One of Canada’s biggest hip-hop groups is back together and will kick off a cross-country tour close to home.
Swollen Members, the rap duo of Prevail and Madchild, along with producer Rob the Viking, a four-time Juno winning group, will be joined by fellow West Coast rapper Moka Only for their Bury the Hatchet tour as the tour begins Nov. 7 at the KCC in Port Alberni. Nanaimo will be the second stop on the tour, with a show at the Queen's Hotel on Nov. 8.
Swollen Members released a single from the archives titled Faceless Kings this year before hosting a one-day rap music festival in Vancouver this summer. In an interview with Black Press Media, Prevail said digging into the archives got him to talk to Madchild for the first time in about four years.
“All you kind of need is that one piece of inspirational material to push it all forward and then it literally has felt like no time has passed and I am very, very grateful for that,” he said. “Nothing egregious happened – it wasn’t a total collapse or meltdown. Everyone just kind of went different directions. Mad was doing his solo thing; I started doing some solo stuff – I did three EPs with my nephew under Alpha Omega; Rob stayed producing and opened a studio and is still doing production and engineering.”
Prevail said though it has been a while since the group toured together, the energy is still there.
"I am not sure I am going to climb a 50-foot scaffolding and hang upside-down with the mic in my teeth anymore. but we will definitely be jumping around and crowd surfing and engaging and doing all that,” Prevail said.
The group members are all from the West Coast: Prevail and Moka Only grew up in Langford, Rob the Viking on Gabriola Island and Madchild in Vancouver. Prevail said the hometown crowd at the start of the tour will help start off with momentum.
“The fact that we stayed here and didn’t end up migrating to other parts of the country, I think kind of held a special part in our hearts for sure but it was a bit of a rallying call, like yeah, the West Coast can do this too,” he said.
Prevail and Rob the Viking work together regularly with a group called XL the Band, a hip-hop/jazz group which is quite different to Swollen Members’ heavy style.
“I was always a very cryptic rapper with Swollen traditionally – that’s kind of where I lived,” Prevail said. “With XL it has been very refreshing to be able to sort of wear my heart on my sleeve a little bit more than I would have with Swollen but every couple of songs, no matter what we are doing with the XL stuff I say ‘you guys got to still give me some mud, blood and rust – I still have to be Prevail; I still need a little grit in my teeth for the underground stuff.’”
Whether or not a new full-length album from Swollen Members is on the horizon is not clear, but for now, the group will visit 20 Canadian cities in eight provinces between Nov. 7 and Dec. 1.
"If all of us leave the Sprinter van alive at the end of the tour, I will let you know then,” Prevail said about the potential for a new album.
Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite.ca for $50.
