LP Review: America the TRBL x Swade
Glory to God
Swade is a rapper straight out of Florida, and let me tell you… this man’s got bars. His new project America the TRBL is a free LP featuring eight tracks with surprisingly very little features. I was expecting the first LP from Swade to have heavy features since he isn’t very well known and his crew of STRT TRBL has plenty of heavy hitters ready to make anyone of his tracks a hit. But Swade is a Emcee in a class of his own….
HE NEEDS NO FEATURES!
Swade can hold his own all by himself. He truly needs no help when it comes to making a song/banger.
He isn’t very well known but the material that he’s released in the past has gained him much deserved hype in inner circles of Christian hip hop, as well as his home state of Florida. He has smart punchlines a slick array of flows and the best of all…. he knows how to write a hook!
Hooks have become a lost art in Hip Hop and it’s refreshing to hear an artist make a catchy hook. The catchiest ones to me are on tracks 3, 8, and 5. Track 5 features an AMAZING hook from SPZRKT. The message that he’s trying to convey is pretty straightforward. This girl on his mind has him up all night, cause he’s thinkin’ bout her…. He then goes into a mirade of cascading ayes, which are perfect for this track. I imagine Spazz in his room doin’ a little dance while singing the hook to his bedroom wall or something.
Anyway
Swade really shines in songs like Still the Same (Track 3) and America the TRBL (Track 7). Still the Same features a sample from Kanye West’s “Power” laced BEAUTIFULLY by the man, the legend, Mr. Jay Cardec Drums. The whole track is slightly reminiscent of an old Kanye track because of the sample; but not even Mr. West could body this track like Swade did. It was his single from the album and it surely was just a taste of the greatness that was about to come.
Track 7 gets all political on that action and you know it’s real when you add an audio clip of one of President Obama’s interviews. And trust me… it gets real. Swade talks about interracial issues within the black community. And that’s just the first verse. The second verse is when he talks about bringing a radical change in Hip Hop speaking about what real rap is and the ill effects of current hip hop on society. It’s a brilliant track that many artists have done but Swade executed it perfectly.
If the political flavor isn’t for you, trust me Swade has a ton of different styles on this LP. From the love song in “Everything” to the club/clique songs in “Aren’t we All” and “Good Time”. It’ll be impossible for you to find a song that you don’t like on this LP. It’s a no skip project.
Before I end this, I need to talk about the features and the production. First of all let us give a round of applause to SPZRKT, L9, and my boy John Givez. The placement of these three artists was strategic and executed brilliantly. L9 delivered a RAW verse about the skreets in “County Zone”, as mentioned earlier, Spazz delivers a GREAT hook on “Everything” and that man John Givez… well, lately it seems like everybody gets a one (meaning a John Givez feature); he’ll automatically make the track amazing so don’t waste the opportunity and Swade surely took advantage of this golden rule.
I’ll end talking about Jay Cardec… bravo man, bravo. You don’t get nearly enough credit for what you do but you will. STRT TRBL is blessed to have you and you need to keep doing what you’re doing. The man is a genius in samples, and original production. He blends a lot of different styles into probably the most relevant and inventive sounds in CHH. And that is why I thank you sir.
America the TRBL is a great LP and definetly deserves a listen or a million.
I’ll give it a 4/5
On repeat.