About Swollen Members
Swollen Members is a four-time JUNO Award-winning Canadian hip hop group from Vancouver, British Columbia, consisting mainly of Madchild and Prevail. Frequent collaborators include vocalist Moka Only along with the other former members Easy Roc & Zodak who were only in the group for a few years and producer Rob the Viking, an official group member since 2002. Swollen Members has released nine studio albums, one greatest hits album and 2 compilations, as well as numerous other singles. From 1996 to 2016, Swollen Members were the second best-selling Canadian hip hop artist in Canada and were the best-selling Canadian hip hop group in Canada.
Swollen Members was founded in 1995 by Vancouverites Madchild , Prevail , and Moka Only . Having begun a solo career while living in San Francisco, California, Madchild returned to Vancouver to work. There he met Prevail and Moka Only, who had been working together earlier and joined them. The group had to decide on a name and Moka Only suggested Swollen Members as a joke and it stuck.
The group began testing the international hip-hop waters by releasing four 12-inch vinyl singles on Madchild's own indie label Battleaxe Records initially distributed by New York-based Fat Beats; the singles sold approximately 10,000 copies each.
Following Balance, Swollen Members recorded and released Bad Dreams, released on November 13, 2001, and featuring guests such as Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Son Doobie, Joey Chavez, and former member Moka Only. It appealed to both underground and mainstream audiences, reaching platinum status in Canada. The album earned Swollen Members their second Juno Award and four MuchMusic Video Awards including best rap video, best director and best independent video.
2002's Monsters In the Closet, their third release, brought official group membership for Moka Only and Rob The Viking to Swollen Members. Monsters in the Closet was a collection of B-sides and outtakes along with three new songs, "Breathe" which featured Portuguese Canadian pop singer, Nelly Furtado. Production credits include Evidence from Dilated Peoples. In January 2003, Swollen Members signed with Virgin Records.
In 2003, the band released Heavy. In the same year the songs "All Night" and "Deep End " were featured in the videogame SSX3. In 2004, the Swollen Members song "The Bottom Line" was featured in the video games WWE Day of Reckoning and WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw.
In 2005, Moka Only decided to break off from the group for a second time and continue work on his solo career. The following year, Swollen Members released their fifth full album, Black Magic. It is understood that Madchild and Prevail made an attempt to return to their previously critically acclaimed style and method. Their previous album Heavy was unlisted on their official site discography. A single from the album, "Put Me On ", was released in August 2006. Later that year, Nettwerk Management dropped the group due to Madchild's affiliation with the Hell's Angels.
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