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By Christian Pearce - AccessMag.com
The Swollen Members aren’t your average hip hop outfit.
First of all, they’re from British Columbia. Yeah, that’s right: Vancouver to be more precise. Vancity as far as hip hop enthusiasts are concerned. “I’ve lived [in Vancouver] for eight years,” says one-half of the Swollen Members, Prevail, who originates from Victoria, BC. “MadChild has lived there his whole life. It’s been beautiful for us though. It’s been great to be embraced as we have in our own city.”
Second off, they don’t look anything like the bulk of rappers today. They don’t wear phat platinum chains complete with diamond-studded Jesus pieces, nor do they rock the hottest fashions by in vogue Italian designers.
Prevail is a tall, lanky, four-eyed black guy who passes his days in bookstores reading titles by everyone from George Orwell to J.D. Salinger. MadChild is a short, white dude, who, according to his partner, has begun the humiliating process of male pattern balding. “I don’t think people expect me to be almost six feet tall with dreads down to my shoulders wearing square glasses,” explains Prev, “and I don’t think people expect MadChild to appear the way that he does. But that’s one great thing about us: we have an element of surprise. And regardless of what we’re wearing on a particular day, we always have an air of comfortability and confidence about us, and I hope that’s what people notice first when they see us.”
Despite their obvious physical differences, however, the duo fit together like an Oreo cookie — soooo sweet.
Prevail is an emcee’s emcee who can recite verses from virtually every hip hop song ever written (oft times, PrevWon’s renditions are more impressive than the originals). His on-stage presence is pure energy. And he answers interview questions in an atypically intellectual fashion with responses like, “I expect my life to change everyday as I develop my personality and become a more learned person.”
“How many albums bought and sold / Triple Ghetto-Gold, rocked and rolled / Sound — mixed and mastered / Stick with the program, get paid after / TV shows, zines and mags / Positive feedback, jeans still sag / Hair still knots / Prevail gets props / The same as always: Risin’ to the top.” - Prevail, ‘Fuel Injected’
MadChild is a raw, live-wire emcee whose skills on the mic are eclipsed only by his skills in business. The founder and “El Presidente” of SM’s label, Battle Axe Records, MadChild has built Battle Axe into one of Canada’s most successful independent imprints, based, in large part, on the phenomenal accomplishments of the Members themselves. SM’s first LP, Balance, sold over 30,000 copies and collected a Juno for “Best Rap Recording,” with similar expectations arising for the duo’s more recent sophomore spinner, Bad Dreams.
According to Mad Child: “Basically, the way it happened was when we started the group we were like, let’s just put the 12-inches out ourself, let’s not bother trying to get a deal or anything. We didn’t want to go through the anxiety of trippin’ on what other people thought of our music... I think we were in California when I thought of ‘Battle Axe Records.’ So we put that on the back and did good with the first 12-inch, and then did great with the second 12-inch as well. It was cool putting out stuff on our own, and then we figured we could put out other people’s music — people that we believe in as artists and respect as friends, too. It wasn’t really searching for talent, it was just more people that we appreciate and were down with. Kinda like Battle Axe is a family thing.”
“Bad decision, fatal error / Get scars from bars of bomberic terror / We own label, never get dropped / Now the crew combined and we can’t be stopped.” — MadChild, ‘Fuel Injected’
Battle Axe boasts a roster that includes Buc Fifty, Mr. Brady, LMNO and Moka Only, who sings the loop on the first single off Bad Dreams, ‘Fuel Injected’. The indie label is also set to drop albums from Son Doobie of Funkdoobiest, Abstract Rude, and a collection of unreleased and hard-to-find cuts from the Swollen Members, entitled Monsters in the Closet. Watch for it and hear how different the Swollen Members are.
[AccessMag.com]