Domingo :: Behind the Doors of the 13th Floor

Even though his Wikipedia page reads like it was written by a fan or a publicist, I still largely agree with the assessment of Domingo Padilla that it provides. From the 1990’s to the present day he’s been one of the top producers in rap. He may not get the name recognition that Pete Rock, Alchemist or DJ Premier does, but he absolutely deserves to be mentioned in their company. When I see his name in the liner notes or production credits for an album, I automatically expect his work to be quality. I can’t even recall the last time I heard a Domingo track and thought “Nah I’m not feeling that.” There are average Domingo tracks but there aren’t BAD Domingo tracks, knahmsayin?

“Behind the Doors of the 13th Floor” was released at a relatively young point in his career (1999) and despite having his first gold plaque for production on KRS-One’s “I Got Next” there was still a long way to go to establish his reputation. Putting out an entire album of his beats was a good way to showcase his skills, especially when presented as a compilation of hot spitting lyricists flowing to his shit. “Got You Too Hot” is the perfect example. Owing to a lack of clear release date (even on Discogs) I can’t tell you whether this song or Eminem’s “Guilty Conscience” came first, but they both rock the same “Pigs Go Home” sample in different ways. I might even prefer Domingo’s flip but that’s largely due to the bars on it including Ras Kass and the late Hurricane G (RIP). Even Redman affiliate Diezzle Don spits fire on this song.

That’s not the only time Domingo used his growing connects in the industry to load up a track on his compilation. In fact historically speaking “Line of Fire” might be the first time KRS-One and MC Shan publicly squashed their Bridge Wars beef. It was almost a full decade later when Kris “ended it” by working with Shan’s favorite producer Marley Marl to release “Hip Hop Lives,” but here they are sharing the same beat together next to known spitters like the aforementioned Ras Kass and newcomers like Feel-X.

If this was all I had to say about “Behind the Doors of the 13th Floor” this would be an easy “four mics” review and we could all walk away. I’ve got a few more notes for you though and I regret to say they make this album a mixed bag. While 13 songs for “13th Floor” makes sense thematically it still feels short at 41 minutes long especially by 1999 standards. I also appreciate Mr. Padilla for showing love to up-and-coming emcees, but many of them failed to take advantage of the opportunity they got by working with a top caliber producer. Take Bamboo for example — he has three songs on this album and sounds like a raw Pharoahe Monch style underground emcee on “From the Getup.” What did he do to capitalize on this outstanding showcase? Jack shit. He hasn’t been heard from since.

For better or worse that typifies the rappers on this release. I can’t tell you anything the Godsons did after this despite multiple appearances nor Sinz of Reality. Feel-X got the ultimate co-sign, getting credit for a song with Eminem at a time when his career was quickly rocketing to the stratosphere, but compilations of obscure Eminem songs fail to include “Hustlers & Hardcore.” That’s a disservice to both rappers but for Feel-X in particular it feels like the nail in the coffin of his rap dreams. He hit the lottery and someone took his ticket and cashed it without him. To be fair though he can only heard saying “Yo check this out!” in the intro. Still it could have lead to more people wondering who Feel-X is or hearing his other work with Domingo and it clearly didn’t.

“Missed opportunity” sums up this entire album. Domingo did good work here. He’s done better work since then, but as I alluded to in the opening paragraph, there’s nothing on “Behind the Doors of the 13th Floor” that makes you regret the time you spent listening to it. Marginal emcees with careers that went nowhere still sound better blessing his beats. Perhaps Domingo didn’t have the muscle yet to push this album, nor a label and distributor with enough faith to do it for him. Either way it just didn’t pan out and this remains a forgotten 1999 album that’s a good listen but (honestly) unimportant in the grand scheme of things.