Derek Sedam
Assistant Online Editor
Malibu beats and rhymes may work for L.C. and MTV, but ultimately fails to impress the rest.
It takes a quick crash-course lesson in the new ways of the music industry to describe Malibu “chill-hop” artist Shwayze’s self-titled debut. It’s all about the hype and not much else.
Bloggers have hyped bands with only demos and made them headliners for festivals in mere months. Everything around a new artist relies on buzz, which happens to be part of the title for Shwayze’s new MTV reality show.
So what happens when a former ballsy reality star Cisco Adler and Shwayze mix on an album?
Tales of trips down PCH, smoking a substance that has too many names, hooking up and not much else spill onto paper. And, in Shwayze’s and Adler’s case, the blend certainly brings on a reality show, a spot on Warped Tour and possible plot lines with “The Hills” — Adler dated Lauren Conrad for a while. The music takes a back seat for these guys as their lyrics show.
“Save a couple dimes/Draw a couple lines/‘Cus’ the paper make the sign/Hangin’ on my dressing room door/It’s time,” Shwayze lazily rhymes on the aptly titled “Lazy Days”.
Cleary the music takes a back seat for these guys.
The group is a duo, no doubt about it. Cisco always has a hand in the publicity photos and interviews, along with providing the beats, choruses and hooks. It’s an interesting combo that really hasn’t been tried since R. Kelly and Jay-Z did “Best of Both Worlds,” which lasted an album and two trials for Kelly.
With all the pre-album publicity that started almost a year in advance, the struggle is on for Shwayze to deliver. He saves himself from the rest of his mediocre lyrics on some tracks, like the self-revelatory “James Brown is Dead” and the cruising down PCH album opener “Roamin.”
“Gotta live it up/Can’t trade the Trans-am for a pickup truck/I work hard all day in the garden/ Now we startin’ to show for something/Limousine if the show for something,” Shwayze declares on, “Roamin.”
His perfect bro’d-out, laid-back delivery that accompanies his strolling along the beach and poolside story telling is a change from Soulja Boy dances and nut-job Lil Wayne lyrics, but it doesn’t stick the way he retells his same old L.A. days every other song.
Shwayze gives a rookie performance with his lyrics, which show promise to be better on future endeavors. However, its Adler’s production and chorus crooning that is skankier than his tabloid persona.
Adler, unsuccessful in his first day job with Whitestarr and deeply trying to fill his famous father Lou’s shoes, looks to mash up the simplest of Jack Johnson, G. Love and Sublime to keep the beats at a minimum and the guitars to a single strum. The blinders that Cisco puts on the production hinder the album from reaching its full potential.
Adler seems to throw in the towel early on in the album. After singing, “Baby will be my Corona and lime/and I will be your main squeeze,” constantly on the made-for-advertisements,“Corona and Lime,” three songs into the album you have to wonder if he downed a few himself.
The only track worth a couple plays is the seductive first single, “Buzzin.” Adler sets up a dark rhythm and seductive hook, while Shwayze spits all the game he’s got at any female listening.
While this might be the quintessential summer hip-hop record of 2008, it’s like anything else MTV reality stars, such as The Hills ladies or Ashlee Simpson, have thrown at us. Lots of buzz, no sting.
08-25-2008
