Audio Addiction: Shwayze

Shwayze’s music glides by on catchy hooks and clever lines. I’m honestly surprised he’s not more popular than he is at this point. You don’t have to love hip hop to love Shwayze. He’s pop enough to be readily digestible by mainstream radio, but cool enough to like. He also had his own reality show on MTV, appropriately titled Buzzin’.

I think he suffered from a lack of critical approval surrounding his debut. His sophomore effort, however, is a hell of a lot better than his first attempt. The tracks seem a lot more polished and a little more complex, not so heavily reliant on just an infections hook. Honestly, I’ve listened to “Corona and Lime,’ his second single, a couple of hundred times at this point (driving around down the shore over the course of two summers), and I still can’t remember anything aside from the chorus.

Wait, I just put it on, and all of a sudden I know the words. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing for Shwayze.

Anyway, what’s more important is that Let it Beat, the sophomore album, has a lot more complexity. Start off with a track like “Maneater” and then graduate to the likes of “Livin’ it Up ft. Snoop Dogg” and “Dirty Little Girl.” In reality, if you like one track then you’ll probably like all of them. If you don’t like one track, then you’re boring.

Check out the lead single from Let it Beat called “Get U Home” above.