Swingfly

Swingfly
Background information
Origin Stockholm, Sweden (New York City)
Genres Hip hop, alternative rock, electronic music
Occupation(s) Rapper
Years active 1991 – Present
Labels EMI Sweden
Dolores Recordings
Associated acts Teddybears, Blacknuss, ADL, Dr Alban

Ricardo DaSilva II better known by his stage name Swingfly is an American-born and Swedish naturalized rapper and singer. He is also known by other aliases like Swing-Fly, Richie Pasta and Swing. He started lending his vocal talents to other artists' records, but has also developed also a solo career. He also appeared in Melodifestivalen 2011 with "Me and My Drum" finishing fifth. It became his most successful single reaching the No.2 position on the Swedish Singles Chart.[1]

Early career

Ricardo DaSilva II was born in New York. He has also lived in Trinidad & Tobago and Panama before relocating to Stockholm, Sweden in 1991.[2] In Stockholm, he became involved in the emerging hip hop scene and joined the Timebomb collective, together with producer Christian Falk, rapper ADL, DJ Sleepy among others. Three singles were released and one of them was Swingfly's "Smoke 'em Swing", a jazzy number produced by Christian Falk.[3] A series of albums was planned when the record label bailed out.

Under the name Swing, he teamed up with Dr. Alban in 1995 and recorded Euro-disco hit "Sweet Dreams" featuring Dr. Alban (a cover of the classic Eurythmics' song) which peaked at No.12 in Sweden.[4] This took him into the pop charts in number of European countries including the Netherlands where the singles peaked at No.44.[4]

In 1996 Swingfly appeared on several tracks of ADL’s "Absent Minded" project. Due to a small hit via a Hugo Boss commercial, "Absent Minded" hit the road supporting Fugees European tour in 1996.[5] Swingfly was featured on several tracks on all three albums with soul-jazz collective Blacknuss All-Stars (later known as Blacknuss), as well as being a frequent contributor to their live shows around Europe and the UK.[6]

He achieved his biggest success, through a collaboration with the electro/dub/punk trio Teddybears on their 2004 single "Hey Boy".[7] This song became one of the most played tracks on Swedish radio that summer. The song "Hey Boy" has been listed for 21 weeks on the Sweden Singles Top 60 and peaked at #13.[8] Swingfly has since then toured Sweden, Europe and the United States with Teddybears and their spin-off project Teddybears STHLM Soundsystem.[9]

Solo career

Swingfly (2010)

This led to him landing a record deal with the largely rock oriented label Dolores Recordings. The label had been responsible for launching several Swedish-based artists international career such as Caesars, The Soundtrack of Our Lives and I'm From Barcelona. Through Dolores, he released a few singles and an album was planned for 2006 but was stalled. The singles he released had relative success in the Scandinavian charts.[10] A reworked version of the album was planned to be released in 2008 featuring production from RamPac, Klas Åhlund of Teddybears fame, Kleerup, Rampac and Thomas Rusiak with a rock and punk flavour and electronica influences. But again it was shelved after his arrest on drug charges.[11] The album God bless the IRS finally came out on 29 April 2009.[12]

Melodifestivalen 2011

He participated in Melodifestivalen 2011 with the song "Me and My Drum". The song prominently featured the vocals of Christoffer Hiding but without crediting him specifically in the competition credits. Swingfly placed second in the first semi-final, and advanced to the Final and where he came fifth overall.[13]

Despite failure to win, the song gained great popularity and was released as a single reaching #2 on Sverigetopplistan, the official Swedish Singles Chart.[14]

Melodifestivalen 2016

He participated in Melodifestivalen 2016 with the song "You Carved Your name" featuring Helena Gutarra. The song written by Joakim Åhlund and Andreas Kleerup was performed on the third semi-final held on 20 February 2016 in Norrköping, but failed to qualify to the finals.

In popular culture

Discography

Albums

Year Album Peak positions Album
SWE
[19]
2009 God Bless the IRS  –
2011 Awesomeness - An Introduction to Swingfly 12

Singles

(as Swingfly except where indicated)

Year Single Credited as Peak positions Album Notes
SWE
[19]		 NED
[20]
1991 "Smoke 'em Swing" / "Timebomb" Swing Fly  –  – Non-album release
1995 "Sweet Dreams" Swing feat. Dr. Alban 12 44 Non-album release
1997 "Street Life" Swingfly* 46  – Non-album release
2000 "S.W.I.N.G - Fly" Swing-Fly  –  – Non-album release
2002 "Come Get It" / "It's Alright" Swing-Fly
feat. 8-Off Agallah & AYO /
Swing-Fly
feat. Dappa Don		  –  – Non-album release
2006 "Something's Got Me Started" Swingfly 22  – God Bless the IRS
"Save the Trees"  –  –
2008 "Singing That Melody" 12  –
"Winner"  –  –
2009 "Touch and Go" 45  –
2011 "Me and My Drum" Swingfly* 2  – Awesomeness - An Introduction to Swingfly Melodifestivalen 2011
"Little Did I Know" Swingfly*  –  –
2013 "God Damn Beautiful" Swingfly  –  – TBA
2016 "You Carved Your Name" Swingfly feat. Helena Gutarra 75[21]  – TBA Melodifestivalen 2016

*Uncredited on release -
Featuring Lutricia McNeal (on "Street Life"),
Featuring Christoffer Hiding (on "Me and My Drum")
Featuring Pauline and Christoffer Hiding (on "Little Did I Know")

Featured in
Year Single Credited to Peak positions Album
SWE
[19]
1991 "Hard Copy" / "Safe Sex" Twin Tower Records feat. MC Swing Fly  – Non-album release
2004 "Hey Boy" Teddybears STHLM feat. Swingfly 13 Non-album release

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.