“Welcome to the Poison Experience”  Swizz Beatz said as the strings crescendoed around him. He’s poised, ready and we’re even more ready to hear his album. Throughout this event we experience Swizz on a very personal level during his interview with Manny Norte. As he runs us through a slew of personal anecdotes, we experience three distinct Swizzes at three very seminal points in his life; the troublesome teenager, the producer in his early years and the man he is today.

Swizz is funny, like he’s very funny and throughout the interview he had the room erupting in laughter. He recants stories of his early youth and as “The troublesome teenager” who somehow manages to get kicked out of his borough and finds himself in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s young, cunning and somehow manages to finesse his local high school by making them pay him $800 to DJ at their  prom.

Later in the interview, we meet “the producer in his early years”. At this point in Swizz’s journey, he has gained success due to albums from DMX and Ruff Ryders going platinum. Swizz was in fact very wealthy but he was living on “ramen noodles” 

“For a period of 8 months I was getting royalties, but this is the Bronx, we was getting fake cheques like that all the time. My Grandma told me to keep them so I kept them in a shoe box”.

Unbeknownst to him, those cheques were in fact genuine. He describes how he eventually went to the bank for a completely different reason and he is informed that he has cheques worth of $780,000.

“I didn’t know you could make money in music, I didn’t know the breakdown of like royalists, publishing, syncs – that class wasn’t taught to me”.

It was this lack of knowledge which spurred and invigorated the individual Swizz is today, he sought to get this knowledge by going back to school and one of the most prestigious schools, Harvard.

“I wanted to understand what was happening in rooms and be taken seriously”.

 He firmly believes he is “in power to empower” and this thinking is the basis for his Art company which gives artists 100% commission. Swizz ventured into other avenues besides music but he is incredibly selective with what he does; “I turn down stuff because I have to feel it”. Money has long since not been the driving force for his actions, he doesn’t want to be a “Poor King” – a man with expansive wealth but whose core is vacuous.

SHOW TIME *SWIZZ BEATZ VOICE* 

Swizz, accompanied by BBC’s Symphony Orchestra, began his stellar performance by performing renditions of Antonio Vivaldi’s classics. Hip Hop meets classical music? A fabulous combination. Swizz stayed true to the album’s chronology by performing it from top to bottom. Interjecting the albums flow only to give his reasoning for certain artistic decisions. He was later joined by the Landlord himself, Giggs, to perform Come Again. Swizz constructed the most perfect instrumental for this track. As the bass richoeted and vibrated through the room, your face is forcibly scrunched in satisfied repulsion.  “How is this beat so good?!

Swizz curated particular artistic and visual aspects to bring this album to life, every object, lighting or figure ran directly in accordance with his album’s visual themes. Whether it was the corridors which looked like boxes closing in, the drinks being named after the songs on his album or the intense red lighting which radiated throughout the space – everything had a purpose.

Swizz’s last album was over 11 years ago and was somewhat of a flop, selling only a mere 200,000 copies in its first year. Despite One Man Band being similar in length to Poison, it is less cohesive and Swizz was more dominant on that album, simultaneously and almost incorrectly playing the role of artist and producer. On Poison, Swizz takes more of a producer role, rapping much less but being sure to douse the album in his famous ad-libs

“Show Time”

“G-G-G-GO-Head”

“GATDAMMIT”

“Let’s Go”

The album is 10 track is tracks of pure fire, the epitome of quality over quantity. He teams up with Lil Wayne on Pistol. On. My. Side and Wayne’s metaphors and wordplay will have you rewinding several times just to hear to again. The most surprising feature is Something Dirty/Pic Got Us with Kendrick Lamar, Jadakiss and Styles P. It’s certainly a  group that would immediately spring to mind but it surprisingly works really well.

The album takes a sombre turn on Cold Blooded with Pusha T. His story telling is raw and formidable, sounding akin to classics like Da Art of Storytelling and I Used to love H.E.R. Pusha’s words are so descriptive and real it creates a vivid running clip of the events in your mind.

Little sister don’t talk much
‘Cause their uncle had the Midas touch
Evil is as evil doez
Mama looked away, blamed it on his needle buzz
Sold the food out the freezer when he needed drugs
Beggin’ like he Cool J when he needed love
Yeah, bodega babies

But the mood is suddenly ratchet, brash and hype again on Stunt ft 2 Chainz. 

The album and concept are both really good. Seeing as a Swizz Album isn’t something I’d automatically reach for, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Depending on how your music taste is wired, you may love just aspects of the LP or it in its entirety. Nonetheless, be sure to stream Poison! 

Available on all major streaming platforms.