Chiddy Bang 'Saved By The Swell' Is Stuck In The Past

Toward the beginning of Kill Bill Vol. 1, Beatrix Kiddo — otherwise known as badass assassin Black Mamba — conducts some brutal self-rehabilitation. After being beaten half to death and shot in the head by her lover, she’s awoken from a four-year coma, ready to exact deadly revenge on her enemies. The only problem is, her muscles have atrophied, and she’s got to retrain them in order to regain her formidable physical abilities. Wheelchairing her way to the hospital parking garage, she locks herself in a car that isn’t her own as she reclines and issues a bizarre command at her feet: “Wiggle your big toe.”

It’s an odd, but insightful —and possibly inaccurate — moment — a peek at the sort of rigor that goes into realigning body and mind to operate at maximum efficiency. Having stepped back into rap after a decade hiatus, Chiddy Bang has been wiggling his big toe, too. For much of the year, he’s unloaded the songs via three separate projects; Lunch, Keep the Change, and now, Saved by the Swell. While there are some cool beats, and he does retain moments of quippy charm, Chiddy’s latest shows that he hasn’t quite recaptured that magnetism that propelled him to blog era stardom.

Stretching out to 54 minutes, Saved by the Swell continues Chiddy’s trend of trading Skittles-tinged soundscapes for ambient soul. That, combined with the slight jaggedness to his vocals cuts through the youthful charm of his releases from 14 years ago. Here, he’s slower and more deliberate, using some fairly tidy rhyme schemes and new perspective to contextualize his position in a new world: “They say I went the route scenic/And it switched up, now this shit is about streamage.”

Indeed, the world Chiddy Bang left was different. At the time of his 2012 releases, streams from DSPs weren’t even factored into record sales, punchline rap had begun to recede to the foreground, and Drake had somewhat freshly re-popularized Auto-Tune. While Chiddy is able to serve up some sharp rhymes, he too often sounds like he’s adapting to 2013 rather than anything unique to his own sound — let alone 2023.

With its repetitive, Auto-Tune-soaked hook and a poor man’s 40 beat, “How Quick Do They Forget?” sounds like a Kirko Bangz track that never made it off the cutting room floor. “I Still Remember” features a similarly bland chorus to go with a beat that’s just as unimaginative. Making matters worse is a dated punchline that wouldn’t have even been good 10 years ago: “I’ma take it to the top though/I’ma do me like Rocko.”

Referencing a 2008 single for the crux of a punchline underscores a general lack of creativity — and the bars of someone who remains anchored in the past, even as he tries to set sail to new territories. Saved by the Swell is littered with other outdated punchline constructions and flows that lack the kineticism of his earlier work. Even the apparent attempts to be modern feel forced, with “Lit Today” and “Turn Up” — consecutive tracks — sounding like cobbled together attempts at making bangers for a 2015 “Get Lit” playlist. The blend of soul beats and uninspired club songs make for an awkward combination that feels as unfocused as it is cumbersome.

The issues that plague Saved by the Swell afflict his previous two projects, too, failing to emit any of the individuality that made his best songs. Back when Chiddy Bang was still a group and he worked with producer Xaphoon Jones, the songs were embedded with Technicolor pop samples that evoked carefree adventures and wide-eyed sincerity. Chiddy’s voice was a little more lithe, which only reinforced the youthful energy that suffused the sound of The Preview and Breakfast. Without those sonics, Chiddy Bang doesn’t really feel like Chiddy Bang.

But, you know, folks grow up, even if “Opposite of Adults” would have you think differently. Still, rich soul loops with hackneyed punchlines doesn’t equal maturity. He’s released three projects this year, so he’s gotten some reps, but it feels like he still needs time. He’s out of a coma and he’s retraining his muscles, but he’s got some work to do before returning to the creator he was.