BACK TO MAIN
By Andrew Mabe - Iowa State Daily (IowaStateDaily.com)
Hip hop heads with their ears to the underground know Swollen Members for its careful articulation and torture chamber themes. After working hard in the underground for so long, it was only a matter of time before MCs Mad Child and Prevail discovered the secret to making a fast buck. And it didn't have anything to do with rapping well. In fact, their knack for spitting history lessons and painting gruesome pictures straight out of Dungeons & Dragons probably led to the change heard in "Heavy."
Most fans of hip hop probably aren't comic book nerds or D&D addicts. Alienation of this is the most likely reason for Swollen Members' bandwagon jump.
Mad Child, formerly reputed as a fine mix between angry gangsta and bookworm, now confesses his true motives with, "I was just broke before/ Life's better when you're rich."
The group was never known for its repetitive hooks because its strength rested in the verses. On "Heavy," listeners are treated to innovative choruses like, "Pump, pump, pump, pump it up/ But don't turn us down/ New shit/ Swollen/ A new sheriff's in town." Yes, they actually build a song around that.
Swollen Members has buried the horror-core rhymes it was best at, opting for a drunken pimp image that sells. Listeners will no longer hear Mad Child rapping about medieval knights and comic book characters with his trademark intricate enunciation.
The best thing about Swollen's new CD is probably the badass album art, courtesy of Todd McFarlane. A very appropriate artist to depict the Swollen Members of the past, but the new album won't sit well with followers of McFarlane, Mad Child or Prevail.
December 15, 2003 [Iowa State Daily (IowaStateDaily.com)]