Skyzoo - The Salvation Review

Posted by Michael James on 10.12.2009

Back in the day, when I was young, I'm not a kid anymore.... Skyzoo's got me feeling like the good ol' days.

For my money, the golden age of East Coast hip-hop was 1993-95 when acts like Notorious B.I.G, Boot Camp Clik, Wu-Tang Clan and Nas all showcased gritty streetwise production and a combination of hard-edged boasting and realistic tales of urban living. Of course, it didn’t take long before hip-hop went in a much jiggier direction and every dial got turned up to ten. The floss factor invaded in a sea of shiny suits and multi-million dollar videos and soon other regions stepped their game up to largely subsume the New York sound. Despite my continuing love for hip-hop, its rare that something hits me with the same feeling I got from tracks like “Juicy” or “C.R.E.A.M.,” or even less mainstream tracks like Channel Live’s “Mad Izm” or Mic Geronimo’s “Shit’s Real”. Thankfully, The Salvation , the first studio album from Brooklyn MC Skyzoo, released on 9th Wonder’s Duck Down Records imprint, JamLa, is a welcome blast of nostalgia.



1. The Opener
2. Return of the Real
3. The Beautiful Decay
4. My Interpretation
5. Popularity
6. Like a Marathon
7. The Shooter’s Soundtrack
8. Under Pressure
9. Penmanship
10. Dear Whoever
11. For What It’s Worth
12. The Necessary Evils
13. Easy to Fly
14. Bottom Line
15. Metal Hearts
16. Maintain

The Salvation is straight no frills hip-hop, no guest stars, no gimmicks. From the time the street corner gospel singing intro of “The Opener” transitions into the percussion and keys production courtesy of Cyrus tha Great, the album is authentic to the core. Skyzoo’s earnest lyrics like “I ain’t aim to make a classic/I aim to state what happened/and if the outcome gets praised/then blame the havoc/and if the outcome gets praised/then blame the tragic” serve notice that this isn’t Soulja Boy’s hip-hop.

Skyzoo enlists a wide range of producers, from A-list names like Just Blaze, 9th Wonder and Nottz to less well known names like the aforementioned Cyrus Tha Great and Eric G. Yet the wide array of producers still combined to put together a cohesive sonic feel and don’t stray far from a standard gritty East Coast sound. Just Blaze’s beat on “Return of the Real” features thick and grimy synths which harkens back to some his early production work with Jay-Z.

Throughout the album, Skyzoo touches on a wide range of subject matter. The first single, “The Beautiful Decay,” describes every day life in the hood, replete with references to quarter water and popping in Raekwon’s “purple tape.” Elsewhere on “Under Pressure” he analyzes his mixed emotions about his relationship, rapping that “now when I think of handing you a hand/I get a little less enthused./cuz everything should be the same if we’ve been true/but everything is rearranged/and I’m looking for a light switch/wishing that I never had to write this.”

As a lyricist, Skyzoo reminds me of vintage Nas, as his best verses add subtle touches and details which enable him to tell a story by creating an atmosphere, as opposed to beating the listener over the head. This is particularly true on the album’s best track “The Shooter’s Soundtrack.” The track follows a short vocal sample from “The Wire”, where Snoop talks about recruiting a new school-age shooter. As the song begins, Skyzoo raps about a young shooter’s anticipation and the weight of a weapon in his hand. The production on the chorus of each verse features a cacophony gun samples and gunshot-like cymbal hits, representing a shooting. Skyzoo’s shooter gets more confident with each verse, until he’s a fully-formed goon by song’s end.

On another highlight, “The Necessary Evils”, Skyzoo raps over an ominous Needlz beat. Again the verses provide a subtle cautionary tale about the cycle of ambition, depicting how every dollar earned makes you that much more money-crazed and consumed with finding that next stack. “For What Its Worth” features cinematic strings and Skyzoo’s tales of struggling to resist the temptations of the hood, as Skyzoo asks “Why can’t I be blessed with a more blessed set of wings?”

Skyzoo’s few attempts at a more commercial sound, achieve mixed results. “Popularity” is a boastful track with an old-school feel that is made by a sick beat courtesy of Nottz, the producer behind Busta Rhymes’ “Pass the Courvoisier” and Slaughterhouse’s “Woodstock”. Less successful is “Easy to Fly”, a track aimed at a female audience which features a distracting female vocal hook. But all in all, there are few nits to pick with The Salvation. At 16 full tracks, the album is a little long, and some tracks, including “My Interpretation” and “Bottom Line,” could have been left off. That being said, Skyzoo’s debut is a undiluted dose of reminiscence for hip-hop’s golden era and I can’t recommend it enough.

If you’re like me, most of your music ends up in an endless .mp3 shuffle. In order to preserve your valuable disk space, here’s what’s Ipod-worthy from The Salvation:

Everything except “My Interpretation”; “Easy to Fly”; “Bottom Line” and “Metal Hearts”

The 411: While The Salvation could have benefited from some editing, that won't stop me from calling it one of the best hip-hop album's of the year, and probably in my top 10 for the year, period. There is something refreshing about this album and Skyzoo. He seems unconcerned with super-stardom and instead pursues hip-hop from a purely artistic perspective. With The Salvation, he succeeds remarkably.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]