THE "DREAM SHATTERER" DEBATE | Domingo

Validated: I know you’ve got history, but if you could give us a snapshot of your Hip Hop legacy.

Domingo: Got signed to Marley Marl in 1987 for “In Control Volume II”, for rapping, but wound up getting signed to House of Hits production team afterwards to be under Marley Marl. And spread my wings in the industry about 1992, was under Rush Producers Management for a while. I produced everybody from my main man, Fat Joe Rakim, Shaquille O’Neal, Big Daddy Kane, Eminem, Big Pun. Man, it’s a long list, bro. Still at it.

Validated: So, I’ve got to ask you, Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary, what does that mean to you?

Domingo: Yeah, it means a lot to be a part of it, bro. Because I would have never thought that I would be a part of Hip Hop and see Hip Hop grow to where it’s grown to. And 50 years is a long time, man. I mean, I’ve been in the game approximately 35 years, so I’m grateful for it. It changed my life. Hip Hop made me do it, bro. You know what I’m saying?

Validated: There’s been some buzz going on throughout social media in regards to you and Buckwild. The question was asked, who had the better version of Big Puns “Dream Shatterer” record?

Domingo: Well, what happened was there was a version that Buckwild did. It was on a sampler tape that Loud Records distributed around the industry. And it had a sample from Barry White and they could not get the sample cleared because Puffy used it for Black Rob. And Puffy had paid… this is what was told. Puffy paid Barry White to not clear it for nobody else. So, it’s the same exact sample that Buck used for his version of “Dream Shatterer.”

So, my beat that became “Dream Shatterer” on the album, the official version, or what you might want to call the alternate version—but it’s definitely not a remix. You know what? Because the buzz out there was, “Oh, Domingo did the remix.” It’s not a remix because it wound up on the actual album, so it’s the official version, regardless of a sample clearance or whatever.

So anyway, the beat that Pun redid the vocals on, which was my beat, Pun had that beat for three years, way before he even got a deal. When I was working with Fat Joe, I gave Pun a beat tape that had that beat on it and Pun had told me, “Yo, whatever you do, just never, never sell this beat.” And I never did.

So, when Pun had the issue with Buck’s sample not being able to be cleared, Pun was in Axis in Manhattan and called me and was like, “Yo, do you still got the beat, man? Please tell me you still got it.” I said “Yeah.” He’s like, “Bro, come to Axis Studios. I got something for you.” And he gave me the master dat, which had the acapella for “Dream Shatterer” off the reel to reel. I still have that master to this day.

So, the crazy part was, I took the dat home, I brought the beat up on the ASR 10, and I pressed play on my dat machine and press play on the ASR, and the vocals locked in. I didn’t have to mess with tempos or nothing, and the sequencing matched the way Pun was rhyming. So, I didn’t have to touch sequencing, I didn’t have to touch the tempo. So, not saying Pun wrote to my beat years before, but he did tell me “I wrote some shit to your beat back then.”

So, I don’t know, because the way the vocals sat on the beat sequence perfectly was kind of bugged out. So, when Pun heard it, he went crazy. He’s like, “Oh, my God, this is it.” And then we went up in the cutting room, my man Nasty—me, him and Pun. Pun did his thing again over my version, and then we mixed it in Unique Studios with my man Cuss and the mix was so crazy that I turned the volume up so loud in Unique Studios, you could hear “Dream Shatterer” in the elevator shaft of the building, it was a high-rise building.

I don’t know if it was on the 9th floor or the 10th floor, but I went down to the main lobby, which was on, like, 7th or 8th, and you can hear the beat and the song rumbling through the elevator shaft. So, when I got back upstairs… and my engineer Cuss can verify this. When I got back upstairs, I turned on the Tannoy Gold studio monitors, and a spark shot out of one of the speakers and a little flame came out of the speaker, and the speaker almost caught fire. That’s when I knew the mix was banging.

So, my engineer, Cuss, looked at me, he was like, “Yo, you paying for that, bro? I ain’t paying for that shit.” Because anybody that know me in the industry, my habit was I’m cranking that shit up all the way, bro. And I’m standing by the big monitors and listening to the mix. I got that shit from Marley, because Marley used to do that shit in Chung King. His engineer Frank Heller… I was with Marley when he did “Jingling Baby” for LL’s for “Mama Said Knock You Out” album. And his engineer used to tell him the same shit. You’re going to go deaf. And when “Dream Shatterer,” my engineer Cuss was like, “Yo, you’re going to go deaf, bro.”

