Journeyman (before the living legends). I met those dudes at my college radio station at UC Berkeley where I was a student. All those cats liked my flows so we would hang out in my dorm room just flowin' and shit. Then after that I met the Grouch, Eligh, MURS and the rest of the cats that hung out on Telegraph Avenue like Hobo Junction, and that's when I started getting really down with it. That was in 1994.

After dropping the classic 'Rapitalism: The Philosophies of Dominant Pimpin'" in 1998, you dropped three group albums: Konceptual Dominance, The Dominant Mammals and Paranoid Castle. How come it has taken so long for a new solo album? Were these group experiences positive or negative?

Yeah it's been taking a while for me to release a solo I know. It's even hard for me to tell you why it is taking me so long. I think it's because over the years I've been trying to find my solo voice, the Kirby Dominant sound if you will. Since 1998, after dropping 'Rapitalism' I've mainly been learning how to play the keyboard and produce my own beats and this has taken awhile. Getting into really different kinds of music and listening to a lot of artists that I feel are so talented like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Prince, Jay Dee, and the Neptunes just to name very small few. But listenin' to these cats made me want to get my weight lyrically and musically so I just don't want to come out with just anything. But I do have three albums already made so don't sleep, I have been working but my shit has to come out right. As far as the collabo's are concerned those things where all just a matter of circumstance. Me and Koncepts actually had 'Savage Intelligence' produced and written before I even put 'Rapitalism' out. As far as the others they were all kind of unplanned. Me and Moka Only made 'Super Future Stars' in less than a week. When he came to visit me we didn't plan to make an album but we started making songs on my

4-track, and that's why the sound quality is shitty, because we didn't know what we were doing. We was just rhyming in my bedroom. And the 'Paranoid Castle' shit was the same way. We did that in two weeks. I was coming to Saskatoon and Factor was like, 'Hey, I got some beats you wanna do some songs when you come out?' And then that's how that happened, just a matter of circumstance, but I would have to say it was all positive experiences. I think recording The Mammals was the most fun because we just did it with no pressure.

When will the 'Starr' album be out and are you working on any other projects?

Well, I don't know when 'Starr' will come out, but it will be done probably about time people are reading this. But it may take about three more months to come out after that because I am trying to put the most momentum behind it as far as distribution and promotion is concerned and that type of shit takes time, feel me. Other than that there are several projects in the works. I am working on the 'Kevin Riley Experiment' album. Kevin is an artist on my label Rapitalism and he's my boy. He is doing all the production on the album and I got the lyrics on lock. I have another album I am doing with this dude Idiom Creek. (www.samplistic.com). We are making this really interesting experimental hip hop album, if you can even call it that, but that shit's almost done. Our group is called Assistant Green. Be on the lookout as well for my other solo album 'The Dominator: A Psychological Journey Through Egocentricity.' That album is already produced and written, I just have to record it better. Right now it just in demo form, but that shit is gonna be dope. I've had that album done for a while. 'Starr' is actually a collection of songs that didn't fit the theme of the Dominator album so that's why I'm putting that out. It will give me more time to make my masterpiece.