If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook Bringing you a new song featuring Chuck D every Monday is a tradition we can get behind. This week sees a new single from Skyzoo featuring the legendary Public Enemy MC. "Courtesy Call" is the perfect style of song to feature Chuck D. It's a little smoother and less raw than classic Public Enemy, but it does have an edge to it that classic PE had. I'll take Chuck D doing anything, but we'd be thrilled to bring you "Courtesy Call" even if it didn't feature the living legend on the chorus. Skyzoo has created this perfect classic sounding hip hop song that still has its footing planted right in 2024. Skyzoo says of his latest single: “The idea behind 'Courtesy Call' came from the energy of the beat itself.  The track, produced by The Dagger, out of Michigan, is bare-boned and layered all at once; between the subs and the 808’s going neck and neck with the breakbeat drums.  It’s sort of a double entendre in its own right, and t...

Skyzoo is one of those wildly underrated rappers out there today. Every time I hear him release new music, it's a solid track. For "The Workload," he teams with legendary Wu-Tang Clan MC Method Man. If Skyzoo teaming with Method Man sounds great to you, you are correct. Skyzoo obviously (and rightfully) holds Method Man in high esteem, and the song sounds like late 90's Wu-Tang. This is a perfect song for those of us obsessed with the early to mid 90's era of hip hop, before producers just took a pop song in full and had people rap over it. "The Workload" is just simply a great old school style hip hop song. Skyzoo says of his latest single: "The idea for 'The Workload' came after Method Man & Redman’s festival performance this past summer, with the iconic duo putting on a masterclass of hip-hop, but feeling disconnected from the younger generation; due to them not understanding the greatness they were witnessing.  When Meth said he was ...

There has been an uptick in hip hop artists teaming with brass bands lately, and we're all in for it. The latest is Skyzoo who brought in Hypnotic Brass Ensemble for his latest single, "Bed-Stuy is Burning." The song is a lament about the gentrification of the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn. It's a mournful song that also implores other cities to fight gentrification. The horns of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble add just the right feeling of loss and sadness. It's an interesting technique since brass bands are usually used for a celebratory feeling. "Bed-Stuy is Burning" captures what the neighborhood truly lost as it became just another corporate American neighborhood. You can watch the video for "Bed-Stuy is Burning" below. All the Brilliant Things  is due out June 11 on Mello Music Group. You can pre-order the album via Bandcamp . For more on Skyzoo, check out the artist's website .

The latest single from the collaborative album from Skyzoo and Pete Rock might be the most satisfying throwback of all time. It's a brand new song, but it just feels like 1990. "Eastern Conference All-Stars" is the ultimate laid back posse cut. It obviously features Skyzoo, but also verses by Westside Gunn, Conway, Benny The Butcher, and Elzhi. These kind of songs dominated most of the hip hop I listened to in high school, and "Eastern Conference All-Stars" pushes my nostalgia button perfectly. Skyzoo says about the song: “When putting together Retropolitan, one of the first ideas I had was to put together the ultimate posse cut, with everyone who’s on the record being who I always had in mind.  Something in the vein of DMX’s ‘Ni**az Done Started Something, JAY-Z’s Reservoir Dogs, LL's 4,3,2,1, etc.  I broke the idea down to Pete, and he immediately played this beat. Pete knew exactly what would work for us to go bar crazy. When you put five top-tier lyr...

While younger artists working with their musical heroes has been common in the past decade or so for rock and folk artists, there hasn't been much in the world of hip hop. Skyzoo is changing that by working with the legendary Pete Rock on a collaborative album. I'm not that familiar with Skyzoo, but Pete Rock's work with C.L. Smooth helped soundtrack my teenage years. Their first single together is out, and "It's All Good" is, quite simply, great. It doesn't hurt that the beat for "It's All Good" comes from Rock's secret stash and is from around the time (1994) that Rock was working on Nas's beyond classic Illmatic.  Skyzoo has this to say about the album: “The idea for  Retropolitan  came from a feeling of necessity. The album is both a love letter and a wake up call to the city of New York. In an age where hype dominates reality, FOMO supersedes integrity and gentrification has supplanted tradition, this album is screaming for...