Swade G

Get ready for Swade G as he pumps your ears with funky ‘n’ fresh flavor on the new album, Ghetto Life. Born Wade Kibby, Swade has decided to step out of the shadows to come hard with his debut record. His older brother is actually “Dirty Walt” Kibby, who is the co-founder of Fishbone and now a member of Year of the Dragon. G’s brother has definitely showed him the ropes along the way and Swade has even helped “Dirty Walt” with his side project by co-writing & producing certain tracks. Now Swade has an album that he can call his own finally while giving much thanks and props to his brother, Walt.

On the new recording, Swade G handles the vocals and most of the instruments while Compton-based rapper, Kool Aid takes care of the rhymes. There are also some special guests featured on the new record that helped by adding their own talents/skills to the mix. If you like a mixture of funk, rap, hip-hop and R&B Soul, then you will love Ghetto Life! The G funk era and funk era combine here to make up Swade G’s persona. It makes sense when you hear that G’s influences include: Rick James, George Clinton and Warren G just to name a few. Swade brings to you some funky rap tracks that you can groove to and bob your head to.

Right off the bat on the opener, “Dirty Walt”, you experience bouncin’-off-the-ceiling jamz that are coming straight for you. Swade gets you pumped up right from the start with some tight rhymes and even tighter beats. In the words of rapper Nelly, I think we have ourselves some “HOT SHIT!” here. As the CD rolls on, you’ll hear smooth flows with hype beats galore! You’ll even stop and think at times due to some catchy, life-worthy lyrics. For instance on track 10, “Ups and Downs”, Swade brings you the good and bad that life has to offer. He says here that “you make the moves you wanna make” and that you can either use mind or muscle. You have to have the ups with the downs, but how you live out these times is up to you. The choice is yours; now go do it!

This hip-hop performer/writer from Los Angeles now calls Long Beach California home where he owns Nuttsackular Productions. Keepin’ busy and makin’ moves is what Swade is all about these days. And for Swade G and his Ghetto Life, there is no other way to be. For more on this talented rap funkster from Cali, SKOPE out www.swadeg.com. - Skope Magazine

MAY 12, 2010
iNTERViEWED BY BRiAN LUSH
The working class port town of Long Beach, California is often overshadowed by the grime of Los Angeles and glare of Tinseltown, but in the early nineties, Long Beach – along with the neighboring Compton – was ground zero for the G-funk sound that came to typify West Coast hip-hop and boasted such progenitors as SNOOP DOGG and WARREN G. Back when this hypnotic sound was intoxicating listeners and angering a few concerned citizens, a young man by the name of WADE KIBBY was getting an invaluable musical education by working in the studio with the likes of SNOOP DOGG producer E WHITE and WARREN G producer CHUCK TAYLOR. Music was always in the cards for KIBBY having grown up in a musical family (his older brother is DIRTY WALT KIBBY of the legendary ska/funk band FISHBONE). After years of working behind the console and numerous false starts at getting in front of the mic, KIBBY adopted the moniker SWADE G, paired up with Compton-based rapper KOOL AID and released the debut joint ‘GHETTO LIFE’ – catalog of killer beats and catchy melodies that set the back drop for SWADE’s hip-hop treatises on staying focused (‘MONEY THEN A NUT’), getting ahead (‘HOW TIME FLIES’) and staying strong despite rough economic times (the title track ‘GHETTO LIFE’).

ROCKWIRED spoke with SWADE G (WADE KIBBY) over the phone regarding the new release. Here is how it went.

I interviewed your brother WALTER a few months ago and now I’m talking to you. Usually, when I’ve interviewed brothers they’re in the same band so this is a first.
I hope that’s good.

It is. With all the work that has gone into GHETTO LIFE put behind you how do you feel about the end result?
I actually like the end result but as a producer, you continue to do some material and find yourself falling in love with some of your new material, but I still love GHETTO LIFE.

