Skyzoo has done it with his new album, Keep Me Company. This is his ninth solo effort and its his first project of 2024. That is unless you count the release of the deluxe of his 2023 outing, The Mind Of A Saint. In a year chockful of tremendous LPs from both the mainstream and underground, some records are bound to fly under the radar. Keep Me Company may do the same, especially with it dropping a month before 2025 begins. But Skyzoo’s performance across this 13-song tracklist will assuredly not be forgotten by us. Released via Old Soul Music and First Generation Rich, the Brooklyn, New York act is getting deeply personal, and it revolves heavily around personal growth.
Skyzoo breaks it down very well for every potential and current listener. “The new album is officially out now. An album about growth, as an artist, a listener, a leader, just growth. Feeling alone in a growth spurt, thinking maybe you’re wrong for being the only one who sees things the way you do, and then realizing there’s others who also feel alone in thinking the way you do, and finding out that yall aren’t alone at all. At that point the realization becomes “‘oh you feel the same way too? Aye man come keep me company.’” Simple math.” Our words won’t do the tape justice. You’ll just have to listen for yourself and multiple times at that, Skyzoo recommends.
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 done with a certain demographic, I understood his stance, as me growing a Wu loyalist left me frustrated with how that all played out. Thus, “The Workload” was born.
Using that moment to show the somehow mislead of this era what they’re out of touch with; a legend in the truest sense. It was an honor to craft this record with Meth, putting on a lyrical clinic, all while giving him his flowers in the same breath, Cartune produced the record and when I heard it, the energy of Meth’s post-concert response seemed to fit the tone of the beat. Fast forward a few months later and here we are.
One of the more underappreciated writers from the East Coast is back with a fiery vengeance and he’s not alone. We are talking about Brookyn, New York rapper Skyzoo and Method Man and they are here to show everyone again how clever their pen games are. “The Workload” is their first-ever collaboration and we are so thankful they decided to combine their talents. Hopefully, it continues because this is an excellent start to what could be a beautiful work relationship in the future. Their wealth of experience shows as Skyzoo and Meth rip off impressive one liners and double entendres left and right.
Some of the Wu-Tang Clan member’s are below, but here are some from Skyzoo just to give you an extra taste. “I can pen your doom or I can lead you where the plaques are / Catch me fully loaded rolling I click it and clear the fog / You listen to the quotes my Essentials is Fear of God.” Overall, it’s a thrilling track from start to finish from a lyrical perspective alone. However, we would be remiss to not mention the work done by Cartune Beatz. It’s dark, ominous, and intimidating just like Skyzoo and Method Man are on the track. On November 29, the former will be dropping Keep Me Company, and we are thrilled this will most likely be on it.
Black heart that part I spit they backwash Try and mark you out for you mark us now that’s smart Our dogs go to heaven like DMX, I’m that dark Paper on the table with guns drawn now that’s art My profile says I’m a pro with the pronouns It’s protocol to give ’em the pros and cons I’m profound
Hip-hop legend Rakim is breaking new ground with his new project, G.O.D.’S NETWORK (REB7RTH), by flexing his skills both on the mic and behind the boards. Widely lauded as the best lyricist of all time, The God MC himself is blessing the culture with the next step in his historic career; and his first project in 15 years. G.O.D.’S NETWORK (REB7RTH) is now available.
“I feel like the battery in my back has been reenergized,” Rakim said about his new project, which arrives nearly four decades after the release of his classic debut with Eric B., Paid In Full. Since then, he’s continued to shape the landscape and culture of hip-hop as we know it, inspiring rising artists with his hype live shows and incredible studio albums. And while he’s produced some of his previous work—notably “Don’t Sweat the Technique,” “Juice (Know The Ledge),” and “Paid In Full”—this feels like new territory for the 18th Letter, whose production and scratching talents are nothing short of remarkable.
G.O.D.’S NETWORK (REB7RTH)is proof that Rakim is truly one of the most special artists we’ve known, not just in hip-hop, but all of music. You can tell he feels that level of praise when speaking about the genesis of the album. “Having the ability to showcase my talents behind the boards, coupled with the elite lyricism the world already knows and gives me infinite praise for, alongside some of the best talents to ever do it is truly a blessing and for that I am humbled,” Rakim declared.
The album’s first single, “Be Ill,” is the perfect introduction, as it pairs Rakim’s raw rhymes and head-nodding production with slick guest features from Kurupt and Masta Killa. Elsewhere, Rakim slows it down for the soulful “Love Is The Message,” which features Nipsey Hussle, Planet Asia, Louis King, Snoop Dogg, Sally Green, Kobe Honeycutt, and the LA Grand Choir. And then there’s the chest-thumping “International,” a straight-up slapper with hard-hitting rhymes from Kool G. Rap, Tristate, and Joell Ortiz.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Last night, the series finale of Snowfall aired, bringing the winding six-year epic to an ironic conclusion. The finale also brought the story of LA drug kingpin Franklin Saint full circle, ending the narrative much as it began – albeit with its protagonist in a much different state, ten years later. (It’s also a full circle moment for yours truly; I quit my old job to work at Uproxx full-time in order to shoot some sponsored content for Snowfall back when it debuted in 2017.)
