t's rather sad when you're already jaded with a genre of music that's still in its infancy, particularly the style tagged as "conscious." Talib Kweli penning a song about the beauty and worth of ebony womanhood is no more genuine than hearing DMX in the middle of a solemn prayer. Slice it anyway you like, but it's all paying lip service. Frankly, I'm more inclined to find the former more contrived, since a remorseless thug and repenting Christian is a believable dyad. Scanning the track listing of this Orlando-by-way-of-Chicago's national debut already leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Seeing titles like "Womanside," "Undercover Griot," and "9 to 5 Poortrait" conjures up a by-the-numbers conscious rap album that will preach to the converted and alienate everyone else. Fortunately, my assumptions were wrong, as Swamburger washes away my negative connotations attached to the conscious tag.


A bubbling synth and playful bassline lay backing to the opener, "9 to 5 Poortrait", Swambruger's dedication to families of all (un)conventions that work diligently in order to provide hope to their offspring. The associated caveat is that everyone shouldn’t sacrifice their emotional and mental progression so the struggle won't be necessary. Fortunately, Swamburger recognizes how lofty such a goal is. "I call it the dedication piece to restoration and peace...it's sort of abstract/In fact, not to undermine reality, but sometimes I feel surreal actually/Perhaps our palette needs more gray areas to see the light, but it's gonna take color to feed 'em right?" Grounded observations like these separate Swamburger from the empty rhetoric spewed by most “conscious” MCs.


While there are the standard (and arguably justified) attacks on materialism and paper chasing throughout the album, when it is coupled with seemingly obvious advice that we have accidentally cast on the wayside, those clichés are transformed into ingenuity -- "Now everybody look at the mirror and tell yourself/And nobody else, I love myself/Without feeling egotistical depression/Obsession is our leader cause we want, want want and take, take, take/Without giving back the back will now break, break, break! BREAK!" Similar profundities are made on tracks like "Sun Vibes", where a seemingly simple, upbeat summertime jam doubles as a homage to the institutions of family, brotherhood, and community.


Like Saul Williams, Swamburger is able to eloquently transmit his mood and meaning to the listener with dense, intricate imagery and wordplay. However, Swamburger doesn't have the limited delivery patterns that Saul has, which would turn off all but the most forgiving heads not intimately familiar with the ways of slam poetry. Similar to Aceyalone, Swamburger is able to effectively contort his delivery to whatever the message and track demands.


Despite production being handled by four people (including Swamburger himself on the closing track), Swamburger's preaching of peace and connection with your fellow man is strengthened with a unifying sound from all camps. A light, loose, airy redefinition of what constitutes a solid hip-hop track permeates the album, combining disparate organic and synthetic elements of soul, funk and electro to create a self-described "Funk/Astro/Hip-hop Extraterrestrially Energized Message".


While condemning false idols and combating negative traits in humanity, ones that he admittedly shares, Swamburger doesn't let the listener forget his ultimate goal of changing the world with his message of unconditional love. Through examining his own faults and struggles while keeping a predominantly uplifting vibe, his message seems viable. Although an ultimately unrealistic goal, his presentation makes me wonder why such a proposition is unrealistic in the first place.