Nick’s Quick Review: Swollen Members: Black Magic

September 21st, 2006

Swollen Members - Black Magic My first impression of this album is, not too shabby. These guys have been kicking some ass, no matter if you like or not, on the Canadian hip-hop scene for a while now. This being their, what? fifth album, Black Magic and I’d say their best too. It’s more hip-hop rather than some pop-hop that has been common for the past few years in all hip-hop.

Mad Child, Prevail and Rob the Viking are Swollen Members. No, Moka Only isn’t a member of Swollen, contrary to belief. Moka Only is his own entity and who’s also signed under Battle Axe Records which is Mad Child’s label. Mad Child has a lot of credibility in the hip-hop game. He’s gone a long way and done all he can to bring Swollen to the top, and he’s done a good job. The album is out now and they’re on tour and it’s solid stuff. Both Prevail and Madchild have tight lyrics on this album, which they’ve sweetly put in the insert. One side of the insert is lyrics the other is one of those photo collages, probably from their last tour or something. Man, I love those, you can stare at em for hours. Rob the Viking essentially produced almost every track on the album. If you listen to the album on your headphones you’ll feel it.

Like I said, this album is slicker than anything before, so if you weren’t a fan, you could be now. It’s different so even if you disliked these guys before, you might like ‘em now. Check the collaborations: Phil Da Agony, Planet Asia, DJ Revolution, Moka Only, Casual, Evidence, Ghostface Killah, The Alchemist, DJ Babu, Barbie Hatch, Jacken, Mr Vegas, Everlast and DJ Swamp. I know you can pick some big names out of that list. Straight up, that’s dope. For some Canadian boys to get names like Ghostface Killah. That’s freaking Wu-Tang man! WTF!?! Nice!

One of my favourite tracks on this album is the one with Ghostface, Weight. Also Grind and Black Magic are good ones. The track with Everlast is slick too. I dig Everlast.

This album is worth having, so, I’d give Swollen Members’ “Black Magic” 3 out of 5 Trashed Party Houses.

Posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 5:31 pm by Nick and is filed under Blog.