Dom Cee was meant to be the season premiere guest but he has such a busy schedule it took some time for him to get to the Couch. He flew in from Miami to bear all during this interview with Melly Starz. As his busy schedule requires he had to hop right back on a plane after the interview. It isn’t easy being a Billboard Charting Engineer.
Melly Starz asks Dom Cee all the hard hitting questions about his over a decade long career in music. Originally from Chicago he had humble beginnings and made music in a basement room that he turned into the Dungeon. This became the go to spot to record for himself and his associates. He now works at one of the top studios in Miami, Mix Masters. He started writing poetry and recording on a USB mic and free laptop given to him through school.
They break down all of his music from the beginning until now. Much of his music is inspired by real life. He even has a song with Kidd Pica$$o that mentions many of his exes names. As a throwback Melly Starz brings out a Ghoul when discussing Ghoul Street Mob. This was a major collective back in the day in Chicago with four members. While the group ended some of them still work together. They were a musical collective who made music and also threw events in the Chicagoland area. They even had merch, so if you have some of this merch, we want to see it. At this point who hasn’t Dom Cee worked with in Chicago (when he was living here).
As a call back to the season premiere with Myah Storm, we hear Dom Cee’s version of what happened during the Miami trip that impacted everyone long term. This is also when Melly brings out a bottle and ratchetness begins. Myah Storm did not fly in to work with Dom but many artists do come from across the country to get a session with the infamous Dom Cee. He has worked with so many people that he has nearly 400 credits and 13 million streams. Some of these names include: Khaotic305, Loe Shimmy, Rygin King, TQ, Jessy and Kodak Black. Many of these artists have made a long-standing relationship with Dom.
He also breaks down how he met Kodak and ended up engineering for him. Kodak came back to Mix Masters to discuss not getting a Grammy which means Dom hasn’t gotten one either. We also talk in depth about the project Dom put me on ‘CC4TB’ by K.D.O. Fuego and Nohbawdy. To know what I’m doing you have to check out the project.
Dom has also been on tour with Sean Kingston and since there aren’t any NDAs, Melly gets all the details about this experience. For obvious reasons Dom won’t be going back on tour with Kingston but is open to going on tour with another artist so hit him up.
Dom also has a unique gift when it comes to engineering which is not something everyone can say. Since he does work at Mix Masters he has also gotten the opportunity to guide others on how to get into his career path. One such instance was when he went to my Alma Mater, Full Sail University to talk to students about the different routes they can take. Dom has worked in many other studios and he can come to you if the price is right.
His longest recording day was 21 hours straight over multiple sessions. Loss of sleep is a normal part of his creative life. Dom’s longest session with one artist (Nawfsided Deejay) was 16 hours. They completed 10-12 tracks during this session. Dom says they’re all fire. While Dom primarily works on Pro Tools, he can work on any program just give him ten minutes. He also tells us his favorite plugin. While he isn’t a teacher he has videos and tools to help you mix and master on YouTube, Patreon and Discord. By joining you can also get discounts or deals on mixing and mastering services.
They take a little break to play with some legos. Then get into the home studio set up and how grateful Dom is to have his own space to create whenever he wants. His outlook on creating music has also changed and he now applies his engineering skills when he raps. If you are trying to build an in home studio Dom has some videos on his YouTube to help you. Mixing and mastering is crucial to the quality of your song.
Dom drops so many gems about engineering, life, and the industry throughout the interview. Aside from his engineer life, he is also a recovering producer. We delve into his beat making and his process. He also participated in Beat, Beat, Pass in Miami. He doesn’t give himself enough credit for his Cee Note$ Beats. He has a quirky way to name his beats. He also plays the guitar and has a funny story about how he began playing it.
Dom Cee is also the co-founder of Hits Hotel with Bubbie Black. They all do a little bit of everything to make this a success. Sadly they lost a hard drive but it will come back at some point. Before getting back into the musical side, we talk about the travel vlogs: one for Denver and one in New York. When asked about the Chicago one, Dom gives us the best excuse ever. This also leads us to ask what city is Dom’s favorite between New York, Miami and Chicago. He also tells us the best place to get Puerto Rican food in the country. Can you guess where that is?
Melly also starts the #GetDomCeeToChicago movement which is to get Dom to move back home. He wants to come back and be able to put people on and be in a better position than before. They delve back into Dom’s music starting with Pen Time which was supposed to be on ‘Sense of Self’ which is a project that never came out. This leads to a discussion about Dom dropping out of college and then getting into a certification program. In one of his songs he discusses a drunk driving incident and we get the nitty gritty details of what happened.
Dom also does 99% of his cover art when he does release a track. There isn’t much he can’t do. We also get a funny behind the scenes story about a fishing incident that made it into his ‘Fat Joint’ music video. He did everything for his very first project to be released on streaming aside from the music video of course. We also get into other singles and songs Dom has done more recently including some of my personal favorites.
Things get deep when we touch base on Dom’s father who had Freestyle Mafia Chicago when he was alive. His father was a major influence on him musically and in life. As is with grief we all deal with it differently. Dom made a tribute EP about his father he released around the anniversary of his death in 2023. We break down every track and talk about the struggles of the grieving process. This project was made for him and not for anyone else. However, he put it out since he thought it might help others going through a similar situation. Tears are shed during this segment.
In an attempt to lighten the mood, Melly brings up more recent tracks including ‘Blessing Me’ and ‘Bentley’. We also talk about the cultural differences between Miami and Chicago and finding genuine people in both cities. Dom also talks about finding the right partner in this challenging industry. He has made a lot of sacrifices to get to where he is today but it isn’t enough. He is still striving for more. Before we sign off Dom Cee turns the tables and asks Melly what she has in the pipeline.
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