Are Xxxtentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God Friends Again

When the agenda reaches Dec, many of usa take stock of the yr gone by: the W's and L's, the triumphs and tragedies, accomplishments and disappointments. For Ski Mask the Slump God, 2022 has delivered them all, in extreme mensurate.

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In that location was Beware the Book of Eli, his third mixtape, released in May, which generated such memorable tracks as the kooky "DoIHaveTheSause?" and "Run", just which left Ski nevertheless feeling disappointed, not reflecting "who I am as an artist." There were the thrills of his own summer tour, Ski Meets World, which took him to European festivals and some of his biggest U.Due south. venues to engagement. And at that place was his selection equally part of XXL's coveted Freshman Class — arguably a twelvemonth late, merely who's gonna quibble with that high honour?

And yet, in the center of information technology all came 1 of the most devastating events he'south e'er endured: the sudden, brutal murder of his babyhood friend, trusted advisor and rap'southward scorching new shooting star, XXXTentacion — a moment Ski Mask says will stay with him "always."

Remarkably, in the wake of that horror, Ski has managed to finish this emotional roller coaster year with his most fully-realized work to date, the debut full-length Stokeley, released Friday (Nov. 30) on Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic and titled after his own given first name — and that of his father, also a rapper. If Ski had already earned a place amidst next-gen hip-hop's aristocracy with 2022 and 2022 hits "Grab Me Exterior," "BabyWipe," "Where's the Blow" and "H2o", Stokeley is a next-level achievement on which the artist seems to take found his voice more than e'er. The rapid-burn down lyrical dexterity and good-natured fun that have come to be his signature are still there — but so are other, more than unexpected looks.

"I'chiliad yelling, I'm rapping, I'one thousand singing," he tellsBillboard at Commonwealth Records' midtown New York offices, on the eve of Stokeley's release. "Information technology's fully me. It shows the variety of artists that I can be." The fix is undeniably eclectic: On the rapping front, his facility with rhymes and endless fluency with popular civilization references has never been more obvious — Osama Bin Laden, Carmelo Anthony, Trix, Allstate and Pokémon all go mentions, along with Ski's usual trove of cartoon references (including Stitch, Aang from Avatar: The Concluding Airbender, Nemo and Ned Flanders from The Simpsons).

Meanwhile, the good times are delivered on tracks like the bouncing "Foot Fungus," "Adults Swim" and "Cat Piss," on which his machine gun delivery contrasts with a cloudy guest advent from Lil Yachty. And then there's "Faucet Failure," the anthology's most unabashedly fun track, verses peppered with Ski'due south signature "uh-huh" — which is but more than bear witness than ever of the writing the skills for which Ski Mask has been singled out among his peers, inviting repeated comparisons to "Golden Age" MCs like Busta Rhymes.

It'south the singing on Stokeley that may the biggest surprise. On breathy R&B jams "And then High" and "Save Me, Pt. 2" (featuring Austin Lam), Ski Mask proves his raspy vocalization every bit adept at soulful melodies as it is at bar spitting. The melodic, billowy, mid-tempo trap of "Far Gone" — perhaps the set's most of-the-moment sounding cut — alternates rapping and singing, and brings on Lil Baby for a verse. And the late-anthology "U and I" is a revelation: Ski singing the most sentimental lyrics he'south always written, getting real about a relationship in a style that he admits "is not easy for me."

And yes, the yelling: "Nuketown" serves up another staccato spray of verses along with a shouted chorus of "Cutthroat! Cutthroat!," besides as an uncharacteristically scabrous Juice WRLD feature. "Reborn to Insubordinate" — a highlight and Ski'south favorite track on the album — gets political in a way the rapper never has previously, going later on a government that turns a blind eye to injustice, over a wiry electronic riff. "I don't care if you don't intendance, nosotros don't," it cries, recalling a latter-solar day Public Enemy or Decease Grips, one of Ski's favorite acts. And then there's the volatile "La La", inspired past thoughts of Ten — and not coincidentally produced by Ronny J, who besides worked on the pair'southward iconic, raging collab, "Take a Step Back."

Many of XXXTentacion's artist peers understandably paid tribute to the late rapper on their summer tours, simply none did so every bit extensively as Ski Mask — his de facto blood brother, who he grew upwards with and discovered music with in South Florida. When I saw Ski Meets World at Queens, New York's Knockdown Middle in September, I was struck by the fashion that at least one-half the show was a tribute to young Jahseh Onfroy, who was killed just two and a half weeks before Ski's bout commenced.

