CD review: Halfway House Mcees, Shit on a Shingle (Eighth and Dawson Records)
By Jenny Gamble
Having met them all minus one (Compound – who I am told is in an actual halfway house; what some artists won’t do to be believable), I can safely say – this is the real deal when it comes to hip hop. I spoke with Halfway House Mcees frontman Swiss Precise and was able to get the skinny on his newest release.
Swiss Precise, the name, came from the concept of the Rolex watch, perpetual movement, always on the clock. Originally, K Swiss, which stood for ‘killing suckers when I see some,’ Precise didn’t want to have to fight with the shoe company. Like the watch and the idea, time is something that Swiss Precise doesn’t have a lot of. An artist who works in the vein of urban art through spray acrylics and water colors, Swiss is also a fashion designer, and a full-time Long Beach hustler. “Really, I am just a pretty funky white boy,” Precise said. “I go in, I do my thing and I call it a rap.”
Shit on a Shingle is the kind of record that keeps you guessing all the way through. There are those tracks that you say, “Yeah, it’s a rap/hip hop album,” and there are those that you step back and think about. “Jean Michelle Basquat” is one of those tracks. “(It) was done in the same way I do my art, freestyle, just spitting about whatever was on my mind that day,” Precise said. (The song has a corresponding animated music video on Youtube.)
Shit on a Shingle is the first and last album for the Halfway House Mcees and was executive-produced through Eighth and Dawson Records, a label co-owned by Dizzy of Ugly Duckline and Swiss Precise. The Discreet Merchant crew (producers of the album) are mainly the only producers that Swiss Precise works with and said, “I don’t really go outside the box, I go through them, because I like to keep everything within my crew, it’s the only way I know it’s going to be dope.”
“Isabella’s Revenge” is a song in the same vein as “Roxanne Roxanne,” a track that was originally a B-side release for well-known hip hop pioneers, U.T.F.O. Shit on a Shingle‘s hidden track is Precise’s favorite. Having made the song with some of his favorite rappers and all from scratch, he likes the idea behind the title, “East Meets West.”
Swiss Precise lives to do what he loves and does nothing but that. Like shit on a shingle, a poor man’s meal, hip hop is Precise’s food for survival. This is the real thing, hip hop in a California rap, and as I wait for that depth that I find on the record to come out regarding what he wants people to know about is this album. “It’s a great album, go buy it,” Precise said. Ahh well, a man of few words, guess he is saving them all for his solo album.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/swissprecise or www.myspace.com/halfwayhousemcees.
