Artist: Skyzoo
Album: All the Brilliant Things
Listen:
Background
Gregory Skyler Taylor, better known as Skyzoo, might be the truest embodiment of hip-hop today. Born in Brooklyn in 1982, Sky came up in Bed-Stuy and was raised by legends such as A Tribe Called Quest, EPMD, Jay-Z (check out his mixtape An Ode to Reasonable Doubt), and most notably, The Notorious BIG. Growing up only a block away from Biggie, Sky was heavily inspired by his success and pen game, seeing such a larger-than-life figure come from his own spot. He would begin his own career in the mid 2000’s, with his first big project being Cloud 9, a collaboration with producer legendary 9th Wonder. A series of solid releases through the next decade (including The Salvation, A Dream Deferred, and Music for My Friends) led to what has been a phenomenal run from Skyzoo. Dropping The Easy Truth, a collaboration with Mello Music Group’s Apollo Brown, Retropolitan with Pete Rock, and his masterpiece In Celebration of Us. An ode to black culture and a moment of empowerment, In Celebration is a versatile, thought provoking, and grand statement by Skyzoo for his community.
Throughout his career, he has also been a successful ghost writer and shown himself to be a true student of the game. The most common theme of his music is growing up in Brooklyn, albeit from the unique perspective of someone who was trying to balance poverty, violence, and addiction, with morality, academics, and the dream of overcoming the struggle. Skyzoo tends to heavily interject NY slang into already dense, conscious lyrics and interjects many references to the things that were important to him and his culture coming up (the NY Knicks, chopped cheese, The Wire, etc.). Recently, fatherhood has also become an important aspect of his life and music. Production leans towards jazz and boombap, frequently collaborating with !llmind and Apollo Brown, and citing J Dilla as his favorite producer. Despite this, Skzyoo is plenty versatile and tends to go over som
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I really enjoyed Skyzoo when he was featured on Griselda projects and was absolutely sold when I heard the cut he did with Griselda on the Pete Rock produced album. I've slowly been collecting some of his CDs and have In Celebration of Us, Retropolitan, Music For My Friends and All The Brilliant Things. Do I have his top projects or is anything else worth checking out?
Poll wouldn’t let me add more than 6, so also,
Luxury, Sky Joint 2, The Hunter 2
Think that’s all of em, What you got?
Hi everyone!
My name is Jorge, also known as Merakai, and I'm a music producer that's working on an EP where I work with incredibly talented underground rappers to rap over my beats. I just dropped my first singe featuring underground legend Skyzoo and up-and-coming rapper Hype. The song is produced by me and features scratches from the talented Chinch 33. The song is a throwback to classic NY underground Boom Bap like DJ Premier, Apollo Brown, etc. The verses Skyzoo and Hype provide are crazy and will satisfy those looking for a lyrical fill and the scratches from Chinch 33 are reminiscent of that classic 90's NY hook. I think there's a lot of talent on this track and I really believe there's something special on this. I would be honored if you gave it a listen. Thank you so much for your time and consideration! I'm going to include links to everyone involved with the song since they are more than deserving of a listen too.
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0Lx4JER5FFhkWUK4EpcoMi?si=0276d169cf2c41f6
Bandcamp:
https://merakaimusic.bandcamp.com/track/knighted-feat-skyzoo-hype-chinch-33
Much love.
Links below to everyone's music who is involved.
Skyzoo's Music
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0qHfqHyHZnxvv1lfkJraQc?si=Z_XUJ0r4SL2EcvuE9pOuRw
Hype's Music:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6U4m10ucK7O8wDCqcbloB5?si=AqKZwz-WRw2HRygtlAYgXQ
Chince 33's Music:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7cd4D0fCP6K8YBXLMKStxt?si=cQdthakVT8CTQYay9zWtJQ
https://music.apple.com/us/album/lovesick/1560437868
https://apollobrown360.bandcamp.com/album/lovesick
>Soul is more than a sound. It is a timeless idea and an immortal condition. It can’t be borrowed or traded, bequeathed or imitated (no matter how much they try). Soul isn’t the blues, but the best blues has soul. Hip-Hop isn’t soul, but it’s the most fundamental component of its DNA. R&B is the genre, but soul is the yearning, the lust, the regret. Without soul, love is merely sex. With it, you get something like Lovesick.
>Lovesick is a collaboration between the 3x Grammy-nominated singer Raheem DeVaughn and the legendary hip-hop producer, Apollo Brown, best known for making hip-hop so grimy that it permanently lodges in your lungs and underneath your fingernails. It is a work of startling beauty, a blend of modern R&B, classic soul, and guttural funk that recalls Smokey Robinson, Al Green, and Marvin Gaye. Yet it doesn’t sound out of step alongside DeVaughn’s peers The-Dream, Anderson .Paak, and Miguel. It is an album that bears the echoes of Jodeci and James Brown, but it is ultimately the clarion vision of two masters of their respective forms.
>Released on Mello Music, Lovesick is a stylistic departure from Apollo Brown’s cold-blooded 21st century boom-bap, but it shouldn’t come as a shock considering his historical skill at soulful sample chopping. Still, it’s testament to the Michigan native’s versatility and emotional depth; he has turned a sonic left turn into an eternal groove -- an expansion that feels reminiscent of DJ Premier producing for D’Angelo, Salaam Remi collaborating with Amy Winehouse, J Dilla’s bible material with Erykah Badu, or more recently, Knxlwdge’s NxWorries project with .Paak.
> Credit DeVaughn for making the extraordinary feel effortless. In Lovesick, the Love King has built a vessel to transport you to a different, better time. It is a tribute to the artists who came before him: all those aforementioned names, plus Parliament and Prince. Listening to the lead single, “When a Man,” you intuit the sweat and soulful anguish of the hardest working man in show business, but also float from Apollo’s head nod to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Luck of Lucien.” The post-modern commentary seductively fused into a warm-hearted nostalgia. > > “If I Made Love to You” finds DeVaughn telling his lover that he’ll play all the slow jams and quiet storm ballads for them, before unleashing a falsetto that can stop
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https://www.discogs.com/knxwledge-1988/release/15059206
Nas: Illmatic - 20 shipped.
https://www.discogs.com/Nas-Illmatic-XX/release/6155491
Skyzoo & Pete Rock: Retropolitan RSD (Instrumentals) - 30 shipped.
How's the album holding for y'all after a week?
I've been enjoying it more and more with each listen. Probably my AOTY.
Skyzoo comes through with great lyrics on every track. I liked how he attacked the concepts of gentrification and racism here. The production is great - the jazz and soul samples complement Sky's lyrics wonderfully.
I'd say my favorite tracks are Culture-ish, Plugs and Connections, Bed-Stuy is Burning, and Bodega Flowers.
This is right up there with In Celebration of Us and The Easy Truth as Sky's best imo. I could see it becoming my favorite Skyzoo album as time passes by.
Bandcamp link if you want to support him.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/all-the-brilliant-things/1560434823