I tell Ski that the show was near like watching the two of them as co-headliners. "Considering he was there!" he replies. "Every time on that bout before I went on phase I swear to God, every fourth dimension, I saturday in that location and tried to go into meditation. And in my head, I would be similar, 'Jahseh, where are you? Y'all're here now, right?' And I would just feel his free energy. And and so I knew I could do it. Like, every time earlier I continue stage, I'one thousand nervous. But I have Jahseh there with me at present. It's crazy."

Every bit much as X's death was a gut punch for Ski Mask, it was too a gut-bank check. "Information technology's gonna sound weird, but I'one thousand gonna say that later on Jah died, it woke me upwardly to a lot of things," he admits. "And one of those things was that I demand to accept my music seriously, and that I need to wake upwards."

Never far from his listen is a conversation — argument, really, as all brothers have — that the two had on the day of their final performance together. It was May 13th at Rolling Loud in Miami, scarcely more than a month before Ten was killed. "He told me that my vision was blurred," he recalls. "I don't remember exactly the give-and-take he used, but he said basically that my vision was blurred, that my determination-making wasn't what it used to be. And I was basically like — I argued with him. But he was trying to tell me about myself, and how I could do ameliorate for myself. And I wasn't trying to take it like that, I was taking it as, 'You're just trying to show me that y'all're better than me. I already know you're better than me!' That's how I felt at the fourth dimension. Information technology wasn't jealousy, it was just me wanting to exist my own human, seeing how much Jahseh was his own man."

After X died, though, his words to Ski rang true. "I seen that my decision-making was blurred," he says. "I idea what I was doing at the time was cool and was working. But then after he died, I seen what he was proverb. I was like, 'Bruh…' I was going down a bad path, my career was going down a path that, if I didn't change information technology soon, it was gonna exist seen in a certain way forever. I see that now. And that'due south what he was basically trying to tell me. Literally, he said this: 'There's a cliff right there, and I'1000 telling you at that place's a cliff, and you're however gonna go on walking towards that cliff while I'chiliad telling you information technology's there.' And what I said dorsum to him was similar, 'Yeah that cliff could be in that location, but there could exist a strong tree branch hanging off that cliff that I could grab onto after I walk off that cliff, that I could always…' Only dorsum and along. Brotherly love."

Was XXXTentacion's expiry, then, a motivating factor for Ski Mask to practise improve, to create Stokeley and what follows it? "It's so sad to say that though," he says. "But you know what'south crazy? When he was alive, he was like, 'You're gonna surpass me. You can accommodate to people more than than me.' And I was similar, 'What the fuck are yous talking about? Await at the music you make!"

He continues: "I'g gonna tell you right at present, I feel like he knew he was gonna die. I feel like, on some spiritual shit, he fucked with some spiritual shit and he knew he was gonna dice on some shit. Then basically, when he died, it'due south non like it told me to step up, considering I already knew what I could be. But I just felt like now, I accept him, with his paw on my shoulder whenever I need it. So information technology'southward like, someday that I feel similar I need to spring an obstruction, he's gonna help me bound those extra 2 inches. And every time I need to feel expert about myself, he's gonna put his energy and assist me to come across that, to see something skillful."

Remainder — in music, and in life — is of import as well, another lesson Ski learned from X. That topic comes up when our conversation turns to the currently-incarcerated Tekashi 6ix9ine, who Ski admires simply believes "didn't residue information technology." "It doesn't await good for Tekashi right now," he concedes. "But one thing I will say is that when Ten talked to Tekashi, he took advice from X. And this is something that 10 taught me too, is to balance out the negativity. I've got to balance out the negativity. And that's what Tekashi was trying to do. There's always a ying-yang in life. With everybody. There'southward evil in all of us. It'due south just about how you balance out the evil and the adept and having faith in yourself and how you conduct yourself."

As justifiably proud equally he is of Stokeley, Ski sees the new project as but i pace in an ongoing evolution, and a bridge to something beyond just rap. He hopes the mix of sounds will liberate him to, in the time to come, to do what he wants, and as X famously believed, make music without limits.  "On the next album, yous tin can actually expect a lot of diversity, maybe singing, yelling and rapping in i song," he teases. "The new anthology has substance, but it doesn't have plenty. But now I can really brand the music I desire to make, which is gonna be merely…music. Yous're gonna be, 'This n—a's not a rapper anymore!' That's what I actually want, whereas you can never know what to expect what he's gonna do next, because information technology will never sound the aforementioned."

