Photo courtesy of Kingdom Kome
Kingdom Kome and G Fam Black planned to end 2024 with a bang. After releasing a slew of solo material throughout the year individually, the emcees linked up for a joint album titled “Dirty Linens.” The title perfectly represents the sound of the release as Linens is a no-nonsense expedition of beats and bars that feels both comfortable and filthy.
Dirty Linens is a 12-track album featuring production by Tali Rodriguez, BoFaat, Kheyzine, Uglyjon, Ruen, Motherhood, P-Ro, CLOAQ x Dagger, and Crack Sizzlack. Sarah Jane provides guest vocals to the projects opening track.
The Real Hip-Hop talked to Kingdome Kome about writing X-rated rhymes, how humor helps him get through hard times, working with G Fam Black, and their new album, Dirty Linens.
TRHH: Explain the title of the album, Dirty Linens.
Kingdom Kome: This is something me and my brother G Fam Black kind of concocted last minute while he was working on a couple solo projects and in between me working on a couple solo projects I was working on. We’ve been working with each other for a little bit, both jumped on each other’s albums extensively and we got good chemistry. We’ve been building for a while and we thought it was only right to put a project together.
Kind of worked on it fairly quick and when we were thinking of group names and album names that was one that me and him threw back and forth and it was just a dope double play/double entendre. You know, dirty lines/dirty linens, just grimy, grimy, grimy back to the essence boom bap. Dirty beats and just hardcore rhymes. We felt it was only right to kind of drop it this month –the last month of the year. Me and him have had an impeccable run this year, so we wanted to close out the year strong with a real solid project.
TRHH: You mentioned how this was just a grimy kind of throwback and the one thing that I took from it was it was just straightforward. To me it was like straightforward, no bullshit. Was that the plan or did it just turn out that way?
Kingdom Kome: Yeah, there’s no features on the album, just me and G going in. I think it just manifested that way. As far as the overall feel of the album?
TRHH: Yeah.
Kingdom Kome: 100%. It was real organic how we did the project. I wanna big up G Fam Black — he took initiative to get this going and was like, “Yo, let’s do this” and when we finally were like, “Alright, let’s start working on it” I think the first track we did was “A Stab in the Dark” which is one of my favorite ones on the project. After we did that it was just like, “Ohh!” He works really fast like myself, we have good chemistry, and honestly it just materialized organically.
He’s always on that super grimy hardcore rap and that’s my roots. It just felt right, it was just natural. We just did what felt right and I think we both sharpened each other’s swords on the project and it definitely shows. I had a lot of people tell me like, “Yo, this is my favorite project that you put out recently.” It’s just no frills, no nothing. Just hard beats, hard rhymes, just grimy, grimy, grimy, dirty Hip-Hop.
TRHH: What was the process like recording Dirty Linens being in different locations?
Kingdom Kome: Fairly easy. Originally G sent me a pack of production from producers he worked with — shout out to Kheyzine, BoFaat, Tali, P-Ro, everyone on the project who produced. We have an amazing selection of producers on there. He sent me a pack and then he’d be like, “Yo, tell me which ones of these you like.” I picked four or five, lay something down to it, send it to him, he’d lay something down to a couple and then we’d work like that. After about a week in the process I’d hop on a FaceTime call with him and just be like, “Yo, on this one I want us to kind of jump off each other and do more like an 8 bar/4 bar in between and give it more of that feeling like we worked on it together” which we weren’t physically together, but in the matrix you can kind of bring stuff together.
So, it was a lot of that. Like, “Okay, I think for this track we should do this” and just directing it in that sense. I could speak for G and myself, I think we’re really both ecstatic on this project. He was very adamant on it wanting to be the last project he dropped for the year. I wanted to wait ‘till next year because I got so much music out this year — two of my best streaming projects and well received projects came out earlier in the year, so, I wanted to hold off, but why not?
TRHH: On the single “Feed the Flame” G Fam has a rhyme where he says “Hit the blunt, hit the bottle, then I hit your broad/Fat bitch, big belly, but the tits were soft.” That rhyme made me laugh [laughs]…
Kingdom Kome: That’s my favorite line [laughs]. That’s that classic G Fam shit, man. You know, people sleep on him. When I got first put on to him, I think it was through my brother Onaje, and we got him on Alchemy and then we started working a lot together. But, man, he’s just got that that grimy voice and he’s very animated with this stuff. That one stuck out to me, too. He paints the picture well [laughs].
TRHH: Did you get any of his verses back and just bust out laughing at something he said?
Kingdom Kome: Oh, all the time. I love G Fam. I think he’s one of the most underrated cats in the underground right now. He’s nasty with it, nasty with it.
TRHH: “Like a Dog” is a song that I think is missing in Hip-Hop. When was the last time you heard a pornographic rap song that was actually creative and dope?
Kingdom Kome: Man, I mean, I come from Miami from the 2 Live Crew era, so that was my homage to my upbringing. Who was doing stuff like that? Smut Peddlers, you got a couple cats, Kool Keith, it’s been a while. That track originally is funny, G Fam had laid something down to it and it was a grimy verse and I was like, “Nah, I wanna do something different on this beat, bro. Let me send you my idea for it.”
So, I laid my verse down, I sent it to him, I added the little the porno clips to it. We needed something like that to kind of break the hardcore-ness of the album, even though it’s a hardcore song. It’s grimy, but it’s comical, and it’s definitely X-rated for sure. He followed my lead on that one and it’s one of my favorites on the project, honestly. I had fun with that joint.
TRHH: You have a lyric on the song “Life Lessons” where you say “Even when I stumble to my knees I try to joke and laugh.” How does laughter help you get through tough times and what else do you do to cope when times are hard?
Kingdom Kome: That’s a good one, man. I think the age and the world we’re living in now, the amount of information, it’s a lot of shit out here, man. It’s hard. I have days where I need to just fall back from the world and turn everything off. I think we’re here for a purpose and we’re built to go through what we’re going through. Man must endure. Me personally, nature works for me. Go outside, get some sun, walk in nature, take a breather. Music is my coping mechanism, my therapy, and how I stay sane. Spend time with my dog, my son, be home away from people, try to breathe, cook, laugh. Try to have a good time, brother.
We ain’t taking none of this with us, so enjoy it while we’re here. Most definitely that’s a mental reminder to myself. I’m talking to myself. When we fall like autumn leaves it’s about how we get up. We’re all going to fall, so it’s just how we deal with that moment. There’s a lesson in everything, so I think that makes us sharper and stronger. It adds gray hairs to the beard, war medal to the chest, but it’s what defines you – what makes you. I think you just got to endure with a good heart, and a clean mind, and do the best we can.
TRHH: Will there be a Dirty Linens sequel?
Kingdom Kome: [Laughs] Good question. I hit up G last week and I was like, “Yo, let’s start cooking up Dirty Linens II ‘cause I think the response based on the first single Feed the Flame has been way larger than I anticipated.” So, yes, 100% there will be a Dirty Linens II. Yes, sir. You heard it here first.
Purchase: G Fam Black + Kingdom Kome – Dirty Linens