Swollen Members
are a Canadian hip hop group from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada consisting principally of the duo Mad Child and Prevail. They have been called "two of the most innovative people in hip-hop". [1] Frequent collaborators include vocalist Moka Only and producer Rob The Viking, an official group member since 2002. Since the group's formation in 1999, Swollen Members has released four studio albums and one compilation, which consists mainly of B-sides as well as three new songs.
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History
Swollen Members was founded in the mid-1990s by
Vancouverites Mad Child (Shane Bunting), Prevail (Kiley Hendriks), and Moka Only (Daniel Denton). Having begun a solo career while living in
San Francisco, California, Mad Child returned to Vancouver to work. There he met Prevail and Moka Only, who had been working together. They joined together under the name Swollen Members. Soon after, however, Moka Only decided he wanted to pursue a solo career and left the group.
In 1996, Mad Child and Prevail went to the
B-Boy Summit in
San Diego, California, where Mad Child won several
rap battles and was initiated into the
Rock Steady Crew. The crew is held in great respect as hip hop's highest collective - to join one must win a contest of skill against one of the highest ranked members. Swollen Members is one of only three rap groups affiliated with Rock Steady, Others include Dilated Peoples and The Arsonists.
That same year, the duo began recording their first tracks, with help from many of their friends from the scene -
MCs,
DJs, and
producers, including Rob the Viking. Rob would continue to work with the group through the years, eventually joining them officially. Their first releases were three 12" singles on Mad Child's record label
Battleaxe Records, then came the debut album
Balance
in 1999.
Balance
received wide critical acclaim and has been claimed by the band to have sold in excess of 50,000 copies. Featuring collaborations with artists such as
Everlast,
Divine Styler, and
Dilated Peoples, the album received the
2001 Juno Award for Best Rap Recording.
Following
Balance
, Swollen Members recorded and released
Bad Dreams
, released on
November 13,
2001, and featuring guests such as
Chali 2na of
Jurassic 5,
Son Doobie,
Joey Chavez, and former member
Moka Only. It appealed to both underground and
mainstream audiences, with several singles reaching
platinum status in Canada. The album earned Swollen Members their second Juno Award and four
MuchMusic Video Awards.
2002's
Monsters In The Closet
, their third release, brought official group membership for
Moka Only and Rob The Viking to Swollen Members. Monsters In The Closet was a collection of B-sides and outtakes along with three new songs, "Breath" which featured British Columbian
Nelly Furtado. Production credits include
Evidence from Dilated Peoples.
2003 brought
Heavy
, again released to critical acclaim and good sales, though many fans felt that Swollen Members had removed many elements of the style which had been so rewarding in the past. In the same year the songs "All Night" and "Deep End" were featured in the videogame
SSX3. In 2004, the Swollen Members song "Bottom Line" was featured in the videogames
WWE Day of Reckoning
and
WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw
.
In 2005,
Moka Only decided to break off from the group for a second time and continue work on his solo career. The following year, Swollen Members released their fifth full album,
Black Magic
. It is understood that Mad Child and Prevail made an attempt to return to their previously critically acclaimed style and method. Their previous album
Heavy
is unlisted on their official site discography. A single from the album, "Put Me On (feat.
Everlast)", was released in August, 2006.
Swollen Members are currently touring with Kuruption Camp, and have created a super group with Kuruption Camp members Tre Nyce and Young Kazh entitled Battle Axe Warriors. They are about to begin an American summer tour headlining with Kottonmouth Kings. They have released three new songs via Swollen Member's MySpace page, entitled "Bang Bang", "U Not 1", and "Reclaim the Throne".
Armed to the Teeth
drops on october 13rd on Suburban Noize Records.
On top of that, the group has been rumored to release "Beautiful Death Machine" in 2010 which should be a best of, containing mostly all old tracks, and maybe some new ones, as a Swollen Members-only project. Mad Child and Prevail both also released solo digital-only EPs in 2009, and plan to continue releasing solo material in addition to the group projects.
Discography
- Balance
- September 28 1999
- *Balance: Extra Tracks
- November 23 1999
- *Balance Re-Release
- May 1 2001
- Bad Dreams
- November 13 2001
- *Bad Dreams Instrumentals
- June 17 2003
- Monsters In The Closet
- November 12 2002
- *Monsters In The Closet Instrumentals
- April 29 2003
- Heavy
- October 27 2003
- *Heavy Bonus DVD
- November 18 2003
- *Heavy Instrumentals
- May 4 2004
- Black Magic
- September 12 2006
- Baseball Bat & Nails (Prevail solo EP)
- February 10 2009
- The Mad Child EP (Mad Child solo EP)
- July 1 2009
- Armed To The Teeth
- October 13, 2009
- Beautiful Death Machine
-TBA/2010
Collaborations
- 2007 - Vocal credits for "Artillery" on Israeli psychedelic trance duo Infected Mushroom's 2007 album release, Vicious Delicious
Awards and Recognition
Juno Awards
- 2001 - Best Rap Recording (Balance
)
- 2002 - Best Rap Recording (Bad Dreams
)
- 2003 - Rap Recording of the Year (Monsters In The Closet
)
- 2007 - Rap Recording of the Year (Black Magic
)
MuchMusic Video Awards
- 2002 - MuchVIBE Best Rap Video ("Fuel Injected" feat. Moka Only and directed by Wendy Morgan)
- 2002 - MuchMusic Best Director ("Fuel Injected" feat. Moka Only and directed by Wendy Morgan)
- 2002 - MuchMusic VideoFACT Award ("Fuel Injected" feat. Moka Only and directed by Wendy Morgan)
- 2002 - MuchMusic Best Independent Video ("Fuel Injected" feat. Moka Only and directed by Wendy Morgan)
- 2003 - MuchVIBE Best Rap Video ("Breathe" feat. Nelly Furtado and directed by Todd McFarlane)
Additional Awards
- 2002 - Canadian Radio Music Awards Breakthrough Artist ("Fuel Injected" feat. Moka Only)
- 2002 - West Coast Music Awards Best Urban Release (Bad Dreams
)
- 2002 - The Georgia Straight
Readers Choice Best Urban Act
- 2003 - COCA Campus Entertainment Awards Entertainer of the Year
- 2003 - Western Canadian Music Awards Outstanding Rap/Hip Hop Recording ("Monsters In The Closet")
- 2003 - Western Canadian Music Awards Outstanding Video ("Breathe" feat. Nelly Furtado)
- 2004 - Western Canadian Music Awards Outstanding Rap/Hip Hop Recording ("Heavy")
See also
- List of bands from Canada