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When you think of music in Sweden, images of ABBA, Ace of Base, and Roxette come to time; fun pop music that is incredibly catchy and makes you want to hate yourself for enjoying the music so much.

Pop music is a huge export for Sweden but that might be changing soon.  Late in 2007 Adam Tensta took Sweden by storm with a very impressive debut rap CD and some of the best beats I’ve heard in a long time.  While “That’s My Cool” was killing everything, a young rapper started making waves of his own by the name of Lazee. 
In February, “Rock Away” came out of nowhere and rocked the crowd.  I didn’t pay much attention to Lazee at first because I figured he was another American rapper making waves overseas.  Then “Hold On” featuring Neverstore (a blending of rock pop Neverstore with Lazee rapping) got released and I thought I would see if I could listen to rest of his CD.  To my surprise, Setting Standards wasn’t released.  I tracked down a copy to review and needless to say, Lazee didn’t let me down.
Born Maluwi Kulego, Lazee grew up in Malmö, Sweden.  He spent a few years in London crafting his sound and returned to Malmö where he put out a mixtape that got some attention in the area.  Producer Ishi contacted Lazee to help him work out a sound that blended house music with hip hop and rock.  Together with house DJ Sebastian Ingrosso, they pumped out Setting Standards. 
 
Featuring Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Loon, Salem Al Fakir; Million Stylez and Neverstore, Lazee drops his debut album with better skills than most seasoned artists.  Opening the CD is the title track “Setting Standards”.  It’s edgy and aggressive with a definite pop sensibility.  But don’t think that Lazee is another bubble gum pop/rap artist. “I’m Not Pop” sets the record straight that Lazee is “hip hop, drum and bass and rock.”  He brings in the drum and bass beat and drops in some attitude before moving into a more heartfelt sentimental track featuring Neverstore on “Hold On”.  It’s reminiscent of “Apologize” by Timbaland.  Neverstore is more known as a pop punk band but they sound very much like One Republic here.  The two play off each other very well and shows the diversity of Lazee’s influences.

Lazee goes back to the house music sound with addition of Million Stylez.  They share rapping duties here and bring the house music beat that Lazee is known for in his home town.  The oddest opening for any rap song I’ve heard in quite a while leads off “Rock Away”.  The track opens with violins before jumping off into a mad dance hit.  From there it’s all about name dropping, being a bad ass rock star and pimp.  It’s the song that will make Lazee go from a local celebrity to international star.  It won’t be hard for him to make the jump across the Atlantic and score a decent hit. 

The two tracks, “Back to 85”, “Fastlife” featuring Charlie King are the low point of the album and really don’t offer up anything memorable.  Fortunately, they are really the only two tracks on an otherwise exceptional album that lack any real punch.  The back half lacks the intensity that the front half has but Lazee still keeps the beats flowing. He ends the CD on a more sober note with “My Hero”, a touching song about his mother.  I don’t know if it was the best song to end the album with and a track like this would normally be somewhere in the middle.  Luckly, there are three bonus tracks including a version of “Rock Away” with Fred Durst that ramp up the energy again. 

Lazee is a solid artist and Setting Standards will do well in his native Sweden before it eventually makes it way to the U.K. and the States.  In the meantime, you can find him on MySpace and on his website.

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