Song For The City by Sway ft Ed Drewett (Review)

Review of Song For The City by Sway ft Ed Drewett

Let me take ya back to 2005. It was 2005. I was living in MK, and guess what, it sucked. Then, it all started
to change. How come? Well, Milton Keynes was finally starting to enter people’s minds. The MK Bowl was
putting on some massive gigs with the likes of Oasis and Green Day choosing the Sunny Fields of the Bowl
to put on Monster Gigs. Then on the flip side, people like The Game came over from Compton, CA, to put
on a monster show at Empire in MK. He’d split with G-Unit, so my mate Uros turning up in his “G-U-NOT”
shirt was brilliant! Then, this guy called Sway, came out.

Review of Song for the City by Sway

I’d been listening to Sway for a few months. He was all over Channel U, working with the likes of Bigz
and BabyBlue, and I’d got his “This Is My Promo” mixtapes. Then, he released his debut album, ‘This Is
My Demo’. It was a great album, nominated for the Mercury Music Award in 2006 (but lost to the Arctic
Monkeys debut album). I still listen to it all the time. But why did I have such an affection with Sway? Well,
aside from the track, ‘Download’, which still makes me laugh to this day, he started the 7th Track, ‘Up Your
Speed’ with the following Lyrics:

London (UP YOUR SPEED!)
Manchester (UP YOUR SPEED!)
Milton Keynes (UP YOUR SPEED!)
Bristol (UP YOUR SPEED!)

We were famous! My hometown was finally given a shout out! Me and my mates went mental, we loved it.

(At this point Ed would like to apologise to readers for Dan’s attempt at getting a job with the MK tourist board, oh and by the way, he mentioned Bristol – now that is HOME! Damn I started now, move on)

Anyway, yet another shout of “SLATES WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING ON ABOUT??” I’M GETTING TO IT,
OK!!!

Sway, or Little Derek, has been around for a few years, signed with Konvict Music (Akon’s label), and
released another albums since then, with his latest, ‘The Deliverance’, due out later this year. He came
back onto the scenes a few months ago with the banger, ‘Level Up’, and now he’s back with ‘Song For
The City’ featuring Ed Drewett, and it’s BEAUTIFUL!!! We’re all getting ready for the Olympics, we’ve had
the Euros and the Queens Jubilee, and there’s a lot of British Pride at the moment. And this song sums up
everything we’re feeling and representing at the moment.

The song is slow, with a massive orchestra providing the backing music. Ed Drewett provides a beautiful
and inspirational chorus that gets you going. The verses are filled with intricate lyrics and metaphors
throughout, Sway really shows why he’s a lyrical master. The words he speaks, the places he mentions, the
emotions he describes, remind you why a place like London is brilliant. It’s multi-culture at it’s best, and is
summed up with lyrics like these

“It’s not just black and white like the zebra to Abbey Road,
But it don’t take a Beatles picture to see we’re in a great place”.

“Europeans and Asians, yeah we’re the living proof,
That Israelis & Arabs can live together, we’re the truth,
It’s London”.

Please, PLEASE watch the video. It’s brilliant. It has all the lyrics on screen so you can sing along, and it gets you really proud of where you come from. And I’ve gotta finish this by screaming two things. First of all, I love being British. Secondly, Dcypha!!!

Anyway, let us know your views on the track below, or by tweeting @MusicEyz or @phatslates. Remember,
Music Eyz brings you the latest views, news and reviews on the hottest music you have and haven’t heard
yet. So keep it locked, OK!!!

Cheers

Slates

Review by Dan Slater