Skillz - The Million Dollar Backpack

For years Skillz has held it down as one of the more talented elder statesmen of the hip-hop realm. Few Artists have remained as sharp skill-wise as him through the genre's many different phases and stages. Whether dazzling us with his 5 minute long year end "Wrap Up" tracks or cooking up some creative award worthy mixtape that utilizes nothing but beats from the golden days (see Design Of A Decade) Skillz has stayed busy and while not always in the limelight for his work, he always manages to shine in the truest sense of the phrase. Over the past few years Skillz has only poked his face out into the media's collective sights momentarilly, via news and internet singles mostly, but in true Skillz fashion he has returned to set all these lyrically challenged cats know what time it is. Or has he? So here we are; 2008, some 13 or 14 years after Skillz (then known as Mad Skillz) dropped his debut album "From Where???"; that was met with much critical acclaim. Here we are indeed. Skillz from almost outta nowhere and with little to no promotion has decided to drop "The Million Dollar Backpack" on us....lol, I guess. This album is disappointing to me for many reasons. One; it mirrors little of the same qualities that his outstanding debut or noteworthy follow ups had, like continuity or his willingness to be his own man and not follow corny trends. Two; the production....I'm not going to say it's god awful, but it's really not my thing this time around. Props for getting Bink, Jazzy Jeff, Kwame and ?uestlove to throw you some beats, but what the fuck? Who is Khari Ferrari and why is he/she all over your album like that with those shitty beats kid? Three; why did you jump on the mixing popular dance music with hip-hop bandwagon? I'm sorry but it's way beneath Skillz to be running around trying to be some lame Kanye West impersonator. All in all it's a poor album that only has 4 to 5 strong points, pretty un-listenable for someone like myself, but I'm sure there's plenty of newbies out there that don't remember or haven't heard this man's glorious past who are all more than willing to accept this frisbee as a decent or well done album. There is little that this album holds in terms of long term value, and it's sad....personally i'd rather see him hang it up rather than sully his great career chasing a buck or whatever the fuck he was trying to do with this....sadly, the Million Dollar Backpack proves to be little more than an old, beat up, Jansport with ugly water stains and rips on it...

-BIG D O



1. The Million Dollar Backpack (Intro) (Prod. By DJ Jazzy Jeff)
2. Where I Been (Prod. By Jake White)
3. Don’t Act Like You Don’t Know (Feat. Freeway) (Prod. By Orthodox)
4. So Far So Good (Feat. Common) (Prod. By Usef Dinero)
5. Sick (Prod. By Kwame & A Kid Named Cus)
6. (For Real) He Don’t Own Me (Prod. By Bink)
7. My Phone (Prod. By Fusion Unlimited & E-Flat)
8. Yeah Ya Know It (Prod. By Khari Ferrari & Skillz)
9. Hold Tight (Feat. Black Thought) (Prod. By ?uestlove & James Poyser)
10. Crazy World (Prod. Khari Ferrari & Skillz)
11. I’m Gon’ Make It (Prod. By Bink)
12. Be Alright (Prod. By Fusion Unlimited & E-Flat)
13. Hip Hop Died (Prod. Khari Ferrari & Skillz)
14. Preachin’ To The Choir (Prod. By Jimmy “Slim” Rose)


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