TBGB Pick of the Week: March 21, 2011

“Promise Land”
Shaddie Swag
From the album No Cross, No Crown (2008)
http://www.shaddieswag.com/

Shape notes meet thick beats on “Promise Land.”

Using as his music backdrop a chorus singing what sounds like a shaped-note version of “Bound for the Promised Land,” Christian hip hop’s Shaddie Swag (aka Rashad Howard) – known as the “Hardest Rapper in Buffalo” – is himself in search of the promised land.

For Swag, the promised land is here on earth.  It means escape from the hard times of the street. “I’m on my way there – I’m on my way there – I can see it!”  An innovative and intriguing groove.