Interview With Music Label Swang Hard
The Swang Hard label recently released its new single “Down” featuring Worthy, ChicoCash, and Green. Since launching in 2012, Swang Hard has become one of the leading hip-hop labels in southern Texas.
Check out the interview with Swang Hard.
Jae Monique: What got you into music?
Swang Hard: That’s a pretty loaded question. The easiest answer would probably be the brotherhood. All the people we grew up around just kind of picked it up little by little. Once guys start rapping, then the next guy says “hey I can do that too.” The next thing you know, everybody you’re surrounded by is rapping and before you know it, you’ve become a crew. It’s relatively easy to gravitate towards rap music when you grew up in the streets. It’s a natural progression and since none of us were tall enough to play basketball, we started rapping.
JM: Where are you guys from?
Swang Hard: Collectively we are from all over the place, but we all currently live and work out of Port Lavaca, TX.
JM: When did Swang Hard start?
Swang Hard: We started in 2012, but over the last couple of years is when we started to see a real uptick in awareness.
JM: Tell me about the new single “Down.”
Swang Hard: “Down” is our first single introducing our newest member, Worthy. Worthy came onto the roster a little more than a couple months ago and just exploded on the scene. His work ethic is unprecedented so it only made sense that he got a video. We got Chico and Green to feature on this record because they’re both monsters and it helped to add a bit of experience to Worthy’s first single.
JM: Who are your musical influences?
Swang Hard: That’s going to depend on which member of the team you ask. Some of the influences I know we all share are Boosie, Jeezy, Yo Gotti and Z-Ro. We tend to gravitate towards a southern sound, but obviously, we have members that like a little bit of everything. East Coast is probably a close second.
JM: What are your long-term goals?
Swang Hard: Financial security would probably be the most generic answer I could give here because frankly, who doesn’t want some money. Truth be told, I would say our biggest long-term goal is to remove the stigma attached to being a predominantly Hispanic label. I think people tend to lump Hispanic artists from Texas into a genre of music that may not have progressed much from the times of guys like S.P.M. We have a bit of a chip on our shoulder when it comes establishing that we can be as talented vocally, and from a production standpoint, as some of these artists deemed fit for the mainstream. The thing that always makes us laugh is when people hear our music and then see our video and go, “Whoa…..these guys are Mexican?”, lol. Yeah, we want to change that.
JM: What was the best song released under the label, and why?
Swang Hard: You like to ask the impossible questions huh? Oh man, I couldn’t even tell you. It would definitely be between our newest single “Down” and our last video “100k”. Beyond that, I think it boils down to everyone’s preference.
JM: Name the label members and how they get down.
Swang Hard: The label has a pretty solid roster that we’ve been building since 2012. Green and Body were the first two to get down. They linked up with Green’s brother, Ruben, who bought all the initial stuff we needed for the studio. It’s been Swang Hard ever since. They did their thing for a good minute and then about a year later or so, they invited me (Django) into the fold. We dropped a couple of mixtapes and then just kind of quickly became the biggest thing in a very small area. Our town Port Lavaca only has about 10k people in it. The next person to get down with us was Joe Phats. He was from our area as well so it was only natural that we gravitated towards each other. He had been repping for another crew, but things weren’t working out so he decided to make it official with us. He’s one of the most real people we know personally so we decided to make it a music thing as well. After realizing how small the market was, we decided we needed to expand that. So, we started looking at the other artists with a similar drive as ourselves and began to consolidate everything in the area from Victoria, Yoakum, El Campo etc…I’d say the next person we added to the roster was probably Chico Cash. He’s from Yoakum and had been working with us for a long time, but we decided to make it official. His drive is unmatched. This put us on Yoakum’s radar as well. After that the roster exploded. It seemed like everybody wanted to get down. We took a step back and asked ourselves, “who else go as hard as us?” So, we added my boys Cash Tha Kid and Skrypture. These were two of Victoria’s heaviest hitters and we were honored that they were down to get on the team because their portfolios speak volumes. Then, we decided to add my boy P3. P3 had found success in the past with another group he was in years ago called Color Blind. His experience and expertise have been invaluable to the process. The last member to make it was my boy Worthy. Worthy is from Port Lavaca as well, but just never had a group of people to stand behind him and see his true potential. We saw it and the rest is history.
About the Author
Jae Monique Contributing Editor Co-host and contributor to multiple media outlets. Interviewed celebs including Columbus Short, Darrin Henson, Claudia Jordan, Cocoa Brown and more.
Related Posts
JWAVY feat. Maribased1 “BEASTMODE” [Video] →
MAKO Girls on New Single “AIN’T THINKIN BOUT YOU” Shaking Things Up! →
Dallas Native Tago Makes Us Say “D.A.M.N.” on Latest Track →
