Sway Calloway
Encyclopedia
Sway Calloway, usually credited as Sway, born August 23rd, 1976, is a reporter and executive producer
for MTV News
. He is also the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Wake Up Show. He is one half of the duo Sway & King Tech
.
, Sway became a locally known rapper and b-boy performing
on San Francisco's Pier 39
. He teamed up with DJ King Tech after high school
and the duo performed at various San Francisco Bay Area
clubs. They also released independent
albums that were popular locally. A major label record deal with Giant Records followed. The resulting album
, Concrete Jungle in 1990, got them the job of co-hosting their own show on radio station
KMEL
.
The Wake Up Show featured music and interviews with well-known hip hop
artists as well as up-and-coming ones. The show became very popular and began simulcasting to Los Angeles
on KKBT
in 1994 and to Chicago
on WEJM by 1996. Ras Kass
, Chino XL
and Eminem
are among the rappers who made their broadcasting
debuts on the show. Soon, Sway was also hosting his own morning drive time
show on the station.
The popularity of the show helped Sway and Tech get another record deal, this time with Interscope Records
. Their album, This or That, reached #30 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #1 on the Top Heatseekers
chart in 1999. The album featured contributions from hip hop artists such as RZA
, Eminem
, Xzibit
, Kool G Rap
, KRS-One
, Big Daddy Kane
and The Roots
. Sway also made an appearance on Jennifer Lopez
's DVD, The Reel Me
in late 2003.
In 2000, Sway was approached by MTV
to join the network
as a correspondent
, thus becoming a regular reporter for its music video
shows and news
specials, including Total Request Live
and the hip-hop music video show Direct Effect
. Because MTV's studios are based in New York City
, King Tech and The Wake Up Show went along with Sway in his move. Sway's prominence on MTV made the radio show even more popular than it was before. This inevitably led to a TV version of the show on MTV running briefly in January 2004. Sway and Tech also have a popular series of mixtapes that feature freestyles performed on the show.
Another album, Back 2 Basics was released in 2005 on Sway and Tech's own record label
, Bolo Entertainment, which is distributed by Universal Music.
He appeared as a guest star on the MTV
sketch comedy show Short Circuitz
in 2007.
Sway will host a new weekday morning show on Eminem
’s Shade 45
channel on SiriusXM! “Sway in the Morning” will launch on Monday, July 18, 2011 on Shade 45 (SiriusXM channel 45) and will air Monday-Friday from 8am-12 noon ET. The second week he was there Ludacris
phoned in on the show and they talked about his music and movie career.
to negotiate such a deal (Daly turned down a similar contract). He will have the opportunity to produce programming with King Tech on MTV and other Viacom
channels as well as continue to host programs.
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
for MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
. He is also the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Wake Up Show. He is one half of the duo Sway & King Tech
Sway & King Tech
Sway & King Tech is an American hip hop group composed of Bay Area rapper Sway and DJ King Tech. Also known as Flynamic Force or Sway & Tech, they are the hosts of the nationally syndicated show, The Wake Up Show...
.
Career
As a teenager growing up in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, Sway became a locally known rapper and b-boy performing
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
on San Francisco's Pier 39
Pier 39
Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier in San Francisco, California. At Pier 39, there are shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, an interpretive center for the Marine Mammal Center, the Aquarium of the Bay, virtual 3D rides, and views of...
. He teamed up with DJ King Tech after high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
and the duo performed at various San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
clubs. They also released independent
Indie (music)
In music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie" is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....
albums that were popular locally. A major label record deal with Giant Records followed. The resulting album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Concrete Jungle in 1990, got them the job of co-hosting their own show on radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
KMEL
KMEL
KMEL is an Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California, and owned by Clear Channel Communications....
.
The Wake Up Show featured music and interviews with well-known hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
artists as well as up-and-coming ones. The show became very popular and began simulcasting to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on KKBT
KKBT
KSWD is a Bonneville International-owned radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. The station currently broadcasts a wide-ranging classic rock format...
in 1994 and to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
on WEJM by 1996. Ras Kass
Ras Kass
John Austin IV, better known by his stage name Ras Kass, is an American rapper. He is also a part of hip hop supergroup The HRSMN along with Canibus, Killah Priest, and Kurupt...
