TRACKLIST
A1. Complicated Rhythm
A2. Rap Like Me
A3. Written In The Drums
A4. Designer Drugs
B1. Parade Me
B2. We Here
B3. Atypical
B4. Expensive Habits
C1. Until It All Goes
C2. Test Drive
C3. Inheritance
C4. Get Him To The Greek
D1. Could've Struck The Lotto
D2. For The Awake
D3. For The Sleepers
D4. The Definite Prayer
DESCRIPTION
Bucktown’s native son Skyzoo has embodied the New York underground for years, dropping the spectacular The Salvation in 2009 and 2010’s Live From The Tapedeck. Continuing his upward momentum, Sky releases The Great Debater mixtape.
Showing no signs of slowing down, “the writer of writers” gets things moving with the vintage dust boom-bap of “Complicated Rhythm,” then smoothly rides over the stutter-step soul of “Designer Drugs” and the go-go-style bongo drums of “We Here” before reuniting with his Live From The Tapedeck co-conspirator !llmind on “Atypical” and “Test Drive.”
A fully capable emcee, Sky is great over backdrops inspired by the underground heyday of the mid-nineties. While that serves best for his triple-entendre metaphorical poetics on tracks such as “Parade Me” where he spits, “My pen theory is fine as Amel Larrieux/On the page you can see that design all up in the groove,” it is when he steps outside of his box on tracks like the N*E*R*D-sampling “Could’ve Struck The Lotto” and the wanton usage of David Axelrod’s “Holy Thursday” on “The Definitive Prayer” where Skyzoo is at his best. The Great Debater is another solid album in the growing catalogue of corner store classics from Brooklyn’s finest.
— Meka Udoh _ XXL Staff - Published: June 16, 2011