In his new interview with AllHipHop, Virgina based Rapper Skillz speaks candidly on how he felt about the 2011 BET Cypher participants as well as Rap upcomer Tyler the Creator. Below are some excerpts and the full 2 page interview.
“I lost so much respect for so many rappers today…” -Skillz
When asked exactly why he lost respect for some of his counterparts on this particular day, he replies, “Because none of them came there prepared.”
“Well, I can’t say none of them, but a lot of them didn’t! he says, choosing his words with more intention. “Watching some of that sh*t was sad. I watched two particular rappers who are all over the blogs, mixtapes, radio, and magazines stop and start their verses over 64 times!! 64!! I stood there and counted, yo! Between the two of them, they started over 64 times!! We talking 16 bars, yo! And I don’t mean they messed up at the 14th bar and started over. You f*cked up at bar three! I mean, damn, did you write the verse??? Watching that sh*t was sad, ‘cuz let the web tell it, you’re the new hot kid on the block. But, what I saw didn’t represent that at all. I don’t know. I expected more, I guess. Like, know your verse. Come prepared. I felt bad for DJ Premier. He had to sit there through that and remain professional,” he recalls.
His thoughts on Tyler the Creator included:
He talks about technology and how the business has changed right before our eyes. “Like who’s that kid, Tyler The Creator? What’s the name of his group?’ he asks. Odd Future.
“Yeah…yeah…that’s them, I wasn’t familiar with his music, but I watched him win a VMA, for a video that MTV couldn’t even play. That’s the definition of a Odd Future! I went to YouTube and looked at his video, and it’s been viewed 27 million times! MTV could never play a video 27 million times! If that’s not a sign of the times, then I don’t know what is. I read a writer say that he’s the Black Eminem. That’s gotta be the dumbest statement ever. There will never be a Black Eminem, because Em is white,” Skillz says adamantly.
“Black people accept a lot of things in music, but we don’t accept crazy. That doesn’t compute with us. I saw his video, and he hung himself at the end of it. You’ll never see that on a network, so the Internet is the perfect platform for something like that. You’d never see a Black rapper on TV shoveling dirt on a grave saying, ‘I’m sorry, Mama,’ because we don’t view our mothers that way…even if we did grow up in a crazy environment. Then I listened to their music, and it wasn’t that I couldn’t relate to it. It wasn’t good. I’m surprised they made it this far. But with a buzz anything is possible, I guess.”