This is in my top 5 of the year so far. I didnt care for Barrel Brothers very much, but 80% of this album is as good as anything he's ever done

Here's the production & feature lineup...

01. All Day, Always (prod. by AntMan Wonder)
02. Suicide Doors (prod. by MarcNfinit)
03. The Moments That Matter feat. Kay Cola (prod. by Jahlil Beats)
04. Luxury feat. Westside Gunn (prod. by Skyzoo)
05. Everything’s For Sale (prod. by !llmind)
06. See A Key (Ki’) feat. Jadakiss (prod. by Thelonious Martin)
07. Money Makes Us Happy feat. Black Thought & Bilal (prod. by The Rvlt)
08. Playing Favorites feat. Christon Gray (prod. by !llmind)
09. Meadow Of Trust feat. Saba (prod. by Black Metaphor)
10. Women Who Can Cook (prod. by Thelonious Martin)
11. Civilized Leisure feat. MoZaic (prod. by !llmind)
12. The Experience (prod. by MarcNfinit)
13. Asking Bodie For A Package feat. Skarr Akbar (prod. by !llmind)
14. Things I Should’ve Told My Friends (prod. by Apollo Brown)
15. Sweet Pursuit feat. Kay Cola (prod. by Seige Monstracity)

J/k there's no music budget limit. (though there should be)

I hope this is dope!

between Skyzoo & 9th?

the bars in question:
"...But I stopped thinkin that rappers and producers was my friends
Cuz it's a wonderful world* til they cuttin out the odds
And it turns out loyalty just wasn't in they cards"

*9th has two labels (for some reason), Jamla Records, and It's a Wonderful World Music Group, on which he released The Wonder Years.

Very, very dope album by the way...Skyzoo is the dopest rapper there is right now in my opinion, right between Lupe and maybe Kendrick, and the production is immaculate too...

...but I'm just like, man, what went wrong there?

>between Skyzoo & 9th?
>
>the bars in question:
>"...But I stopped thinkin that rappers and producers was my
>friends
>Cuz it's a wonderful world* til they cuttin out the odds
>And it turns out loyalty just wasn't in they cards"
>
>*9th has two labels (for some reason), Jamla Records, and It's
>a Wonderful World Music Group, on which he released The Wonder
>Years.
>
>Very, very dope album by the way...Skyzoo is the dopest rapper
>there is right now in my opinion, right between Lupe and maybe
>Kendrick, and the production is immaculate too...
>
>...but I'm just like, man, what went wrong there?

9th moved everybody under Jamla a few years ago...

Those first 8 tracks are flawless. Not a fan of the bonus track, but this goes.

Sky does it again.

.

Most of Sky's solo albums have jazzy songs, but then pull back into the 90 homage feel. This album is jazz almost all the way through, but not in a Pete Rock way.

I'm still digesting it, but I think it' better listen all the way through than A Dream Deferred was.

I wish he rapped on Meadow Of Trust tho.

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

Off first listen it's his best album.

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

I've only heard Dream Deferred and I just got to "Asking Bodie For A Package" on this one... and man. Both albums are FILLED with Wire references

Damn good album. Beat selection (as noted above) is superb.

Glad to see Black Thought get some shine - with Bilal!

If Nas had his ear for beats...

When I read that in the liner notes...I LOLed

Don't know why people think this cat is boring or a Jay-Z clone.

Your ears have to be able to discern nuance n order to appreciate dude.

If you're looking for something immediate, Skyzoo might not be for you.

His hooks all sounds the same, they all have the same pattern.

Does the 4 bar hook and then repeats the last line for 4 more bars?

>Does the 4 bar hook and then repeats the last line for 4 more
>bars?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFGd2drY4OQ

.

as far as elite-level lyricists go, I'll take Sky's hooks over those of the rest of the guys like him that seem to do hooks just because it's what's expected of a songwriter...my man Lupe, for example.

so I'm choosing to be no more mad at the hook formula that he leans on than I was at, say, Rakim's, Tupac's or Gang Starr's.

He had one of the most genius hooks of the year in MAGI.

>He had one of the most genius hooks of the year in MAGI.
That one was incredible.

I'm talking about F&L2 (which was pretty good overall) & Lasers (no). Not "Superstar", but the "Superstar" formula he used on those two albums. I don't like my rap stepped on.

I hear you on that.

just a seemly endless vault of dope music....


And co-sign his extraordinary ear for beats

his choice in production is damn near 2nd to none

sky just knows how to put albums together, period, and that's an unsung skill imo. i dug the overall sound of this one, as well as the overarching concept

Suicide Doors, Everthing's for Sale, See a Key, Asking Bodie for a Package and Falling out of the Sky are straight HEAT...and "Meadow of Trust" might be my favorite beat off either album.

His stuff on his own never clicks with me. And that's how I felt with this album; it can't quite hold my interest.

I just don't think I personally find him interesting on his own. I really like the Barrel Brothers album, but I find like Torae's presence provided some balance. I'm struggling to get through this new album.

.