That story fascinated Brooklyn rapper Skyzoo so much, he wrote a whole album about it. The Mind Of A Saintcame out back in January, but much like the show itself, I didn’t get around to engaging with it until much later. With the overload of content coming out on a seemingly daily basis, the project got lost in the rush.
Fortunately, thanks to the series finale airing this week, I had the perfect opportunity to revisit the project – and I’m so glad I did. On The Mind Of A Saint, Sky plants himself into Franklin’s Converse All-Stars to deliver what he believes is the album that Franklin himself would make if he pulled an Eazy-E and switched from the drug business to the music one.
And unsurprisingly, it works extremely well. Sure, Skyzoo’s got that whole brusque New Yorker demeanor – not to mention an accent that marks him as a native of the Big Apple far more than a hard-R-slinging South LA resident – but aside from the modern quirks of his densely-packed delivery and modern rap mannerisms (as opposed to the more straightforward flows adopted by Angelenos in the ‘80s), his unique storytelling style captures the essence of the series perfectly.
Across the 10 tracks, Skyzoo channels his love of sports and pop culture references into the show’s 1980s setting, only using metaphors he knows the protagonist would use. This includes nods to geopolitical happenings like the Iran-Contra scandal on “Eminent Domain” and local sports heroes like the Lakers’ Norm Nixon on “Straight Drop.”
Meanwhile, tracks like “Bodies!” and “Apologies In Order” recount events from the show itself, like a rap recap. Sky litters the former with the names of the characters in the series who meet their demises from Franklin’s machinations, all while detailing the kingpin’s mindstate: “Manboy deserved it, Khadijah deserved it / Tyana shouldn’t have been in that car, that wasn’t worth it / Andre deserved it / I mean, in the beginning, he didn’t but then he went and got all this pretend purpose.”
Even more impressively, though, Skyzoo indirectly uses this conceptual approach to the album to turn the lens onto the ills of society that continue to create the conditions for this criminal mindset to this day. “Picture opportunity skipping over who you be,” he mourns on “Eminent Domain.”
Then, “Views From The Valley” presents the stark contrast between LA’s various enclaves and how seeing wealth just out of reach can make someone desperate to change their fortunes: “Never blink, and turn all this shit into more than I could ever think /Not a stereotype to let me sink, let me link / Between where I’m from to where I’m placed at /And pray over this blizzard I’ma whip up on my way back.”
When he pulls back for a bird’s-eye view on “Panthers & Powder,” it doesn’t feel like a betrayal of the concept. Instead, it reads like something Franklin knows implicitly, even if he wouldn’t know how to articulate it out loud – at least, until he decided to dedicate himself to a craft like rap, in which case those connections might become clearer.
The most impressive moment on the album, though, comes near its own conclusion (which, unfortunately, was written before the final season of the show even aired, leaving Sky’s interpretation of those events unwritten). On “Purity,” Sky imagines Franklin’s fateful meeting with a young Nipsey Hussle and his older brother Blacc Sam as toddlers. By this point in the show, it’s 1986, so it would be entirely possible for a real-life Franklin to have met the boys’ father.
It’s a clever way to double down on the album’s (and the show’s) themes; that for every action, there’s a reaction, that the consequences of a scheme often far outweigh the merits, that legacies are built and destroyed by the mundane encounters we have every day, and that a system that fails its most vulnerable will stay failing everyone within it.
Nip, like Sky’s imaginary Franklin, found his way out of the hustler’s lifestyle through rap; like the show’s Franklin, though, he couldn’t really escape the realities of the twisted social structure of America, which has determined that some lives have more value than others – even when they traffic in the same immoral industry (just watch the show, you’ll get it).
Like the show that inspired it, The Mind Of A Saint is a fascinating glimpse at the realities of the drug trade and its impacts on the community around it, without the glamorizing that comes from other, similar examples of trap and gangster rap. Because Sky posits from the outset that this is a fictional character’s narrative, he can get intimately close but remain artistically distant.
It’s an example of hip-hop at its highest form, a literary work worth digging into to exegete heady themes and an entertaining display of smart, surprising wordplay. It’s what KRS-One set out to make with Criminal Minded and an extension of Jay-Z accomplished with American Gangster. It’s a concept album that actually sticks the landing – something that is so rarely accomplished in any genre. And, with the final season finally out in the world, there’s still some story left to tell – a perfect excuse for Skyzoo to drop a deluxe.