Who all did you work with in putting it together?
The person who I mainly worked with is KOOL AID. He’s my partner and he does most of the rapping on most of the songs and he helps me with the hooks and the ideas and I’ll take a line that he’s got to re-vamp and work it out and sing it. He helps me to be able to finish the beats that I make. It’s basically him – one person – that does it. Other guys come in and they might have some bars or something to say on something and they add to it but it’s basically just me and him.

Talk about how music started for you. Because of your brother, I can only imagine that it was a musical household that you grew up in.
It was a musical household. We were always into music as kids. We’d be out playing with bats and rackets like they were guitars. My father bought us guitars when we were really little kids. I kept playing my guitar. My father also played trumpet so my brother went in that direction. I kind of stuck with the guitar for a little bit. Now you hear all of the bass playing and all of the stuff I’m doing and that is where my real love is at. But yeah, we definitely grew up in a musical household.

What artists spoke to you growing up?
In the beginning, the heaviest thing that I would’ve gotten into is PARLIAMENT. I used to go to the record store with my brother and this was around the time that GEORGE CLINTON had a live album out. The picture of the album kind of grabbed me. On the cover, he’s on a mothership and he’s got these boots on. I started listening to the music and I’d play it on the record player over and over. So it all started with PARLIAMENT and then I got into other things like P-FUNK and BOOTSY COLLINS. There were a whole lot of other artists but that was probably the first artist that I probably tried to really get into and absorb.

It’s kind of interesting how inadvertently those funk sounds ended up inspiring the rhythms behind hip hop.
Yeah, it’s true.

You got your teeth cut working with the likes of E.WHITE and CHUCK TAYLOR. Describe what it was like working with them.
As a young producer, I moved to Long Beach in 1995 and started getting the equipment to do production and as I was doing that I was running into people like E. WHITE. He worked on a mixed tape that I had done for him. I also did a project for CHUCK TAYLOR which was a little single that I had gotten a few copies of pressed. In that time I was paying some dues and making tracks and putting songs together and getting better at my craft. I was just getting my sound together.

Describe the creative process in terms of getting tracks made. How does that work?
There are a couple of different ways. Sometimes you’re inspired and you have something already to go on and you have it playing in your head so you just sit down and put it together piece by piece. That’s how I produce. I do it all piece by piece. Other times you just start messing around and you see if you can find something. Sometimes you hear another song and you want to do something similar to that. You know that when you start working that it’s not going to sound like that song so you go ahead make something along those lines. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. There are a number of different ways of going at it. If you want to be a good producer, you need to have a few different ways of going about making tracks or you’re just going to have one kind of sound.

What songs off the album stand out for you the most and why?
MONEY THAN A NUT is one that stands out. Its about time I went through where I realized that I needed to spend more time working on making something happening and not focus so much on the relationship aspect of things. I realized that if I worked harder and got things done then I could have a lot more fun in my relationship. You go around wanting to have a companion and then you spend the all the wrong kind of time that way and you don’t spend all of the correct time doing other things and this song is about the point where I was finally beginning to understand that. I like how all of that came out in that song. That’s a pretty good one. GHETTO LIFE is a pretty good one. That song came together in the middle of the recession when things weren’t really looking all that great but inside of me, I felt that things aren’t bad for everybody. I think some people needed a message. Something that said get your ass up and do what you need to do. Americans are always looking for that American Dream somehow and that gets brought up in the song HOW TIME FLIES. There is a line in there that goes “Ain’t it funny how time flies/ Are you getting your American Pie/” Are you paying attention? Things are getting hard. Are you doing what you’re supposed to do or are you blaming everything on other people and things are collapsing down and you’re not doing what you need to do for yourself? I would really like for people to listen to that song and get something from it.

You also make a shout out to your brother on this CD.
Yeah. Without my brother doing what he’s doing and carrying the torch for so long and being in the trenches and still being a member of FISHBONE, I’m almost positive that I wouldn’t be putting my album together right now. Because of his longevity and me being able to watch him for so long, I guess I still see music as something that I want to do, you know what I mean? He’s the reason why I’m putting this together. That’s why I’ve got a song on there for him and he helped song on ‘HOW TIME FLIES’. My brother is pivotal in what I’m doing right now.

