Albums Skyzoo - In Celebration of Us (Discussion Thread)

[Headcase]

Just bought the CD off amazon. Supposed to get it sometime next week.

 

[tuckgod]

Better than a lot of cats in any scene, mainstream, underground etc.


On topics:

This is a project that flirts with several different topics.
Blackness, Poverty, Criminality fueled by economic need not sociopathy and so on.
It strives to give humanity to a group of people who are stripped of it.

All over jazzy production that remains faithfully Hip-Hop.
Rhodes, Banging Drum Lups, Bass lines, Saxophones, Trumpets etc.
Often on The Coli Jazz is derided by the foolish and ignorant but this is a form of music
that is supreme and it's origins are as African American as can be and frankly it's
a genre that when sampled has directly contributed to the greatest songs in Hip-Hop.

Whether you're J. Dilla or Pete Rock or Q-Tip or Kanye West, hell even Dr. Dre and Dj Quik.
If you're from any fukking coast really this is the music alongside Soul, Blues, Funk and so on
that form the foundation to this rapping shyt.

It continues the stories that Skyzoo has weaved prior and will likely continue to.
And it's as worth a listen as "A Dream Deferred...", "Music For My Friends","The Easy Truth"
or his various other albums/mixtapes/projects that have dropped in his over a decade long career.

This is an Emcee reaching his lyrical and conceptual zenith and if you want to bare witness to it
instead of coming back to it a decade from now when the young of today are considered the "Old heads"
that'll inevitably prattle on about the underrated from the decade prior, then LISTEN TO THIS shyt NOW.

Well damn

 

[Dr3-C]

I'm loving this album...Sky hella underrated...been fukking with dude since "Bare Witness".

 

[Zero]

6 tracks in...the production is seriously awesome.

Skyzoo though....I just can't with this dude. Dude has got to be the most monotonous sounding rapper I've ever heard.

All that wordplay means nothing when dude's delivery is just

 

[Real N Quotes]

6 tracks in...the production is seriously awesome.

Skyzoo though....I just can't with this dude. Dude has got to be the most monotonous sounding rapper I've ever heard.

All that wordplay means nothing when dude's delivery is just

, I get it

But to each his own breh I think he's super dope

 

[TezMilli]

The first few times I listened to the album, I thought it was just dope. But the last few days, after driving in the whip, I've been able to digest the album thoroughly. And I'm loving this project. Definitely his deepest project conceptually in my opinion.

The shyt he's saying on Love Is Love

The multiple layers of Hoodie SZN

 

[CHAIN]

He needs to let the listeners breathe.
It's not a bad thing, but he drops too many complex jewels back to back.
As a listener you need space to unpack the jewels and you have to let that sit for a sec.
After a while his bars start sounding the same cause you're listening too hard.

The shyt is way too intricate and dense.
I'm not trying to knock him but it's the truth. He needs to space it out a little.
Listening to him is a chore.

It's very Lupe Fiasco-ish at times. Other great writers like Jay-Z/Nas/Scarface and 'em (joe budden even) never had this problem.
Skyzoo reminds me of Jay-Z on D'evils..But on steroids. You can digest D'evils on the first listen. This shyt right here damn near puts me to sleep.

I'm sorry.

 

[Zero]

He needs to let the listeners breathe.
It's not a bad thing, but he drops too many complex jewels back to back.
As a listener you need space to unpack the jewels and you have to let that sit for a sec.
After a while his bars start sounding the same cause you're listening too hard.

The shyt is way too intricate and dense.
I'm not trying to knock him but it's the truth. He needs to space it out a little.
Listening to him is a chore.

It's very Lupe Fiasco-ish at times. Other great writers like Jay-Z/Nas/Scarface and 'em (joe budden even) never had this problem.
Skyzoo reminds me of Jay-Z on D'evils..But on steroids. You can digest D'evils on the first listen. This shyt right here damn near puts me to sleep.

I'm sorry.

Nah, you're right...he carries the worst traits of Lupe and magnifies them. As a matter of fact, he's what people that don't like him THINK Lupe sounds like.

Like I said, all that wordplay, all the metaphors, all the attempts at double entendres...who cares when dude's voice is as dull as dishwater and his delivery is a barrage of monotony? It seriously feels like this dude is just rapping AT you.

I've been trying to get into this dude since the 9th Wonder days....he's just straight up not a good rapper. Like actual rapping...he's very bad at it to the point where I think he only gets props because of what he supposedly represents (so-called "real hiphop") rather than what he actually does on record. That and his beat selection is pretty good for the most part.

Holla at me when the instrumentals drop.

 

[KingsOfKings]

tagged

 

[Pinyapplesuckas]

Nah, you're right...he carries the worst traits of Lupe and magnifies them. As a matter of fact, he's what people that don't like him THINK Lupe sounds like.

