The future of hip-hop in New York City has looked grim for a while now. Rappers have come and gone, some good and some not. Established artist in the city have been struggling as hard as the independents to keep their head above water. The one NYC rapper who has consistently done his thing and done it the right way for the last couple of years is Skyzoo.

Through a slew of mixtapes and one critically acclaimed EP, Skyzoo has already gotten his names mentioned with the greats. And that’s without a record deal. Now in the studio recording his official debut album, it’s only a matter of time before New York City is back on top. Sixshot.com caught up with Skyzoo to discuss why it’s important to wait for the right deal, interacting with his fans, and his debut album.

Sixshot.Com: What’s good man?

Skyzoo: Everything is good man.

Sixshot.Com: I heard you started recording the album. How’s it going?

Skyzoo: It’s good man. I’m in the middle of that right now. It’s about 45-50% done. I’m just getting it in.

Sixshot.Com: What can we expect to hear on this album?

Skyzoo: It’s definitely not feature heavy because this is my first official joint and I believe in the classic records like Illmatic and Ready to D ie where there weren’t a lot of features. You’re really trying to showcase yourself to the world and tell your story. I feel like I can’t have anyone help me tell my story because they didn’t go through it with me. The joint is pretty much just going to be me. It might be one or two features at the most but we haven’t even decided who those are going to be yet. That’s the second half of the album. It’s gonna be me, myself, and I as far as the MC aspect of it.

Sixshot.Com: That’s the way to go. You getting a lot of good production?

Skyzoo: All the features that I don’t have as far as artists in terms of big names because I don’t want that come in on the production side of it. So far I got Hi-Tek, Don Cannon, Nottz, 9th Wonder, Pete Rock, and that’s just so far. I got a couple more. It’s gonna be real ugly man. I don’t have a Lil Wayne verse, a Flo-Rida verse, or a Timbaland hook but I’m definitely making up for it on the production side. I got some of the biggest names in the world on the album production wise.

Sixshot.Com: What label is the album coming out through?

Skyzoo: We haven’t decided what label it’s going to be on yet. We’re getting offers everyday. We got a bunch of people that are putting their offers on the table. It’s not a matter of getting a situation. It’s a matter of figuring out which situation we want. We got a handful of situations laid out. I want somebody who’s gonna get the vision like I do and ride with me all the way through it. The whole thing is laid out as far as the marketing and promotions aspect. I know what I want it to look like and feel like. I know what I want this whole album to be about and I need people to understand that vision. That’s really what it all comes down to.

Sixshot.Com: Your buzz has always been crazy. Have the labels been getting at you for a while now?

Skyzoo: Yeah we definitely had people hollerin’ from a long time ago, a couple years back. It’s more about the creative control for me. It’s about me being able to do what I want to do because at the end of the day it’s my name on that album. It’s my name so it’s my responsibility for it to be hot. If something doesn’t go right and I have somebody to blame I’m gonna be real upset. I would rather just have myself to blame. If it does work out though then I can say I was happy with my decisions. I want as much creative control as possible.

Sixshot.Com: As a young dude, when they were putting that money in front of you, was it hard to turn it down?

Skyzoo: Yeah because at the end of the day I’m still from the hood and we don’t get that many opportunities to see that kind of money especially the right way. You see that and you’re automatically drawn to it but at the same time I always knew what my goal was and where I was goin’ with it. I knew what my priorities were. And I want to get this money, I’m all about getting this money but I want to do my thing the right way. With that being said I want to get the money but I wanna get it the right way. I’m gonna get it standing up.

Sixshot.Com: When you made the Hot 97 list of the hottest MC’s did they just find you out of nowhere or what?

Skyzoo: Yeah it was straight up off buzz. I didn’t even know about it. Somebody told me. They compiled a list of 25 people and on that list was like me, Game, Nas, Jay-Z, Jay Electronica, Styles P, just anybody you could imagine. On Hot97.Com they had a thing where people could vote. I would have been happy just being in that 25 but I got voted in the top 10 and it was crazy. I wasn’t even number 10, I was like number 7. Just being judged with that class of people was crazy in itself. It was a serious lit of people there.

Sixshot.Com: What would you say you did differently from other artists in terms of getting where you are?

Skyzoo: I just stayed true to myself man. There are a couple of things but that’s definitely one of them. I really don’t get fazed by what too many other people are doing. I do what I do regardless. Everybody around me could get a deal for a million dollars tomorrow and that’s not gonna upset me. I’m just gonna congratulate them and keep it moving. It’s not gonna change the way I move, none of that. I just do what I do and I think that’s one of the biggest parts.It’s also about connections. It’s not what you know it’s who you know. I’m friends with pretty much every producer in hip-hop.

That’s why I’m able to have such big names on my debut project and I haven’t even signed a deal for it yet. All the music I named. Those records are done already. They’re in the hole already. They see what I’m doing and they respect it. Keeping in touch with the fans is a big thing as well, you know? I run my own Myspace and Youtube and all that. I have a team around me but I’m real hands on with everything. If a fan hits me up on Myspace just to say the like my music, I hit them back and thank them for that and everything. I get hundreds of messages a day and I respond to all of them. 9 out of 10 rappers won’t do that.

Sixshot.Com: How are you feeling about the younger generation of rappers in NYC right now?

Skyzoo: I think there’s a lot of dope ones man. There was a time when there was a little drought. You got people like Torae, Loaded Lux, there’s a lot of talent out there man. There’s a lot of dope MC’s coming out of New York. I think back in the day and when I say back in the day I only mean 3 or 4 years ago you needed a certain amount of money to get in the game or you needed to be under a certain DJ so it was a lot harder. Now all you have to do is set up the Myspace page, set up the Youtube page, and you don’t need all these DJ’s to push your records. You could hit the blogs and all the websites out there and all that is free.

Sixshot.Com: No doubt man, so what do you have coming up that we can look out for?

Skyzoo: I’m dropping best of Skyzoo, Urban American Idol; it’s an official best of Skyzoo. That’s coming out in about three weeks. It’s a compilation I guess of my greatest hits so far. Everyday I get so many hits of people just asking me about my older stuff and where they can get it so I put this out and they can have some of my older material and all that. As opposed to trying to repackage and repress every single tape I just did the best of which is the best off of everything I’ve ever done. I got a mixtape called the Power Of Words coming out in October. The title says it all. The features on there are crazy. Everything I’m not doing feature wise on the album I’m gonna be doing on this mixtape from Wale, to the Cool Kids, to Maino, to Joell Ortiz. The album, Salvation is coming out December/January. I appreciate all the love and support and keep your eyes open for those projects. www.myspace.com/skyzoo

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