The Underground Rise of Lil Skies, and Why He's Here to Stay.
- Mitchell Jones IG:@mitchjshoots
- Jan 18, 2018
- 4 min read
"Like Father, Like Son" , a famous idiom concerning patriarchal relationships, is seemingly just as true of Pennsylvania native, Lil Skies. 19 Year Old Kimetrius Foose has a father who also dabbled in being an artist earlier in his life. That being said — it clearly runs in the family.
On December 13th, 2017, Foose tweeted an image of the cover art for his debut mainstream project, Life of a Dark Rose, captioned simply, "January" . On that Wednesday afternoon, Foose, had little idea what was to follow.
Before charting two songs off his debut album on Billboard Top 100 in their first week, before dropping two music videos that would each reach over twenty-five million views in less than 3 months, and before gaining over q720,000 followers seemingly overnight, Kimetrius Foose was a simply a kid with a dream.
In an interview with Elevator Magazine, Lil Skies discusses how he first began rapping. He simply says that his dad got him into it. He continues, "He did music & shit, so seeing him love it, I figured I’d try it & I just so happened I loved it too." In an almost too perfect manner, he continues, "It became my whole life."
It's in his blood.
Like the child of any former major athlete, or actor, Foose had privileged access to the higher levels of the industry from a young age. Some hip hop artists never record a studio track till well after signing with a label. Rightfully so, studios are often times difficult to find and book, not to mention, engineering and studio time can become rather expensive as well. Foose was able to bypass these normal industry barriers, and in fact recorded his first studio album at the tender age of just four years old. Who could have predicted how his love for the art would continue to grow throughout the rest of his life.
Citing inspiration from those such as 50, Lil Wayne and T-Pain, Lil Skies combines emotional lyrics, with a simple, clean, and feel-good flow. As a contrast today's common, 'mumble rap', Skies does a phenomenal job of combining seemingly simple lyrics, in a clear and concise manner that manages to emotionally connects with listeners. However, credit must also be given to the various producers that Skies works with, providing him with quality, original beats that enhance Skies' lyricism tenfold. In addition, Skies has a striking and original voice comparable to those of artists such as Lil Uzi, and Chance. He uses this voice as a final to compliment great producing, original lyricism, and unrivaled flow.
"...Skies has a striking and original voice comparable to those of artists such as Lil Uzi, and Chance."
Despite the the apparent and obvious talent that Foose posses, he did not get here alone. Just over a year ago, Skies was regularly charting much less than 50,000 plays on his SoundCloud page, and was another small time, underground artist. Aside from his talent and infectious hooks, what set Skies apart from others on the platform was his consistency. Dropping dozens of songs prior to catching the attention of a large audience, Lil Skies used SoundCloud to develop a small, but loyal following that would fuel his rise to newfound fame.
However, if it were not for fellow artist Landon Cube, and hip hop industry specialist, Cole Bennett and his Lyrical Lemonade YouTube page, Skies' work would arguably not have exploded in the manner that it did.
Landon Cube and Skies first connected through social media, and claim that they first interacted in person when Skies took a trip to Ocean City, Maryland. Cube, a Maryland native, connected with Skies and their friendship developed from there. Months later they would go on to create both "Red Roses" and "Nowadays"; both tracks would go on to carry unique and iconic sounds that would not have been possible without either artist. Landon brings a modern, singer-songwriter element to choruses that are coupled with verses of Skies' dynamic flow. Unsurprisingly, these Cube and Skies' collaborations allowed for them to trade fans and simultaneously grow each others followings and careers.
However, the final push came from Cole Bennett and his Lyrical Lemonade following. Cole, a twenty-three year old from Plano, Illinois has been developing his hip hop marketing, videography, and management multi-company since 2013 and has built a following after working with Ski Mask the Slump God, and helping craft Famous Dex's rise to fame. Most importantly, Bennet developed a Youtube page with over 1.7 Million subscribers as of late January 2018. Bennet's page is the arguably the hottest music video hip hop channel on Youtube at the moment, and definitely was one of the most influential channels of 2017. Bennett has consistently transformed the careers of artists that were previously known as nothing more than underground rappers.
Sometime in October of last year (2017), Cole, Lil Skies, and Landon Cube got together to shoot their first video together. On October 17th, Cole released "Red Roses" on his red-hot YouTube channel. Reaching over two million views in ten days, Skies would be fueled by his oldtime and newcomer fans to essentially become an overnight celebrity. Twenty-something million views and 3 months later, Skies would debut on Billboard Top 100 with "Red Rose" and "Nowadays" following the release of his mainstream debut, Life of a Dark Rose.
In the chorus of Skies major hit, "Red Roses", he spits, "I was destined for this life, this is my destiny". As far as the rap game can tell, his father not only taught him keys to the game, but to never tell a lie as well.
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