Like I said, all that wordplay, all the metaphors, all the attempts at double entendres...who cares when dude's voice is as dull as dishwater and his delivery is a barrage of monotony? It seriously feels like this dude is just rapping AT you.

I've been trying to get into this dude since the 9th Wonder days....he's just straight up not a good rapper. Like actual rapping...he's very bad at it to the point where I think he only gets props because of what he supposedly represents (so-called "real hiphop") rather than what he actually does on record. That and his beat selection is pretty good for the most part.

Holla at me when the instrumentals drop.

he's great at rhyming words but the vocal part he just doesnt excel at...he doenst show any energy above his usual level...its like he gives enough tone to not be exactly monotone, but half way through the first few tracks on this album i thought to myself "i wonder what it'd sound like if Skyzoo would yell this verse"...and i realized he doesnt ever seem to raise his voice on anything....

i like Sky...but i just gotta be in a specific zone to really vibe with him...i turned this new album off not even half way through...but i know i'll revisit later and prob love it...you gotta really listen close with him.

 

[Soymuscle Mike]

Crown Holder still gets played everyday

Always love songs with that sample, gets me hype everytime; this is the first time I've heard it slowed down a bit. The K-Os version always gets me:

 

[Yayo Toure]

Nah, you're right...he carries the worst traits of Lupe and magnifies them. As a matter of fact, he's what people that don't like him THINK Lupe sounds like.

Like I said, all that wordplay, all the metaphors, all the attempts at double entendres...who cares when dude's voice is as dull as dishwater and his delivery is a barrage of monotony? It seriously feels like this dude is just rapping AT you.

I've been trying to get into this dude since the 9th Wonder days....he's just straight up not a good rapper. Like actual rapping...he's very bad at it to the point where I think he only gets props because of what he supposedly represents (so-called "real hiphop") rather than what he actually does on record. That and his beat selection is pretty good for the most part.

Holla at me when the instrumentals drop.

You may have a point here, but Lupe is leagues above Skyzoo.

Skyzoo is hit and miss to me. He lacks charisma and although his beat selection is top tier, he uses a similar tone and flow on each track. Idk he's been rapping for awhile but it seems no one took him under their wing and taught him how to put together an album to keep the listener engaged the whole way.

Album does have some fire tracks tho.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

He needs to let the listeners breathe.
It's not a bad thing, but he drops too many complex jewels back to back.
As a listener you need space to unpack the jewels and you have to let that sit for a sec.
After a while his bars start sounding the same cause you're listening too hard.

The shyt is way too intricate and dense.
I'm not trying to knock him but it's the truth. He needs to space it out a little.
Listening to him is a chore.

It's very Lupe Fiasco-ish at times. Other great writers like Jay-Z/Nas/Scarface and 'em (joe budden even) never had this problem.
Skyzoo reminds me of Jay-Z on D'evils..But on steroids. You can digest D'evils on the first listen. This shyt right here damn near puts me to sleep.

I'm sorry.

I've been a Skyzoo fan since 2004, and since 2010/2011, I've sort of had this opinion. Salvation and Live from the Tape Deck were the last projects IMO he did before he really OD'd on every single line being a coded gem. I think he's very dope and if someone said this was his best album ever I wouldn't disagree.

But I'll just say this. I write daily. I love to read. I listened intently to the words on this album and I'm having a hard time unpacking some of this, because as you said, everything coded is followed up with more. There's no time for me to feel the impact.

I'm not hating. I think he's really really dope. I've always thought that. But on this project I do feel like I have to either zone out and enjoy the vibe or press pause every few bars to digest it.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Nah, you're right...he carries the worst traits of Lupe and magnifies them. As a matter of fact, he's what people that don't like him THINK Lupe sounds like.

Like I said, all that wordplay, all the metaphors, all the attempts at double entendres...who cares when dude's voice is as dull as dishwater and his delivery is a barrage of monotony? It seriously feels like this dude is just rapping AT you.

I've been trying to get into this dude since the 9th Wonder days....he's just straight up not a good rapper. Like actual rapping...he's very bad at it to the point where I think he only gets props because of what he supposedly represents (so-called "real hiphop") rather than what he actually does on record. That and his beat selection is pretty good for the most part.

Holla at me when the instrumentals drop.

There was a period where he wasn't really like this. There's a project he did with Khrysis and 9th Wonder in 2004 (not the Cloud 9 project) and it's much different. Some various songs from it have leaked over the years. I'll try to post some of them and IMO they have a different feel than what he started doing around 2010, give or take a couple years.

 

[DillaTUDE]

If you're a fan of 96-99 Jay (Reasonable Doubt/In My Lifetime, Vol. 1/Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life/Vol. 3... The Life and Times of S. Carter) then I can't see how you won't love Skyler's music.

He embodies the very best of that slick-talking, double-entendre, late 90s era Hov.