The Year In Review

12/22/2006 11:19:00 PM
Virginia rapper Skillz has been an underground fixture for going on 15 years now. But while other VA artists, including The Neptunes, Missy Elliot, and Timbaland have become A-list popstars, Skillz has never achieved mainstream success. As a performer that is. His 2000 single "Ghostwriter" (released on Rawkus Records) announced that Skillz was collecting checks by writing rhymes for numerous chart topping artists whose names were intentionally edited from that track. It's come out since then that while Skillz himself has never had a hit on his own, his lyrics have helped propel folks like Diddy, Jermaine Dupree, Foxy Brown and Mase into the charts.

To get a sense of dude's prowess as an emcee, just take a listen to his 2006 Rap Up, the fourth annual summary of the year Skillz has dropped. From Myspace to Youtube, Kevin Federline, Flavor Of Love, The Wire, Mel Gibson, and Michael Richards, it's a pretty effective refresher course on the pop cultural comings and goings of the year gone by.

EMERGE is hoping that in 2007, Skillz will finally get the success that has eluded him thus far.

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