Sir Mix-A-Lot Album: “Swass [PA]”

I have been listening to this cd since I was in middle school (about 12 years ago). This cd just gets better with age. It makes me kinda sad that there isn't anything out there like it today. It's from a different time when people didn't have to rap about killing one another. Swass is all about having a good time. It's funny and entertaining and is totally meant to be taken lightly. You're supposed to be able to laugh and smile the whole time that you're rapping right along with Mix a lot and Kid Sensation. I would recommend it to anyone who is just looking for a different view of rap.

I don't care - Mixalot is Seattle's greatest export. Ya'll can't step to the lyrical excellence, to the mack daddy attitude - Mix is it. SeaTown Represent!

This album is what rap SHOULD be all about. It's fun and bass heavy and just enjoyable to listen to. Sometimes yes, it does get a little cheesy, but that is a big part of the charm to this album. Think of the b@lls it takes to open up your debut CD with a song called "Buttermilk Biscuits" where you rap with an effect on your voice that makes you sound like a chipmunk. I give mix-a-lot a lot of credit for that and for always keeping a sense of humor in rap music which is definately lacking today. This album also used very inventive beats. The music for the song "swass" is very simple but also very unique and sounds very different than your average rap song of that time. It also inspired whoever it is to rip off the chorus line "don't you wish your boyfriend was swass like me?" just change the word "swass" to "hot" and you have yourself a hit. Anyway, bottom line is I think this is a timeless album that is very fun to listen to.

I kind-of chuckle at having "customer ratings" on albums online. You can review a vacuum and describe its features, how it works, its performance, etc. You can't really do that with music. It's based on opinion, not objectivity.

Well, I guess I could makes some objective comments about this album. It is pretty much like other rap albums -- primarily filled with baseless self-aggrandizement and hollow threats against real or imagined rival rappers. It objectifies women and promotes materialism. But you expected all that, so that's not going to affect your purchase decision.

So an album review really becomes a defense of the music or an attack on it. Because I was introduced to this album on a 10-hour road trip with three other teenage friends 20 years ago, it was burned in my head as one of the definitive albums of my youth. Picture Rick in his shades, breathing the "phoo-ha-ha, phoo-ha-ha" of S.W.A.S.S. Picture all four of us doing our best falsetto rap with Kid Sensation on Buttermilk Biscuits and the Squaredance Rap. Picture us playing Rippin' over and over, trying to train our tongues to produce words as fast as Mix-A-Lot's.

And picture us still referring to ourselves as "The Posse" when we got together in Las Vegas last March. Between the four of us who were there we now have 17 children. Times have changed, but we still think we're cool, and we still express that coolness via our love of Sir Mix-A-Lot. Buy the album. You don't know how it will change your life.

Swass is everywhere. We cruise to "Posse on Broadway", we drop mad lyrics like "Swass" and nobody busts crazier rhymes than "Buttermilk Biscuits"! It's absolutely the most Swass-dope every put on vinyl - if your record collection doesn't have this you'd better re-think your collection criteria, baby.