Swollen Members are a great rap group from Victoria Canada. Mad Child and Prevail ran Battleaxe Records for damn near a decade before signing with a major label a little while ago. At the biggest the group consists of the two awesome aforementioned MC's as well as Moka Only, Rob The Viking making beats as part of the crew and guest verses from MC's like Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Buc Fifty & Evidence of Dilated Peoples.
They had their own brand of witches and demons, dungeons & dragons style rap. There was still a lot of violence but there was a lot of more discussion of werewolves and vampires and occult magic. Kinda like Jedi Mind Tricks but not as violent and less hardcore.
Also Prevail is one of the most underrated MC's out there, not only his is flow liquid fast but to decipher his references require at least a trip to the encyclopedia if not to the used book store to find the obscure literary reference. And he will tear you apart in a battle. Speaking of battling, Mad Child's no slouch. He was inducted into the Rock Steady Crew making Swollen Members one of three rap groups associated with the crew.
They released three awesome albums that carved out their space before completely selling out and writing mainstream hip hop songs. They went from this
to this
I stopped paying attention for a little while. They made their money as mainstream stars but things didn't go so hot. Turns out Mad Child had an OxyContin addiction that cost him millions.
They've apparently made a come back though. They released Dagger Mouth last year which has it's problems but is really a return to form. There is not as much Balance to their music now as there is way more Mad Child on the album than there is Prevail. And for my money I would take Prevail over Mad Child but would take Swollen Members before either of them solo. Still there is a lot of Mad Child's murderous, anguished battle raps on this album and he has brought back the occult references and more distinct drug references than I remember before.
