Review: The Cappuccino Swaggger - The Cappuccino Swagger

The Cappuccino Swagger – The Cappuccino Swagger
2008, The Cappuccino Swagger

Mixing rap and electronica, The Cappuccino Swagger comes out of London with a sound born of bedroom or basement noodling that’s been going on since Casio built their first keyboards. Simplistic arrangements and mellow, light-hearted raps are the things of The Cappuccino Swagger. On their debut album, The Cappuccino Swagger, the band claims to sound like Magic Mushrooms In Stereo. Emotion Pro, the heart of The Cappuccino Swagger, aims to “teach and reach” with his music, and to make a difference in his community and the world.

Emotion Pro makes some great musical choices on The Cappuccino Swagger, opting for classic Soul and R&B sounds at times to back up his raps. The arrangements for songs such as Winter Alone, Sexy Sexy, Vanity Fair, Take It Easy and Money are uncomplicated and catchy. There’s a definite pop/dance sense here that could turn into something. The difficulty I had with this record is that while Emotion Pro may show flashes of lyrical prowess, the subject matter is generally unfocused and unstructured. The energy on the raps just isn’t there. The music made me want to buy into this performance, but I had a hard time doing so. When the disc was over I just didn’t have any tracks that stuck out in my mind as something I’d want to go back and listen to again. This doesn’t speak to the talent of Emotion Pro at all, but it speaks worlds of the energy that comes across in the music.

The Cappuccino Swagger shows real potential as a producer and creator of electronic music. He may even be a decent rapper (I don’t consider myself an expert), but the energy this music needs to come alive is absent, as if Emotion Pro were going though the motion here rather than working on material he’s excited about. Please feel free to disagree, as I am sure there will be folks who love this disc, but it just didn’t work for me on the rap side. I would have enjoyed it immensely as an instrumental disc or with more energy.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about The Cappuccino Swagger at www.myspace.com/emotionpro. You can purchase a copy of The Cappuccino Swagger at www.cdbaby.com/cd/cswagger.