Skyzoo Breaks Down His Brilliant New Album; He Explains How To Fight Gentrification

Skyzoo joins episode 51 of AFH's What's The Headline to discuss his new album, All The Brilliant Things: 0:00 Intro 3:24 Skyzoo discusses why he moved from Brooklyn to Atlanta 7:10 Skyzoo explains the concepts behind his song “A Tour Of The Neighborhood” from his album All The Brilliant Things 10:20 Skyzoo on growing up in Brooklyn in the '80s and '90s 12:11 Skyzoo on why 1995 was the greatest year ever 14:40 Recalling the exact moment he knew he wanted to rap 16:55 The impact of growing up in the neighborhood with Biggie, Lil' Kim and Junior M.A.F.I.A. 18:55 Skyzoo explains the origin and meaning of the album cover for All The Brilliant Things 22:54 The importance of creating an album using a central theme 23:40 On learning how to write songs by listening to Ma$e 25:17 Why Skyzoo chose not to feature any other rappers on All The Brilliant Things 26:27 Skyzoo was supposed to be a trap rapper 30:48 Why MCs should not be put into a box for their rhyme styles 32:59 Why a famous rapper told Skyzoo to work less hard 34:30 Phonte talked Skyzoo out of retiring 36:00 On being one of the most underrated MCs in Hip-Hop 38:00 Why he’s anti-music industry now 40:30 The influence Miles Davis has had on Skyzoo’s music 43:40 Why Skyzoo raps about money so much in his music 48:20 How inflation is used to move groups of people out of neighborhoods 54:20 Skyzoo on why people need to love Black people as much as they love Black culture 55:13 Why we have to be careful with cancel culture 57:15 How Black people can better capture the wealth they are creating 59:30 Why Skyzoo does not turn down any interviews 1:01:06 Why media outlets who cover Hip-Hop culture must be from the culture 1:04:35 Why Skyzoo tries to respond to every positive social media post about him 1:05:50 Seeking validation is the plight of Black folks 1:12:32 How gentrifiers played off the fears of the locals 1:14:30 On never having a major company behind him 1:17:00 Skyzoo discusses the moment when he took his rap skills to a different level 1:19:10 Skyzoo on the power of Hip-Hop to educate future generations about gentrification Photograph by Photo Rob