In today’s pop culture, it’s hard not to come across horror elements like zombies, vampires and other creepy stuff that go bump in the night. As Swamp Thing, underground hip-hop vets Timbuktu, Chokeules and Savilion collectively combine a love of old-school B-movies with classic hip-hop to create Creature Feature, a project that bumps in that classic boom-bap fashion. Stream Creature Feature here until Dec. 4.
ListenCreature Feature by Swamp Thing
Streaming until Dec. 4
Tracklist
The trio regularly congregates at producer/MC Timbuktu’s Toronto studio on a weekly basis to knock back a few brews and work on new music. It was during one of these sessions, notes Timbuktu, when Swamp Thing was born. With song titles like “First Contact,” “B-Movie Monster” and “Red Planet,” the group riff on pop culture themes and samples to create a frighteningly good concept album.
“Somewhere in the drinking, we kind of came into that,” Timbuktu says of the Creature Feature concept. “I think with a few of our projects lately, we’ve been looking at creating some sort of common thread throughout. Once you start thinking that way, it makes it easier to write and be creative to explore concepts in a way that’s fun.”
Indeed, getting past the horror conceit, Swamp Thing’s Creature Feature exists as a collection of party anthems and hip-hop sounds that conjure references to those old corny horror, sci-fi and blaxploitation flicks of yesteryear. Each member is an accomplished artist in his own right. In making the 13 tracks, the rappers note that it’s not about following current trends but rather creating music that they themselves like.
And if people want to call a project like Creature Feature nerdcore, then it’s all good. Though that’s not really the intent, notes Timbuktu.
“I don’t think we have a target audience," he says. "Basically we try to make music that we like. We grew up listening to golden age hip-hop from DJ Premier to the Beastie Boys. It’s just ideas over really tough beats.”
“As far as the nerdcore thing, if someone wants to label it a certain way that’s fine," Savilion adds. "We don’t call ourselves nerdcore, but if that community wants to embrace us because they can identify with it, then that’s great. If horror folks feel it because we’re talking about monsters and zombies then that’s cool too.”
The ultimate measure of success in making Swamp Thing is in making music that the trio wants to hear. And in a diverse Canadian scene — one that features names like Drake, Rich Kidd, Classified and more — there’s room for a wide range of music without conforming to a particular hip-hop sound, the group notes.
“The whole spread is there but we just try to do our own thing,” Timbuktu says of the Canadian scene, adding that the trio is already prepping for the Creature Feature sequel.
“The process of making music is just to have fun while doing it,” says Savilion. “It’s for the people who get off on pop culture and B-movie-type references like we do. Every song, even without getting the references, hang[s] together as banging hip-hop tracks.”
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