Ski tin sometimes come beyond as his ain toughest critic, but these days he operates with new belief in himself and a greater sense of purpose than fifty-fifty ii months earlier, when we starting time spoke. His greatest source of inspiration continues to be his fallen friend.

"I just feel way more than similar I've taken charge of my situation," he explains. "When I beginning met y'all, I was like, 'Fuck! Ten is gone, and at present I've got to practise this affair.' That's how it was. But now I'm like continuing upward strong and like X is holding onto my shoulder, you experience me? All of these songs that I made for the album definitely were with the help of his energy. It doesn't audio like his music, but I experience similar in a fashion I can carry on his message. When you listen to X'south album, it's an astral projection. He fabricated you lot astral project. And I want to brand theme-setting music, music that sets a theme without beingness cliché. I want to get to that. And I am."

Beneath, he comments on some fundamental tracks fromStokeley.

—

On the driving "Nuketown", which Ski all the same refers to by its working title and hook line, "Cutthroat":

It was called 'Cutthroat! When I played it for you in September, it was. But when I put out the snippet of the song, people only heard five seconds. And they would be like, 'Oh this is called "Cutthroat"'. But I didn't want people to know anything. Then when I dropped the rails list, I inverse the names and then that people would be like, 'What the fuck is this?' I don't want anybody to know what the song is until they click it. I also like to name songs things that accept nothing to exercise with the song, merely sets the theme for the vocal. Then "Cutthroat" was inverse to "Nuketown," because Nuketown is a very famousPhone call Of Duty: Black Ops map for zombies. So "Nuketown" is basically — what practice you think of? You call back of an atomic flop dropped on a town, zombies, nuclear mutant people. It'southward just similar anarchy, basically.

On the sentimental, ride-or-dice "U and I":

I like to just make flex music. So when I practice make emotional music, it's hard for me, because I feel like I'm cliché. Only I guess cliché is the all-time thing sometimes, considering information technology'south real. When you really put your real emotions into a song, people catch onto it more. It's weird! It could be a skilful song, only if your real emotions are in it — like [Juice WRLD's] "Lucid Dreams" — something that you've put your emotions into that day, people relate to it more.

It deals with a girl that I met before music, and that I've been talking to since then. Similar, I would always look out for her because before music, I was homeless, and she allow me sleep in her car. I mean, I could have always gone back to my parents' house and apologized and been like, 'I want to live nether your rules.' Simply I was 18, they wasn't treating me fair, and I wanted to exist my own man. And she was there for me. She had her own business firm, only she was sleeping in her auto with me blazon of thing. Then that song is about her. Right now, I'one thousand single, she's single, but we withal talk. We'll look out for each other forever.

On the crazy, good-time "Faucet Failure":

It was one of the final songs washed. Information technology took me literally like ten minutes to brand that song, which is the "Let's make a deal, Rumpelstiltskin…" lyric. Yep. Ten minutes! But there has to be the right free energy. I walked in the studio, heard a beat, and I was like, "Hurry upwardly, hurry up." I was similar, "Load it now, otherwise you're not gonna catch this free energy again." You lot can't replay energy. I fabricated that song in x minutes, human. Sometimes they come up to me quick, sometimes information technology doesn't. And I made a video for that song [with Lyrical Lemonade'south Cole Bennett]. It's i of the best songs on in that location.

On the politically-charged "Reborn to Rebel":

What I say on there is: "For u.s.a. to survive/ We need to uprise/ Our people must sanitize/ The thought of demise of freedom/ Like Allstate, you're in good hands with me though/ Taking our children they got the states searchin' like for Nemo." Trump is taking little children away from their parents, locking them up! I don't actually become like political or emotional on a lot of things, only basically, I'm just ill and tired of fuckery in the world. That'due south what that song was nigh.

Information technology but doesn't make sense to me that people would desire their kids to live in a good world, and they desire to live in a good earth, merely I merely feel like negative free energy and negative shit gets more attending than positive shit. And somehow people need to first making ho-hum changes to try and change that. It's not gonna change in a day, but it'southward got to change. And the people who spoke about shit like this, like Martin Luther Male monarch, X, Tupac — near making small changes to actually alter the earth — they died. People don't like letters that everybody can empathise and can make things better.

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Source: https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/ski-mask-the-slump-god-interview-stokeley-xxxtentacion-8488724/#!

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