I heard you were featured at SXSW. How did that go?
That went pretty good. It was very successful. I just love going out for SXSW. There are always a lot of bands playing and it is noisy hell and its fun being there and being a part of the whole thing. SXSW was a lot of fun.

What would you like someone to come away with after they’ve heard this album?
I hope they come away thinking that it was wan honest record and they liked it.

From the first time that you realized your sense of musicality up until now, what has been the biggest surprise for you?
How do you mean that?

What didn’t you expect to happen that happened? Was the road easier than you thought or harder?
Wow! That’s a good one! I just now started to give the proper effort that the music needs in order to take off and things seems to be going in the right direction and I’m happy with what’s occurring right now. In the past I didn’t put forth the proper effort to try and get where I’m at. I was always trying and not knowing what to do or where to go and as I’ve come along I kind of figured everything out. When everything was in place I started doing what I needed to do. I worked on a lot of projects and a lot of things and had sound issues. I could hear where I hadn’t worked hard enough on some of the tracks. They didn’t sound the way that they were supposed to. I just came around to understanding that I really needed to work harder at everything and that is where I’m at now.

It sounds like you’re always behind the mixing board as a producer. Who are you producing at the moment?
Right now I’m producing KOOL AID who is a part of the SWADE G group. I’m doing his FAMOUS album. It’s marvelous too. I’m more than halfway done with that. It’s a real good album so far. We’ve got a few more songs to do. CHUCK TAYLOR has been back around and I’ve done a couple of little things with him so they’ve got a buzz going around Long Beach and people are liking what his stuff is sounding like. I’ve been working with him and that’s been about it. BLACK NICK who is out on tour with WARREN G is rapping on his album and has been doing some good work as well. We actually have a show that is coming up with WARREN G on June 25th at the KEY CLUB in Hollywood.

- Rockwired

It's been said there is nothing new under the sun. This philosophy is best debated elsewhere. New music and new artists are important to both music fans and execs, yet human nature generally resists change. Which probably explains why we love classics so much: root beer and ice cream, peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk, and of course hip-hop and ganga!
Ghetto Life is the newest release from Swade G. It's got the same tried and true elements you would expect any dope hip-hop record to include: mad mixes, bombastic beats, some lyrics to make you laugh, and maybe the most important part: some music for getting high. This isn't a complaint by any stretch of the imagination, just an admission of guilty pleasure!
"Dirty Walt" kicks off with a funky old school cut. It helps to set the tone for the rest of the record. "I'm so high, spaceship shit" they proclaim as much to themselves as to the audience. The 2nd song, "Ghetto Life" is an honest, yet humorous look at everyday struggles. "I'm ghetto like perms in the kitchen, every blunt I hit tastes like wood." "How Time Fly's" is an anthem with a groovy hook for a chorus. "Numbers" is about hiding the contents of your pockets. "Sunshine" and "Think Of You" showcases the softer side of Swade, while the next song "This Weed", is quite the opposite, full of flirtatious and naughty imagery. The main thread running throughout the entire record is survival. Yet not just surviving, but trying to remain positive while hustling.
The album displays the diverse skills of this talented, up and coming mc. You will be able to hear the influences by Devin the Dude, Ol Dirty Bastard, early Outkast, and yes even George Clinton! While Ghetto Life might not actually pioneer any new ground as far as hip-hop is concerned, some things never change. No one should mess with classic faves like cookies and milk, or hip-hop. Sometimes, you just need to relax with a record like this to make it another day. I would rate this 3.5 blunts out of 5.
Twitter Summary: Ghetto Life by Swade G sounds like hanging out with Devin the Dude and Ol Dirty Bastard. Classic hip hop sound to get high to, 3.5 blunt rating out of 5.
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