L.A. Beat

Swollen Members Madchild is clean, sober and fighting fit now, but  is still mad as hell as he fights the monsters within him. You can hear the battle note by note if you listen to his brand new CD, “Dope Sick.” He looks back on his crazy, scary and sometimes tragic life, but can still laugh at himself.
 He starts off on a menacing , spooky note on  the first track, “Devil’s Rejects,” featuring DJ Revolution. It features a theme prevalent throughout the CD — monsters.

The CD is highly personal, profane, sometimes violent, sometimes crude, quirky, full of pop culture references, oftentimes humourous and extremely entertaining.  It includes some previously released songs from his most recent EPs including  “F**K Madchild ,” and  “Wanted,” from his “Little Monster EP.”
Songs are interspersed with excerpts from interviews and spoken word bits from a variety of people talking about sex and addiction and Madchild himself.

 The CD has some phat beats, and raps covering everything from drug addiction to popular music, sex, the music business and much, much more.

“Wake Up,” is my favourite  track on the CD,” which is the most poignant tale of his battle with addiction.
 “Battleaxe,” featuring Dilated Peoples, Bishop Lamont and  D-Sisive is also very cool if only because he quotes the Smashing Pumpkins and raps about playing the Clash and Joe Strummer.

“Little Monster Blend”  discusses Madchild’s trouble being banned from the U.S,  as well as  the state of the music business.

 He also quotes the Monks’  “Drugs in My Pocket” in “Little Monster Blend” and just about perfectly sums up where he’s at now, answering,  I guess, a drug dealer trying to get him hooked again by saying “fuck you I’m doing great now. I’m done with that.”

 It also shows off his self deprecating sense of humour, describing himself as a ‘bi-polar polar bear.”
The raunchy “ D*ckhead” is one of the more entertaining songs on the CD. It sounds like it could be a lost Swollen Members track.
 Dope Sick is an excellent record of a man who has been from the brink of Hell and back and has become a stronger person for it.