Swizz shoots, scores and swaggers

By Jordan Sargent

Published Aug. 28, 2007

Swizz Beatz is a producer — a notorious and very successful one — but make no mistake about his second solo album, One Man Band Man: It's an emcee album, and a very interesting one at that.

Swizz's first album, Swizz Beatz Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories, was his album by name, but only one of the 17 songs didn't bear the name of a better or more famous rapper. This type of functional compilation album was nothing new, but rarely does it end in a satisfying listen. So we then can admire, and in a way be relieved by, Swizz deciding to make One Man Band Man a solo album that can be called that in the classical sense.

It also sticks (unsurprisingly) to the cultivated production aesthetic that Swizz himself has cultivated throughout his career, even though he only gets production credits on five of One Man Band Man's 12 songs. That aesthetic was honed mostly during the hayday of the DMX-led crew Ruff Ryders, where Swizz produced many of X's biggest hits, including "Party Up (Up in Here)" and "Ruff Ryders Anthem." The former (along with his brilliant production on T.I.'s "Bring 'Em Out") best exemplifies Swizz's near-trademark sound and the sound of One Man Band Man: slick, hyperactive synths that sound like fireworks and bottle rockets shooting off interspersed with liberal usage of whistles, bells and sirens. In short, most Swizz songs sound like ticker tape parades, and they do so on One Man Band Man, too. The only difference now is Swizz is throwing the parade for himself.

The album's opening four songs are a relentless barrage of energy and a total distillation of Swizz Beatz, the person and emcee: brash, cocky and tirelessly in-your-face. Swizz is probably the guy during pickup basketball games that says every shot is going in as he shoots it, and the guy who still claims he's the best player on the court even after seven of those shots miss.

As you might imagine, this can get annoying, but that's part of One Man Band Man's appeal.

Swizz is uncompromising in his boasting, but by making his instrumentals as bombastic as his "It's me, bitches," lyrics, One Man Band Man is encompassing and suffocating (in a good way) without reservation. It might be stubbornness, it might be genius, but it's undoubtedly invigorating.

What this all leads to is an impressively cohesive collection of songs, a modern rap album that actually makes a statement about its artist. As such, the songs on One Man Band Man have the luxury of not needing to be individually great (not that most aren't) because they fit into a larger, but concise, narrative. As such, the album's worse songs (or, the ones you won't listen to outside of the album a year from now) — "Product Man," "Big Munny," "Part of the Plan" — are not only passable, but also twistedly essential.

The peaks then are treats: the deliciously delirious "It's Me Bitches" (and the mind-blowing remix), the rumbling, swaggering "Money in the Bank" and the sweeping, bouncy "Top Down."

And though it won't get much press, don't mistake the fact that One Man Band Man is a nearly remarkable feat: a succinct album that is unmistakably that of its artist. The kid might have a future in this rap thing.