MIC/LINE (formerly named Sound Check) is HYPEBEAST Radio’s music-centric show that looks to deliver in-depth conversations with your favorite artists, digging into their origin stories and asking the questions you want answered. For our newest episode, we have Dom Kennedy & Jay 305 as our special guest.

Dom Kennedy is one of the most important West Coast rappers from the previous generation. He, along with Nipsey Hussle, Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Casey Veggies, Jay 305, YG, Skeme, and Polyester, among others, were a part of the new wave of West Coast MCs that were making impacts on a nationwide scale starting during the blog era (2008–2011) and beyond.

Kennedy, along with Jay 305 plus NikoG4 and the rest of OPM — a label founded by Dom, which stands for Other People’s Money — had a mentality and style that attracted people beyond their neighborhood and built themselves a cult fanbase that has been steady for the last ten years. But their passion for making music hasn’t died down one bit. They have tons of new material coming out in the future, with the second installment to the group’s compilation project dropping soon. The series, OMP Vol. 1: Young Nation, started in 2012.

“We working on [OPM Vol. 2] right now because we got that same camaraderie and everybody got that same hunger and vision and that’s when its best; OPM is at its best, its right now. Like I feel like that era we talking about, this era is going to completely wipe that era it out,” says Dom.

For this episode, Dom Kennedy and Jay 305 discuss the beginnings of OPM, individualism, the West Coast music scene during their come up, new projects, streetwear, and so much more.

You can check out Dom’s latest full-length, Volume Two, which dropped earlier this year. The 16-song tape was led by the Tupac-influenced single “Brenda’s Baby” plus guest appearances from Jay 305, Glasses Malone, Krondon, Hit-Boy and others. Jay 305 recently dropped his latest single “Sweat it Out” and is gearing up to release a new project in the near future.

Keep up with everything HYPEBEAST Radio and subscribe to MIC/LINE on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast or wherever else you enjoy your podcasts. Feel free to reach out to our host, Manny, on Twitter at @ECM_LP and follow HYPEBEAST Music for more original content and music news.