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Domo Genesis

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The steadiest technician of the Odd Future crop — unhurried, blunted, boom-bap-leaning rap that never needed a gimmick to justify the verse.

Domo Genesis, born Dominique Marquis Cole in 1991, grew up in Los Angeles and joined Odd Future in 2009 through his friendship with Tyler, the Creator. His debut mixtape, Rolling Papers, arrived in 2010 with production entirely handled by Tyler, Left Brain and Syd tha Kyd, setting the template for a rapper more interested in feel than shock value.

Compared with his more abrasive labelmates, his approach was conventional in the best sense: relaxed delivery, dense internal rhyme and a preference for warm, sample-based production. A second mixtape, Under the Influence, followed in 2011 and was widely taken as a leap forward in focus and style.

He recorded the collaborative project No Idols with producer The Alchemist, released in 2012, and worked alongside Hodgy and Left Brain in the group MellowHigh, whose self-titled album cracked the Billboard 200. His debut studio album, Genesis, arrived in 2016, followed by the mixtapes Red Corolla and Aren't U Glad You're U?

He briefly played a gangsta-rap alter ego, Young Gunshot, on Odd Future's television show Loiter Squad, and performed alongside Tyler and Earl Sweatshirt on The Late Show with David Letterman. In 2018 he founded his own record label. His verses across Odd Future's group records remain some of the most straightforwardly technical work the collective produced.

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hip-hopwest coast hip hop