Oldominion Photo: staff

 When most people say ‘old school’, images of B-boys and Rakim come to mind - but when Oldominion refers to taking it back to the old school, they’re talking about thousands of years ago when hoodies were made of burlap and cats rolled forty or fifty deep. Once you understand that, it’s clear why the tribe of more than twenty emcees, producers, deejays and artists can be hard to describe.
Representing several races, both genders and multi-lingual gymnastics, Oldominion members are on a quest to lock down Hip Hop. The moniker Oldominion was chosen in favor of names like Silver Hell, which didn’t reflect the general concept of funk-filled beats, sinister lyrics and metaphysical metaphors. Before a rare performance featuring half a dozen emcees—getting the whole group together in one place is about as common as an eclipse—a few members of Oldominion gathered at Nations restaurant, sharing their version of Hip Hop.
The conglomerate began several years ago in 1994 when Oraclez Creed and Frontlines merged after traveling back and forth from Seattle to Portland. “We just accumulated our allies and formed Oldominion,” former Oraclez Creed member and vocal lyricist Onry Ozzborne says. “We used to be looked at as a Christian rap group, but there are members of the group that cuss and there are members who are talking about things that don’t have anything to do with God. I wouldn’t say it’s all spiritual. We try to relate and do some street type music. It’s all positive, but I wouldn’t say we’re a God rap group.”
Their album One was released last year - the first group compilation that features seventeen of the members. One of the group’s pioneers, Rochester A.P., passed away two years ago. Like any spiritual group, Oldominion members talk about the Seattle native with reverence. “He was all of us combined into one person,” Portland member Smoke says. Onry and others add praise to comments: “He made it cool to talk about God, he made it so that you weren’t embarrassed to talk about things or what’s really going on, instead of talking about what kind of gear you should wear or how cool you were.”
The only form of music they seem to shrug off is pop music. Their musical influences reflect everything from Pharoahe Monch to Portishead, from heavy metal to country. The soul-filled influences are evident, but experimental beats and stream-of-consciousness flows obscure any ability to compare Oldominion to most emcees. From tracks like “Screaming in Hell” that combines a Snafu-produced track that sounds like a Rza production, to the unprecedented “View Items”, Oldominion is clearly on a path that few groups have walked. “There’s too much dance music out there that if you listen to the album, you couldn’t say two or three things you learned from it,” Onry says. “We’re looking to say something.”
In the world of Hip Hop, fierce talent and tenacity don’t mean immediate success. Karim, Vice President of Stuck Records and emcee with the Boom Bap Project, explains “No one has been successful doing Hip Hop in the Northwest, but there’s a lot of talent in the Northwest. People are not afraid to be themselves out here. In New York, you see a big formula that people use. In the Northwest, there’s a lot of individuality and we’re not following a formula.”
Oldominion doesn’t follow a formula – in the words of Jay-Z, they drove through the fork in the road and went straight. With so many talented people in one place, with so much going on—including a 33-city tour in 2001—it’s amazing that competition within the ranks hardly comes up. “Actually, it’s more of a supportive environment than a competitive thing,” Smoke says. “When someone does a solo album, we all get behind that person and promote their stuff like it was our own. That way, no one is forgotten about.”
Both promotion and production will be easier, they say, once the group’s mecca is completed in Southeast Portland. The group is building the center themselves and preparing to make a compilation featuring Cannibal Ox, Swollen Members and Mr. Lif, among others. While the clan is more than willing to work with talented emcees and producers, it’s unlikely that the Oldominion clan will get any bigger. It’s also hard to imagine. “It’s like a family. We all give and take, whenever,” Sleep says. “What’s mine is everyone else’s.”

~J. Victoria