the grooves like a riffing alto sax; the hooks in the songs come from the implied melodic cadences in the rhymes. The production here--mostly by the L.A. hip-hop veteran Battlecat--is smooth and sure, almost organic in its hard-line, ultra-repetitive use of easy-listening soul. New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).

* Times Link 808-8463 With this issue, Sunday Calendar introduces a new phone service for readers. To hear excerpts from any of the albums reviewed, call TimesLink and press * and the artist’s corresponding four-digit code. Domino *5710 Alice in Chains *5711 ZZ Top *5712 Shai *5713 Bobby Brown *5714 Mary J. Blige *5715 Das EFX *5716 Jody Watley *5717 TimesLink is available in the (213), (310), (714), (818) and (909) area codes.