From Warren G and Snoop Dogg to Montell Jordan and Nate Dogg, several of hip hop’s foundational figures emerged from the West Coast during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Among them was Shawn Antoine Ivy, AKA Long Beach-based rapper Domino, whose influential 1993 hit Getto Jam drew a line in the sand for the nascent scene, lifting the bar when it came to hip hop songwriting.
‘Getto Jam led to Warren G getting signed, Montell getting signed: all these huge artists,’ Shawn tells M. ‘It was because of Getto Jam that melodic rap records took off everywhere.’
The single, which featured on Domino’s self-titled debut album, held three number one spots simultaneously on the Billboard Charts and went gold in the US in January 1994 after shifting 500,000 units. Its influence is writ large over hip hop, memorably being referenced by The Notorious B.I.G. on One More Chance (‘Here we go, here we go, but I'm not Domino’) and Jay-Z on American Gangster (‘Here we go and I'm not Domino’). Even Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler was a big fan: ‘That fucking record was so good, I wore it out,’ the frontman said in one interview.
‘I always liked being the difference, so I looked to do things that others said weren’t possible,’ Shawn muses about the making of Getto Jam. ‘Back then, too much singing in a hip hop song would have been considered to be watering it down, and wouldn’t have been accepted well on the streets. It’d never been done before. But after its success, all these big labels wanted a piece of this singing/rapping style.’
‘It was because of Getto Jam that melodic rap records took off everywhere.’
Raised in Long Beach, California, Shawn was initially encouraged by his musical family to sing in choirs and vocal groups. He later formed a battle rap crew during junior high school with Snoop Dogg, but it was through his bass-playing cousin that he ended up performing vocals for the house band at Compton’s Sir Alex Cocktail Lounge.
‘While Snoop Dogg and the fellas were selling candy, I was stacking up tips from singing at the club,’ laughs Shawn. ‘Leon Haywood [writer of She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) and I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You, better known as the instrumental sample on Snoop’s Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang] came to the club and fell in love with my cousin’s playing, hiring him to be his house bass player at his LA studio. I went to one of the sessions at that studio, and the next thing I knew Leon was calling me his “godson”. We often vibed together there.’
Growing up, Shawn was a big admirer of Slick Rick — an artist who rhymed with a message, had a distinctive voice and used hip hop as a vehicle for his lyrical tales — and the R&B vocal group The Whispers. The latter was a love inspired by his parents’ record collection, and Shawn says that the group's smooth vocal style helped shape his own music.
‘If you listen to something long enough at home, it’s goes into your soul,’ he says. ‘I was so interested in Slick Rick too, how his rhymes made sense with his flow. It really resonated, and I began writing rhymes with him in mind.’
Shawn’s breakthrough moment was through an unexpected collaboration with the gangsta rap group Bloods & Crips. Their debut record, Bangin' on Wax, was being produced by Ronnie M. Phillips at Leon’s home studio just as Shawn decided to pay the latter a visit. The timing was fortuitous, opening the door for his talents on the mic to shine.
‘Leon said I’d be better at rapping than anyone else on the project,’ Shawn remembers. ‘They were impressed by my skills, and I met the rest of the collective including DJ Battlecat, who was producing. I rapped on the album and did my melodic flow, and it became the first of its kind to go gold without radio play. Me and Battlecat stayed connected after the project to record my debut record as Domino.’
The pair soon got to work on Getto Jam, which sampled This Masquerade by George Benson. Shawn and his other famous Long Beach classmate Nate Dogg would often freestyle to the original: ‘I kept the sample as a part of my everyday vibe, and once I met Battlecat we were able to bring it to life,’ Shawn explains.
As a producer, Battlecat knew his way around drums and loops, while musician Rob Bacon was brought in to play bass and guitar on the track. Shawn, meanwhile, hummed the melody for the strings.
‘No solo artist had ever done three full verses of melodic hip hop and been accepted,’ he says now. ‘There were many who touched on it, like Nate Dogg, Slick Rick and Mixmaster Spade, as well as some hip hop groups.’
Getto Jam was written in LA where Shawn and his then-girlfriend Monifa ‘Mo’ Bethune, from the group MoKenStef, lived. The pair would exchange melodies all day in a constantly creative state.
‘I knew I wanted to showcase the track being jazz while speaking on my daily hood life happenings,’ Shawn tells M. ‘So that birthed the beginning of the hook: “Here we go, here we go / As the tune starts to bloom with a phat, phat chorus…” And the rest of the hook flowed like Niagara.
‘The lyrics which start off the verse took place on a Saturday morning following a rough Friday night of having a good time, then the hood activities of the homies,’ he continues. ‘I was even able to implement the vibe of The Whispers when I scatted.’
‘No solo artist had ever done three full verses of melodic hip hop and been accepted.'
Fast forward 30 years, and Getto Jam still sounds as fresh as when it was first released. Shawn himself is grateful for its enduring popularity.
‘It’s a blessing to still get messages from fans around the world telling me how Getto Jam was a heavy part of their childhood,’ he says. ‘The feeling is unmatched, particularly when no one initially wanted to sign the track.’
The melodic style he pioneered in the track has endured to this day, with the likes of Ja Rule, Nelly, Drake and Blxst all putting their own stamp on the Domino flow. Following hip hop’s recent 50th anniversary, Shawn is still full of praise for the music and its accompanying culture.
‘Hip hop welcomes your problems, your creativity from the heart, your lifestyle, your way of partying,’ he says. ‘Hip hop is needed, and I’m glad the world is continuing to find a way to allow artists to express themselves.’
The freedom that is permitted by hip hop is hugely integral to its lasting success, and that forms part of Shawn's advice for any aspiring artists, writers and MCs. Rather than following trends, those who want something bigger need to be unafraid to be themselves.
‘The majority of the world will want you to sound like what’s hot at the time, but I believe you can only go so far with trying to be somebody else,’ Shawn says. ‘One thing about a stage play is the script will always have an ending. When you rock with your natural, real self, you are unlimited and forever. Ultimately, your uniqueness is needed.’
[Featured image credit: Mike Miller Photo]