I knew when I heard them Sky x 9th joints waayy back dude had somethin, and when he hooked up with Tor and did them two Premier joints? I was amped...

Been stickin with Tor ever since, thru the mixtape, Double Barrel (one of my fav albums), the For/Off The Record albums - all FIYAH!!!

Skyzoo tho? Not so much... I really like his raps, but his beat selection off point when he on his own. Hell, I even felt Barrel Bros was zzzZZZ...

Also, someone tell Apollo Brown to lay off the drum machines and stick to the smack, he got that LOCKED, thx!!!

First thing...J. Cole was suppose to be the last verse on Money Makes Us Happy...Cole tour schedule made that fall through...still could possibly work on something else with him

Wale was suppose to have a verse on Sweet Pursuit...

No beef between him and 9th Wonder...discussed his bar from Sweet Pursuit with 9th when 9th was recently in NY with Rapsody...

That's all I got...

Lupe and John Legend was supposed to be on A Dream Deferred.

We've had incredibly well done albums this year with thematic lyricism at the heart of them. I'm not mad at all, Skyzoo has proven he's a lot more than a battle rapper (not that there's anything wrong with that really). He's even started doing creative things with his stage shows to continue the album experience into the live setting.

______________________________________________________________
http://twitter.com/Gedi

"This is your world. Shape it or someone else will." - Gary Lew

.

http://www.beatstars.com/blog/brooklyn-emcee-skyzoo-in-the-studio-with-dr-dre/

Not sure anything ell ever be released but good for Skyzoo regardless.

congrats to him.

Like, this reaffirms my faith in hip hop. Skyzoo is an excellent writer. Very low on drama and very high on quality output. He has great features who are there because they're dope, not for name recognition.

On the other hand I'm old. I wonder if the youth are into this dude. People say we shouldn't care about if other people are rocking to it but that is what sets the path and what determines if artist like this will be a trickle, or if more young rappers take the lyrical route. I don't wanna be listening to the same artists for the next 30 years.

Album is dull as fuck.

Hit the spot.

Skyzoo is a DOPE writer, but these beats? Nah...

bit of a step back musically from Dream Deferred in my opinion, but also a step up from the boom bap he was doing beforehand. really enjoy this, the sort of album you can just put on and do chores to but you could also listen in real close if you wanted.


also, it's a real trip hearing that "Come Back to Me" beat under "See a Key", I used to listen to that beat all the time three years ago. cool to hear it on an album but I think I prefer it without vocals (no knock on Skyzoo and Jada, it's kind of a distracting beat).

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

i do like that he's growing a bit tho. i prefer this record to Dream Deferred, but I think Dream Deferred had his closet chances to making "hits" versus this very well-constructed piece he has now.

Tha fuck!?!?

How y'all let shit like this be all whatever!!?!?!?

This shit incredible!!

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

This is super enjoyable great music

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

or are you just getting into him now? dude has been quite consistent for a while now and keeps getting better.

which is perfectly fine. i always check for dude, i know what i'm getting, and i pretty much always enjoy his shit on some level.

My review for PopMatters from then:


Skyzoo may just be the most accessible "über lyrical miracle" rapper since Ghostface's heyday. He's an MC that seems custom fitted for these times. His flow acts like a falling Tetris piece, locked into a constant rhythm and yet able to assume a myriad of forms on its way to the end point. The voice follows suit, with a nasally drawl that feels very Houston or Atlanta yet backed by a gnarled sort of urban confidence that could only truly resonate from underneath the corner store street lights of 1990s Brooklyn. Being obsessed with the artform and the nuances of how much a great voice and delivery can push even subpar work into the spotlight, it's hard to convince myself that Skyzoo's nuanced delivery isn't the definitive bridge point between the new school's swaggering and the old school's dense formalism.

And yet all signs point to the fact that he's not: The Salvation, for all its positives, was at times criticized for Skyzoo's sticking to script as a rhymer (again, I'd argue the appeal is in the subtle nuances within his template) and at others simply for not being what it represented, an underground album for mainstream heads. The release barely cleared five figures, which on a longstanding independent like Duck Down is a hard figure to measure as a bystander, but through a Billboard lens just feels like an unworthy number for someone whose style is so rooted in dangling upon the border between obscurity and radio play.

A Dream Deferred appears on the heels of a pair of mixtapes, 2011's The Great Debater (admission: I never found time for it) and Theo vs. J.J., a release that was seemingly set up to display the differences between the aims of Salvation and Dream Deferred. If Salvation represented Skyzoo as Theo Huxtable, the rapper who knew success was just a rhyme and a beat away so long as his label supported his every move, then Dream Deferred is certainly Skyzoo seeing the world more from J.J. Evans' perspective, worried that maybe hope isn't enough to "make it through hysteria", though Skyzoo posits he's "made it through hysteria, show 'em how" late in the album. But that doesn't mean the album is a notably somber affair compared to his would-be coming out party; in fact, to Skyzoo's great credit, this is an album that expands on everything that Salvation did well while folding on most of its more questionable decisions.