, Chino XL
Chino XL
Derek Keith Barbosa , better known by his stage name Chino XL, is an American hip hop lyricist, battle rapper, and actor of Puerto Rican and African American descent...
and Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
are among the rappers who made their broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
debuts on the show. Soon, Sway was also hosting his own morning drive time
Drive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
show on the station.
The popularity of the show helped Sway and Tech get another record deal, this time with Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
. Their album, This or That, reached #30 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #1 on the Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
chart in 1999. The album featured contributions from hip hop artists such as RZA
RZA
Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA , is an American Grammy-winning music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author, emcee, and occasional actor, director, and screenwriter. A prominent figure in Hip Hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced almost...
, Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
, Xzibit
Xzibit
Alvin Nathaniel Joiner , better known by his stage name Xzibit , is an American rapper, actor, and television host. He is known as the host of the MTV show Pimp My Ride, which brought him mainstream success...
, Kool G Rap
Kool G Rap
Nathaniel Thomas Wilson , better known by his stage names Kool G Rap , Kool G. Rap, and Giancana , is an American rapper, from the Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York. He began his career in the mid-1980s as one half of the group Kool G Rap & DJ Polo and as a member of the Juice Crew...
, KRS-One
KRS-One
Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper...
, Big Daddy Kane
Big Daddy Kane
Antonio Hardy better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MC's in Hip Hop...
and The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
. Sway also made an appearance on Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
's DVD, The Reel Me
The Reel Me
The Reel Me is a music video compilation album and extended play by American recording artist and actress Jennifer Lopez.- Track listing :The DVD# "If You Had My Love"# "No Me Ames"...
in late 2003.
In 2000, Sway was approached by MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
to join the network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
as a correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
, thus becoming a regular reporter for its music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
shows and news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
specials, including Total Request Live
Total Request Live
Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...
and the hip-hop music video show Direct Effect
Sucker Free
Sucker Free, known as Sucker Free Daily on weekdays and then Sucker Free Countdown on Sundays, is MTV2's sole hip-hop video block. Previously, Sucker Free aired weekdays for one hour, then eventually sporadically until the week leading to February 28, 2010. Sucker Free Countdown, its 2 hour top 15...
. Because MTV's studios are based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, King Tech and The Wake Up Show went along with Sway in his move. Sway's prominence on MTV made the radio show even more popular than it was before. This inevitably led to a TV version of the show on MTV running briefly in January 2004. Sway and Tech also have a popular series of mixtapes that feature freestyles performed on the show.
Another album, Back 2 Basics was released in 2005 on Sway and Tech's own record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Bolo Entertainment, which is distributed by Universal Music.
He appeared as a guest star on the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
sketch comedy show Short Circuitz
Short Circuitz
Short Circutz was a series of short computer animated videos that were played on YTV.Most videos were 30 to 120 seconds long, often played between other computer animated shows, such as ReBoot and Beasties. The videos were all sampled from three film collections: The Mind's Eye, its sequel Beyond...
in 2007.
Sway will host a new weekday morning show on Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
’s Shade 45
Shade 45
Shade 45 is Eminem's uncensored Hip-Hop/Rap-heavy urban contemporary channel. Eminem Brings On-Air show hosts. It debuted with a hip hop format in 2004, changing to its current incarnation when it was added to XM channel 66...
channel on SiriusXM! “Sway in the Morning” will launch on Monday, July 18, 2011 on Shade 45 (SiriusXM channel 45) and will air Monday-Friday from 8am-12 noon ET. The second week he was there Ludacris
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges , better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings...
phoned in on the show and they talked about his music and movie career.
Leaving and returning to MTV
In September 2005, Sway decided not to renew his contract with MTV. For a period of time on MTV he was called Marzan Calloway. In 2006, Sway signed a new contract that included an ability to bring new projects to MTV, making him the first TV personality since Carson DalyCarson Daly
Carson Jones Daly is an American television host. He is the host of NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, a late-night talk show that began airing on January 7, 2002. Before his role as host of that program, Daly was a VJ on MTV's TRL, and a DJ for the Southern California based radio station KROQ-FM...
to negotiate such a deal (Daly turned down a similar contract). He will have the opportunity to produce programming with King Tech on MTV and other Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
channels as well as continue to host programs.
With King Tech
Concrete Jungle
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