sway - does he live up to the hype?

gumdrops

Well-known member
inspired by reading a review (accurate i might add) of his new single in - of all places - the guide, how has this man gotten such a hefty reputation? he's even got a new reebok advert putting him in the company of ryan giggs, mike skinner and jamelia. it's amazing! and he doesnt even have an album out. all he's had are two half-decent mixtapes, and one or two singles.

hes an okay rapper, he has some vaguely witty lines (well, if you're the type of person who thinks bruce forsyth is hilarious), and a sense of humour which people seem to like in lieu of every UK hip hop artist apparently being devoid of humour, but nothing i've heard seems better than say, the likes of rodney p or fallacy. hopefully this doesnt sound like complete haterism but sway being nominated for best hip hop act at the (admittedly farcical) MOBOs next to the likes of 50 cent seems mystifying.

whenever people mention his name, i dont really hear much of what's so great about his music or him as a rapper, its all about how amazing his buzz is, or how fantastic it is that hes so omnipresent, that so many people want to work with him, that he has so much respect. clearly the man's a networking genius, but when i think of sway i dont really think of a remarkable musical talent, i just think of someone shrewd and smart, whos sold the idea of him before theres anything to even sell.
 
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Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
About 6 months ago he seemed to do loads of good tunes- that Download track on the aftershock mix tape is excellent. And he's done some wicked verses on some crunk/grime cross over stuff that Semtex was pushing. It was amazing, he was like UK Hip Hop but good. Genuinely funny lyrics IMO about "how am I going to make my Ps, if my album's downloadable on MP3, the quality's rubbish and there ain't no sleeve....".

But I don't rate that Up Your Speed track on RtR2, personally.
 

MATT MAson

BROADSIDE
I think he lives up to the hype.

Both his mixtapes are really, really good. Dude puts a great deal of thought into what he does as an artist, both creatively and on the business side of things. The Reebok ad, for a start, is fake, Sway's management have been behind a whole series of Adbuster style, culture-jamming Sway ads. The reason he has so much hype is he does a lot of things that 98% of UK artists don't. He promotes himself to the whole UK rather than just London.

By focusing on touring the country and doing gigs for a long time now, the way a band does when they start out, Sway has earned himself a pretty impressive fanbase streching from Haringey to Hull. That's where the hype is coming from, that and the fact that he has some great records to back it up. Most artists who try and break into the business don't look further than the reach of the surrounding pirate stations when it comes to promoting themselves (there are exceptions, obviously), which shouldn't be the case. If you head up north, for example, there are still urban nights on in the week getting 2,000 people through the door who are more than happy to have the likes of Sway come and do their thing. Sway's business model is a good blueprint for getting some attention. Personally I also think he's an amazing artist who is only just beginning to show what he can do, and that doesn't hurt either.
 

qwerty south

no use for a witticism
@ mr mason - i wouldn't consider a fake reebok ad to be 'culture jamming' - if it's fake then it's him touting for a deal like lethal b with his adidas shoe in the 'oh no' video.



sway is not quite in the same musical league as many of his peers but he is young.
he is one of the uk's most humorous mcs (alongside pitman, infinite livez etc).
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
I have no real opinion on Sway but,

gumdrops said:
and a sense of humour which people seem to like in lieu of every UK hip hop artist apparently being devoid of humour

Diggedy Derek said:
It was amazing, he was like UK Hip Hop but good.

I swear, sometimes it's as if none of you have even heard any UK hip hop. In particular, you;ve never heard any Roots Manuva. That guy is fucking hilarious, an excellent producer and a terrific MC. Most fo the UK Hip Hop I've heard as been really excellent. Why all the hate?
 

MATT MAson

BROADSIDE
Granted, it's not culture jamming in the true sense of the word. My point was he'd done a load of spoof ads. As for Lethal wearing adidas, adidias have been making sure nearly everyone in the urban music scene in London over the last few years is showered with clothes and sportswear, they give stuff to Lethal, and a trillion other MCs.

Talking of culture jamming etc, I wish a few MCs would get on things like that in the UK. Be good to see an MC wearing blackspots and being concious of the way sports companies are playing everyone. Kind of against everything hip hop stood for. But that's another topic...
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
xxpost- i agree, uk hip hop gets a constantly unwarranted (well, partially warranted) battering on these boards. i'd take bionic/mad dog, fallacy, roots manuva, rodney p, skinnyman (not ty though) over sway any day. as far as humour, i find skepta much funnier than sway. people seem to rate sway for his grime collabos with terror danjah or wonder and his ability to rap double-time, but most grime MCs could rhyme circles around him.
 
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