Moving to San Francisco and sleeping on pizza boxes isn't the ideal setting fo starting a career in hip hop, but for Madchild that was exactly what he had to do. while homeless in sf he managed to get a job at the bomb hip hop shop and, in time, was able to sleep on the floor of his work. as time went on he managed to get a job at the extra large store on haight st. as well as delivering pizza after hours for less than minimum wage . By this time Madchild had starting getting his name out and started gaining recognition within the bay area hip hop community. staying in touch with the bomb shop, Madchild was able to appear on the first bomb compilation along side Q-Bert for their track pregnant. Soon after Madchild released a 7" single independantly , which featured pro skater Tommy Guararro on production. By now Madchild had created a buzz within the underground which ultimately gave him the opportunity to meet Del The Funkee Homosapian of the Hieroglyphics. Showing interest in Madchilds projects, Del offered to work together in the future. in such a short amount of time Madchild was able to lay the ground work for what now is known as Swollen Members.

During, what was going to be, a short vacation home, Madchild met Prevail. an inspiring mc with a wealth of knowledge and the ability to deliver some of the deadliest freestyles at any given time.needless to say the opportunities were staring them right in the face. They decided to form a group soon after. Over a few drinks and late night food, the name Swollen Members was born.

In the summer of 96' Madchild and Prevail headed south to San Diego for the b boy summit where Madchild battled Kutfather in a friendly competition. The battle was Madchilds initiation into Rock Steady Crew. He was then thrown down with hip hops most legendary crew. Now, Swollen Members is one of three Rock Steady affiliated groups. The others include Dilated Peoples and The Arsonists.

Swollen Members stearted recording in late 1996 with the likes of DJ Babu and DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beatjunkies Crew helping them out on production and cuts. This soon lead up to Madchild taking Del up on his offer he made just months before. Soon after that Swollen met Dilated Peoples at the b boy summit in San Diego. they callaberated as well and Evidence started doing some production for the album. Swollen Members have also done callaberations with Aceyalone of Freestyle Fellowship, Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, Sondoobie of Funkdoobiest, Saafir of Hobo Juntion, Tony Da' Skitzo, Divine Styler and Everlast a.k.a. Whitey Ford. With all these artist interested in working on projects, the logical idea was to release a series of four 12" back to back on Mad's own independent record company, Battleaxe Records.

With exclusive distibution through Fat Beats and TRC all three singles have sold over 10,000 each. A month after release, the fourth single has reached 9,000 copies in less than 2 months and is hard for shops to keep in stock. With concentration set on one territory at a time, the album Balance has been released in Europe with six different tracks from the North American version, and also has a different color album cover. after a month, the album has sold 10,000 copies, exclusively in Europe, In conjunction with Dj Vadim's Jazz Fudge label. The North American release date for Balance is set for October on Battleaxe Records with world wide distribution through Nu Gruv Alliance Distribution.

Most recently, Swollen Members have toured japan with Tony Touch and Funkdoobiest. A short tour in the U.K. and have just gotten off a 25 date tour of Europe which included the Glastonbury Music Festival where they performed for over 10,000 people. They also received coverage of their show on B.B.C. television which has over a half million viewers. recent European publications have also featured interviews and reviews on Swollen Members and were awarded single of the month by HHC Magazine from England.