In addition to a more focused effort on Skyzoo's part, the production is just on a whole different level. In part, this is because he's graduated from what's considered in the 21st century to be basic underground production to beats that bridge that void between boom bap and the grandeur that approaches larger artists like a J.Cole, Kanye West or Drake. Fans of Kanye West and Buckwild can coalesce here in equal measure, with about half the project guided by the steady hand of Illmind. The guy is just on another level here, for just one example the Late Registration levels of orchestral grandeur on the album opener "Dreams in a Basement". Or check how "Pockets Full" comes off as a Moment of Truth-era DJ Premier cut until its horn-driven outro without jarring the listener out of the vibe at all.

Addressing production without looking towards Illmind's (who moonlighted during Kanye's Cruel Summer sessions) "Give It Up" would be an accident. This is a track that's so rooted in the odd, wobbly histrionics of dubstep while maintaining a very deliberate grounding in mid-90s boom bap that it's amazing Illmind was able to hide this from Kanye's team. It's not the best track here, but for an army of hip-hop listeners that have wondered why density-focused artists like Skyzoo struggle to gain their shine they can now point to "Give It Up", claiming that this is a monument dedicated to both clubs and headphones with impunity.

After collaborating in full with Skyzoo on 2010's Live from the Tapedeck, Illmind appears in front or in back of six of the fourteen tracks here, providing a guiding light for other producers like 9th Wonder, Black Milk, DJ Khalil and Tall Black Guy to follow. The message is simple: embrace your most marketable qualities, but don't be afraid to expand the boundaries of those formulas. Hip-hop fans who were entranced by Black Milk's 2008 release Tronic will have some familiar feelings throughout this album.

However, even with all he's learned and all he's capable of, listening to Skyzoo certainly results in a feeling of impermeability. Even as he rocks increasingly ambitious production - and trust, Dream Deferred is one of 2012's great accomplishments - it's sometimes hard to get on Skyzoo's side as much as he seem tailored towards accessibility. He'll do the double back thing, where a line becomes a line within a triplet or a note becomes a pun, almost on impulse, as though he can't find a way out of a writing hole other than adjusting his word choice. And as subtle as his verbal display is, as region-abstract as I've presumed it can be, I'm not willing to argue it definitely is.

The professionalism Skyzoo exerts, then, sometimes works in a minorly antagonistic fashion to the work he's presenting here as the increasingly amazing production and intricate rhyme schemes fall into place. As impressed as I am by Dream Deferred, to the layman's ear it could certainly feel like an album that's less impressive than it is, if only because one nuance or another doesn't fit where they think it should. But these are truly minor nitpicks, as the old adage goes that dense rhymes plus fantastic production equals out to spinning the LP over and over in order to decode the puzzle.

To be truthful, in my nearly four years writing for PopMatters it's rare I've wished for a middle ground more than writing about this album. 8, 9? The difference is negligible, it's just a number. The idea is to listen, not to read.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

at a jazz club with a full band.

He's got quite a hefty discography and a consistent, if not always great, catalog of music.

You niggas don't talk about good music

Talk about the right shit and I cop

I come here TO FIND SHIT to BUY

As in, I BUY shit.

You nigga don't hype it enough.

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

This and A DREAM Deffered are my shit

hell everything he does.

and he was a FAR LESS savvy rapper then.

but The Lesson ain't the Lesson of old.

but all that aside, get into his other shit.

there's been a post for like all of his joints...including Barrel Brothers. I made a post for the song he did with Sean Price and Torae...Duck Down...talkin about how crazy his flow was...joint went wood. Only so much you can do.

whenever i reset my phone or wipe it clean all his shit gets added first

man that Dreams vs Reality mixtape was the shit too

this weekend I did some side work at my crib. I just threw on DD and linked to my bluetooth speaker and let it bang the whole time...then straight into Barrel Bros.

>man that Dreams vs Reality mixtape was the shit too

Like, he's stellar. Not good. Not cool

Stellar

He got that OC-ish style that is just impeccable to me

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

people say hes boring

He doesn't change his flow up much nor his patterns, but he's so damn good at his lane, it doesn't matter.

It's a fact

This is a SPLENDID record.

Heartfelt, sincere. Fun and witty.

I'm having so much fun with this.

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

A Dream Deferred was one of my favorite albums of that year, and he was probably my favorite rapper for a minute. Love that album.

I need to give this album some run.

Gave it one quick spin, didn't grab me, and I never went back to it. Despite knowing full well that Skyzoo's material often takes a while for me to appreciate, and then I love. Need to make amends for this.

Quality LP

For some reason this album passed me by. Agree with the overwhelming sentiment on this thread. This album is dope.

I loved Peddlers Theme as well

werd.

>For some reason this album passed me by. Agree with the
>overwhelming sentiment on this thread. This album is dope.
>
>I loved Peddlers Theme as well
>
>werd.

He's always on point lyrically and no matter who he works with the beat selection is immaculate.
__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

>


----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

>


----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "