Skyzoo

Brooklyn rapper and songwriter Skyzoo maintained a steady output of work beginning in the early 2000s, crafting intricate accounts of urban existence, everyday hardships, and aspirations toward achievement. Numerous mixtapes and albums throughout that decade helped him cultivate attention, several of which featured beats from DJ Premier and 9th Wonder. Starting with the 2009 project The Salvation, he shifted toward more introspective, life-story-driven verses, a direction that persisted across later full-length efforts such as 2015’s Music for My Friends. Projects including 2020’s The Bluest Note and Milestones further pursued a jazz-tinged aesthetic. Across his trajectory he has joined forces with Jill Scott, Black Thought, Jadakiss, Talib Kweli, and additional artists.

Gregory Skyler Taylor entered the world on December 24, 1982, in Crown Heights, though he passed the majority of his childhood slightly farther south in Bedford-Stuyvesant. His parents supplied both his nickname and stage name by merging the middle name Skyler with the title of Skyy’s 1980 disco-funk single. At nine years old, after first encountering Chi-Ali’s “Age Ain’t Nuthin’ But a #,” he felt compelled to rap and simultaneously developed admiration for neighborhood icons who achieved worldwide stature, the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. While still establishing himself, he secured placements with producers Jay Dee and 9th Wonder and circulated multiple mixtapes in pursuit of a major-label contract.

The February 2006 death of his recent acquaintance Jay Dee left him shaken, prompting the recording of “Sky's Last Donut” as a direct response. Still seeking major placement at the time, he issued the three-day collaborative LP Present Cloud 9: The 3 Day High with 9th Wonder through the independent Traffic imprint in October 2006. Following further mixtape activity, Skyzoo joined 9th Wonder’s Duck Down subsidiary Jamla and delivered his debut proper solo album, The Salvation, in September 2009. The set included contributions from 9th Wonder alongside Just Blaze, Black Milk, Needlz, and Nottz. His follow-up solo effort, A Dream Deferred—carrying singles such as the Talib Kweli-assisted, Lee-approved “Spike Lee Was My Hero”—surfaced via Faculty/Duck Down in October 2012.

Upon fulfilling his Duck Down obligations in 2013, Skyzoo launched the First Generation Rich, Inc. imprint. He partnered with producer AntMan Wonder on An Ode to Reasonable Doubt, a tribute to Jay-Z’s 1996 debut issued on the veteran’s birthday, December 4. That same period yielded the 2014 collaboration Barrel Brothers with Torae, whose production roster included DJ Premier, Illmind, and Oh No. Skyzoo’s third solo album, Music for My Friends, reached listeners in 2015 and incorporated appearances from the Roots’ Black Thought, Jadakiss, Bilal, and further guests. The next year he united with Detroit producer Apollo Brown for the Mello Music Group release The Easy Truth. In 2017 he issued the Peddler Themes EP. Early 2018 brought his seventh project, In Celebration of Us on First Generation Rich, which featured Raheem DeVaughn, JillsBlack, Kay Cola, Saba Abraha, and others. The subsequent year he linked with Pete Rock for the joint album Retropolitan alongside Styles P, Westside Gunn, and additional contributors. The Bluest Note, a 2020 team-up with Roman nu-jazz outfit Dumbo Station, preceded the conceptual fatherhood EP Milestones later that same year.