Over the past few years, electronica and house music has quietly crept its way into the hip hop mainstream. Now rappers are looking to producers like Guetta and Tiesto to ensure serious radio play. Suddenly rap house has become the new wave of the decade. With albums coming out like Kelis's "Flesh Tone," produced entirely by Guetta and Benny Benassi, one has to wonder what musical revelation will take the hip hop community by storm next. Enter Chidera Anamege and Noah Beresin a.k.a. Chiddy Bang. Never before has rap been mixed with indie pop and alternative rock so gracefully. On their debut mixtape " The Swelly Express" they sample tracks from Passion Pit, MGMT and Sufjan Stevens, creating a sound completely unlike any hip hop that has come out this past decade.
The Swelly Express is a revolution of rap culture. The beats are fresh, fun and original and while they scream electronic pop, Chidera Anamege's relentless lyrics and grimy vocals is a constant reminder that this is rap music, at its most diverse. Take "All Things Go," which samples Sufjan Stevens' timeless classic "Chicago" and sounds as if it was produced by Passion Pit. It's flawless. Beresin's briliant manipulation leads listeners to believe that Chicago was meant to be a determined marriage of electro pop and hip hop. What's great about it is that it does not ruin the original; if anything, it amplifies it. It strengthens Stevens' relevance in today's music scene and it provides him with a whole new demographic that will fall in love with him. Same can be said about "Opposite of Adults" which samples MGMT's club gargantuan "Kids." The beat is hauntingly similar but still insists a completely different style of music.
It's like falling in love with "Kids" for the first time, all over again.
Thanks to Chidera the song does not lose any of its essence since the lyrics revolve around the same theme as MGMT's, "I once was a kid all I had was a dream/Mo' money mo problems, when I get it imma pile it up." The lyrics are as earnest and sincere as anything from Girls' "Album." The album offers more than your usual mixtape. Club bangers like "Danger Zone" or "Dream Chasin" are undoubtedly rap whereas tracks like "Truth" infer weird indie pop. On "Slow Down" with Black Thought of the Roots, Chidera slows it down for basically the only time on the album. Even on slow guitar riffs Chiddy sounds sick. Though only 19, Chidera is all ready a master of his craft. He has found his own voice and his own style.
The various skits on Swelly Express remind you of simpler times, like Mase's "Harlem World." The premise is unmistakably set on how corporate fat cats take advantage of young urban artists. In the skit "Meet Mike Hoffman," the CEO of 'Major Label Inc' Mike Hoffman exclaims how "you guys are so cool cause you're like rap, but not rap." What's ironic about it is that merely 3 months after Swelly Express came out all over the major blog spots, Chiddy Bang was signed by EMI. Wow.
Nonetheless, "The Swelly Express" is a strong statement of young artists trying to make it mainstream. The duo have immense potential; they have all ready released their "Air Swell EP" this year, where they sample Kate Nash, La Roux and Hot Chip, and are set to come out with their first proper LP by September. Be on the lookout for this young charismatic duo from Philadelphia.
Just D.
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