Review Summary: SwizZz proves to be a formidable MC but is hindered by financial restrictions.
By now everyone in the underground hip hop community has at least heard of independent record label Funk Volume. Hopsin, Dizzy Wright and Jarren Benton have all been XXL freshmen and garnered a large amount of underground attention. Ever since Funk Volume was founded in 2009 we were promised a studio debut from the label's first signed rapper, SwizZz. Family and personal issues have caused him to postpone the release of his currently untitled LP for some time this year and the California based rapper may have become irrelevant to those not consistently following Funk Volume, but in 2011 he put out a mixtape that proved SwizZz is a formidable MC who is hindered by financial restrictions.
I feel that SwizZz's successful balance of technical excellence and comedic timing should be studied by any rapper that tries to use a combination of the two. He uses punch lines and similes that might be considered cheesy if used by other rappers but aren't when delivered by him. The main reason for this is SwizZz's almost uncontrollable amount of personality, energy and strong presence. His distinct voice obviously attributes to this and may take some time to get use to, but when he spits a verse you listen. Whether you like it or not tracks on this mixtape will get stuck in your head and not because of their catchy nature, but his aforementioned strong presence. One thing you might notice while listening to the thirteen tracks is a lack of many features and this actually works in SwizZz's favor. He wouldn't want to invite an artist on a track and outshine them on pure energy, so he only grabs two. The first feature is on track 03 "Motivation" and it is delivered by the king of auto tune; T-Pain. On paper this team up makes no sense, but T-Pain's huge and overproduced vocal performance makes for excellent synergy (and maybe even a foil to an extent) with SwizZz's larger than life personality. The second feature was by Funk Volume co-founder Hopsin on track 06 "Bang Bang Boogie" and if their mixtape "Haywire" proved anything, they have great chemistry. This track only assures that idea with their fun back and forth. These two tracks also contain the only good hooks on the entire mixtape. Thankfully there aren't very many hooks, but when SwizZz delivers them him self they come off as cheesy and not in the way you would hope (examples would be tracks 09 "Put You On The Train" and 10 "Scream").
The lack of hooks and features on most of the tracks allows SwizZz to showcase his talents in spades with 2-4 minute tracks with one continuous verse each. This gives him the freedom to explore his interestingly original flow and express his ideals in full. Piggybacking off that last five words of that last sentence SwizZz does not let an opinion go unsaid and has strong ones about the state of hip hop and this country. When he said in the past that he was majoring in political science while attending collage, it shows here and especially on a track like "GMS Backyard Beastin" with lyrics like
"Everything doesn't happen for a reason
Kids get hit by drunk drivers every weekend
Cops still profile giving niggas beatings
And politicians lie to get elected in their region
Money rules everything that will never change
Sorry Pac we will never see better days
Were being led astray by our own nation
Just look at arizona, and immigrant legislation
(Damn SwizZz you trying to run for office?)
Stop it I can give a *** about that non-sense
I call it how I see it and this *** ain't looking pretty
These corporate motha***ers are lucky I don't rep my city(Why?)
I organize a lynch mob and get the noose out
Tell the world that the west is the new south
And anyone who ain't down with true liberty will get hung like an ornament Christmas tree"
An unfortunate misstep this mixtape makes is in its production. SwizZz is an extremely skilled lyricist, but he isn't nearly as skilled at choosing interesting instrumentals. While the beats are flow-accessible they are also generic and don't help progress the project. I will attribute this lack of great beats to his financial restrictions and in all honesty, while they are generic, the beats get the job done and don't drag the mixtape down much. All of the cons I have discussed so far are easily over-shadowed by the pros; SwizZz's rhyme schemes, flow, lyrical content, personality and energy but this album does having one glaring issue and that is its cohesion (or lack of). On eleven of the thirteen tracks of this mixtape SwizZz intros the tracks by yelling his name. I can understand doing this as a sign of recognition when you release singles months apart, but when you do it on nearly every song of an album it breaks cohesion and consistently takes me out of it to the point where it feels like a compilation of thirteen SwizZz songs recorded at different times for different reasons rather than a consistent project. Although I wasn't impressed with the production on the album for the most part, there was one track i thought was handled well instrumentally and that was the final cut "GMS Loyalty". Each track is pretty energetic and fun but this final song is very calm and shows SwizZz in a place we hadn't been exposed to thus far. Things like this are the reason why this is such a good mixtape overall and also why I am extremely excited for SwizZz's debut LP.
Favorite Tracks:
GMS Ambush
Good Morning SwizZzle
Kush
GMS Loyalty
Least Favorite Track:
Scream
