Shwayze

Shwayze is the result of equal amounts of derring-do and stoner chill. The derring-do bit comes from the emcee third of this California trio, Shwayze himself, a kid born Aaron Smith and raised in the trailer parks of Malibu. One night in 2005, Smith jumped the stage at the Malibu Inn, started freestyling and basically took over the opening band's set. His pluck and skills were not missed by main act Whitestarr, the roots-rock outfit headed up by Cisco Adler, professional man about Malibu and scion of record producer Lou Adler. Adler and Smith started hanging out and, after Smith dogged him for a while, Adler finally brought him into his home studio. The two would party all night and then spend their days in the studio, with Adler laying down beats, buzzy vocals and rootsy acoustic guitar riffs and Smith (newly christened Shwayze) providing laid-back rhymes about girls, parties and summer. The duo later expanded to a trio with the addition of DJ Skeet Skeet and signed to Geffen, which released their first album in August 2008.