So, back to the song, that version was born, which became the official version. And I ain’t here trying to take nothing away from nobody, you know what I’m saying? But that’s the way it went. It ain’t no animosity toward my man Buck—never will be. But certain things were said, I just had to correct it because a lot of people came to me and was like, “Yo, Domingo, you should really say something.” And if I’m going to say something, my brother, I reach out to you.

Because I just felt like calling it a remix was not right. But again, there’s no animosity towards Buckwild at all. That’s my bro and will always be my bro. But again, there’s two versions. Now, Buck’s version did finally come out commercially on “Endangered Species,” which was a bunch of songs that Pun finished or never got to finish or never came out. Because obviously my brother was gone, he was passed away already. So, that’s when that version came out.

But my man over at Boom Bap Nation graced us with which version you like better. And the people spoke, bro, Hip Hop spoke. And if they would have spoken and said, “Yo, we love Buck’s version better,” it would have been, it is what it is. But I know my version was ill, Pun loved it, and it ended up on the album. And again, it was called the remix. It’s not a remix. I own the publishing on it. When you do a remix, you don’t own publishing. I own publishing on it. And I’ve owned it since the album came out. So that’s it, we touch base on that and we good. I and Buck spoke on the phone and it is all love. But I’m glad to address it with you, my brother, because, you’re Validated, baby.

Validated: Appreciate it, man.

Domingo: All love, bro.

Validated: I think it’s dope how social media brought us together to have these conversations, whether it’s right or wrong, and we get to the bottom of it. But it still gets people talking about two legends.

Domingo: Absolutely. And you know what? As much as people egged me on through messages and social media or, “Yo, you should say something,” I wasn’t going to do that, bro. I wasn’t going to get into that internet back and forth shit like everybody does, because me and Buckwild, we’ve been through shit outside of music. We are like family. We know each other personally.

And you know what? Buck did his interview, put his version to it of what he feels happened or what he’s seen happen. A lot of it is true. The thing with Puff is true, and just like I said, I stood quiet, let him get his version out, and then we could talk about it.

And like I said, I spoke with Buck on the phone. We spoke for like an hour and there was no animosity whatsoever. And me doing this with you, like I said, there’s no animosity. And that’s why I wasn’t going to comment online, because the minute you comment, there go the blogs, “Oh, Domingo and Buckwild are beefing over a song in 1999. Fuck they are beefing about. That shit is old.” So, that’s why I left it alone.

Validated: Yeah, they’re always trying to tear us apart , never trying to bring us together.

Domingo: Absolutely, bro, absolutely. But like I said, if I was going to talk about it, I hit my man up on Validated. Let’s validate that.

Validated: I appreciate that.

Domingo: All love.

Validated: So, I know you also got some comedy shows coming up. You want to tell us anything about it?

Domingo: Yeah, man a lot of people know I was doing Hip Hop concerts out in Pittsburgh with my man from Grime Mode Worldwide, and I just fell back from doing Hip Hop concerts this year because there was a lot of them going on, and it just became cliche like to do the old school concerts this year. And I did enough of them. So, then I decided, you know what? I want to dip into this comedy scene. And we did one a few months ago with my man Mark Viera up in Kalahari Resort in the Poconos. And then we got another one this Friday, October 27, in Milford, Pennsylvania, at the Milford Theater. Then, November 18, I got the New York Kings of comedy, Mark Viera, Rob Stapleton, Capone and Talent coming to the Sherman Theater in the Poconos. So, that’s what I’ve been doing, bro. Just doing that shit and playing my own lane in this Hip Hop game, bro, because when you play your own lane, you stay out of trouble.

Validated: That is a fact. Any last words for the people?

Domingo: Stay validated, baby. Do everything validated. Nah, I appreciate you, family always. You know, that.

Validated: It goes both ways.

Domingo: And rumor has it that you were showing up to one of these events. I don’t know. That’s what I heard.

Validated: I’m going to pop up.

Domingo: Yeah, man, but to end, like I said before we end it, there’s no animosity between me and Buckwild. Just speaking my piece and making sure people hear from me, too.

Produced by Domingo

Produced by Buckwild