- published: 04 Nov 2015
- views: 14432
Skyzoo (born Gregory Skyler Taylor, December 24, 1982, Crown Heights, Brooklyn) is a New York hip hop emcee.
Born Gregory Skyler Taylor in 1982 in Crown Heights, he grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was nicknamed Skyzoo by his parents after R&B group Skyy. The nickname also derives from his middle name, Skyler. He began rapping at the age of nine and went on to work with producers Jay Dee and 9th Wonder, releasing several mixtapes in the hope of securing a record deal. He lost to Jin on BET's 106 & Park freestyle contest, but went on to have tracks used as both the theme to ESPN's Whiplash TV and the soundtrack to a Guinness advert, and set up his own Custom Made Entertainment company. He has also had a long association with North Carolina rap crew the Justus League, whom he was introduced to via his friend Chaundon, and who he describes as his "second family". Jay Dee's death in 2006 prompted Skyzoo to pay tribute with the song "Sky's Last Donut". He worked with 9th Wonder on his debut album, Present Cloud 9: The 3 Day High, which reportedly took only three days to record. He also contributed to three tracks on the Hall of Justus album Soldiers of Fortune.
Talib Kweli Greene (October 3, 1975), better known as Talib Kweli, is an American rapper. Kweli hails from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" (طالب); his middle name in Swahili means "true". Kweli first gained recognition through Black Star, a collaboration with fellow MC Mos Def.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kweli grew up in a highly educated household in Park Slope. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York and his father an administrator at Adelphi University. His younger brother, Jamal Greene, is a professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, and former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse whom he had met in high school. Talib Kweli was a student at Cheshire Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut. He was also a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, before being academically dismissed. He later studied experimental theater at New York University.
Patrick Douthit (born January 15, 1975 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina), better known as 9th Wonder is a hip hop record producer, record executive, DJ, lecturer, and lyricist from Durham, North Carolina, U.S. He began his career as the main producer for the group Little Brother, and has also worked with Mary J. Blige, Jean Grae, Wale, Jay-Z, Murs, Drake, Buckshot, Chris Brown, Destiny's Child, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Ludacris, Mac Miller, and David Banner. As of 2010, 9th Wonder raps under the name of 9thmatic.
9th Wonder has a smooth and soulful production style that relies on samples from artists such as Al Green and Curtis Mayfield. He attributes the bass lines that he uses in production to DJ Premier, Pete Rock and J Dilla, while he claims to have learned "Aahs" from RZA.[clarification needed]
9th Wonder's first significant career breakthrough came in 2003 when, as an up-and-coming producer, he released an unofficial remix album of Nas' 2002 album God's Son entitled God's Stepson. Released through internet outlets, the album garnered significant attention and acclaim. The producer has said that he was not thinking in terms of using it to generate a buzz or promote his skills and that at that point: "I never thought any of this of me as a producer was going to happen." The album has since been credited as starting the now regular trend for unofficial 'home-made' remixes of whole albums.
[Verse 1:]
The life of kings & everything we call it,
The realization of everything that we forefeit,
The last scene of the night, with no applauding,
Tryna circle back to when the curtains were called in,
I talk to you 'cause you told me to throw my all in,
And now it feels like I'm too far in, told me regardless,
As long as I could show you where the heart is,
Another day shouldn't be a problem, but now,
The more I come to you the more it feels like,
Real life, couldn't have been built right,
You told me to still write,
Told me you would help me make sense of it all,
And we would never have to censor our talks,
So I told you everything, I never worried 'bout if you could hear,
I assumed your attention was a sign of how you cared,
See with you, I was different, I ain't try to hide fear,
Nor anger, nor excitement, played you my life as,
Quick as I was living it, gave you my life as,
Quick as I could give you it,
I never had a second thought,
Hoping it's for the better, & forever more,
I put you in front of everyone around me,
From the first moment that you found me,
B.F.F., but fell for it, by far I fell,
And you was the help for that I could call myself,
So if your ears are off or tainted in the least,
Then how can I explain this to me? So now I'm like...
[Hook: x2]
Dear whoever, when I put this together,
I felt like severing ties may work better,
I felt like stepping aside instead of together,
Could be the best thing for the both of us, forever
[Verse 2:]
In all honesty, planning on how to leave,
Is just more proof of the fact that I'm all outta me,
Just more truth that exactly the way I tried to be,
Was either too much or not enough,
No middle ground, so to talk to you & pen it down,
It's not as easy no more, I think different now,
The idea of telling you what I wouldn't repeat,
Only for you to be wrong is what I couldn't believe,
Ran to you anytime I was looking for me,
And I took your advice on how to carry it,
No barriers, no doubting you,
Until doubt was the only thing I knew how to do,
When the doors close on me, day ones fold on me,
You would get a hold of me & tell me to word it,
But shit is getting old on me, shit is monotone homey,
Same metronome homey, I already heard it,
Same metronome homey, I already heard it,
Feeling like everyone before me who supports me
Is deserving of a reason to applaud me,
And if I ain't able to give them that much,
Due to how we're matched up,
I could've scripted out a different story,
I threw all caution to the wind when you told me it was worth it,
And pitcured that the picture would be perfect,
At the end of the day,
Dear notebook, thanks for all the listens,
But we should prolly both stop pretending, so now I'm like...