It hasn’t been that long ago since Skyzoo dropped Retropolitan with Pete Rock back in September.
Already 1/3 into the year, the Brooklyn rapper has a new project coming out next week called The Bluest Note. The exception is that this (as an idea) has slowly came to life in 2017 after he met Dumbo Station, a local nu-jazz band from Italy, while on tour. In an interview with Complex, Skyzoo says that this will be the first time he exclusively have an album with a jazz band-backing.
“As much as I’ve incorporated my favorite genre of music with my other favorite genre of music, this is the first time I’ve been able to craft an entire project based on jazz production from top to bottom,” Skyzoo told Complex. “The Bluest Note is a testament to something I’d been longing to do for as far back as I can remember.”
The relationship Skyzoo and Dumbo Station have developed turned into them linking up in Rome and working since June 2019.
“Collaborating with Italy’s renowned jazz band Dumbo Station was an absolute honor. From writing musical arrangements with them and having them bring them to life in the studio in Rome, Italy; it was a perfect union and execution of what I foresaw when I began to sketch out the project.”
The project will have six tracks on there, paying homage to classic jazz album and its structure – when jazz albums were exclusively six tracks total. Listen to the first single, ‘Good Enough Reasons’ above, and the Mos Def tribute, ‘We (Used To) Live In Brooklyn, Baby’ here.
Album out April 24th.