My listening experience with Swizz Beatz has been a rollercoaster ride for the last 25 years. Upon first hearing his production in my last years in high school, there would be moments where I liked it but more moments when I did not. It was an odd time because he was the backbone behind the success of D.M.X.’s first two albums and the production outside of the album was what I liked. Eventually Swizz Beatz would be the poster boy for the “fisher price keyboard beats” many criticized in the late 90’s and early 2000’s but by 2009 something about his production changed for me. The music started to feel like there was more “meat on the bones” and had kick to it that not only serviced the “fly by night,” only concerned with hits crowd but a traditional Hip-Hop ear audience as well. Fast forward years later and it’s time for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary which leading up to this celebratory year, it was announced by Mass Appeal records that a select few beat makers would be providing short EP releases featuring past and present rappers. D.J. Premier handled Vol.1 while Swizz Beatz took the baton for Vol.2. Swizz Beatz offering starts off pretty strong with an upbeat banger, ‘Runaway’ featuring Nas that would have seemed to been a “hit” if released a decade or so earlier. The Lil’ Wayne featured ‘This Sh*t Right Here,’ could have arguably been received in the same fashion as well. By track three Swizz Beatz reminds the audience he comes from HOP music with ‘Take Em’ Out,’ a hardcore New York banger featuring Jadakiss, Benny The Butcher and Scar Lip and samples the drums of Boogie Down Productions ‘The Bridge Is Over’ and a hook which borrows from Onyx’s ‘Throw Ya Guns.’ Swizz Beatz version of ‘Hip-Hop 50…’ series still has an expectation that as a hitmaker he would connect with the popular, current or younger acts. Those tracks hopefully serviced the crowd it was meant for as I was not made a new fan but it presents part of those “50 years” of Hip-Hop music. With a rare Jay Electronica feature to close out this release I was a bit surprised at what I heard from Swizz Beatz offering to the ‘Hip-Hop 50…’ series. It’s not known whether this idea has been lost and there will be more as initially reported but D.J. Premier and Swizz Beatz have set a good barometer for what fans should expect. What did you think of the album?

Singles include:
‘Take Em’ Out’

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