Between Lasers and his ever-more-outrageous conspiracy theories, Lupe Fiasco has gradually squandered most of the good will he built up in the ’00s, so it’s easy to forget what a breath of fresh air he used to be. His 2006 debut Food and Liquor was refreshingly grounded, a rap record that existed in the real world of 9-5 jobs and bounced rent checks, not a fantasy-by-numbers world of foreign cars and bottle service.
Plenty of other rappers have tried to position themselves as a Fiasco-esque everyman in the years since, but it’s deceptively tricky to do. Play up the mundanities of daily life too much and your music sounds dull or pedestrian; make it too high concept and it begins to feel preachy or gimmicky. Milwaukee upstart Dom’ McNeal is one of the guys who gets the formula right. He raps in a slick, slippery flow with echoes of vintage Lupe, and his inviting new full length SummertimeDom is loosely patterned after the relatable rhythms of everyday life.
It lives up to its title. This is a summertime record, one that conjures long nights, hazy skies, leisure ride and strolls down Lake Drive. Dom' clearly a student of ’90s rap—just listen to those jazzy horn accents on “Pure”—but the tape's production is posh and modern, and his flow is sly and personable. He’s not showy, but he’s got bars: “Ice on my neck I might change the climate,” he raps on the woozy opener “Everything Around Me.” And just like summer itself, the record comes and goes too fast. “Summer's Over” wistfully ends the record after mere half hour, leaving you longing for more.
