Mad Skillz – Tip of The Tongue

These days Mad Skillz just goes by the name Skillz and is probably best known for his yearly ‘The Rap-Up’ tracks in which he sums up the years events. Earlier in his career he was famously known as a ghost writer for some of the biggest names in hip hop and in his track ‘The Ghost Writer’ he called out the names of a number of rappers that he had writen rhymes for (Puff, Mase, Foxy, Will Smith, and Jermaine Dupri). Before all that though Mad Skillz was a talented rapper and battle emcee in his own right. This track is taken from Mad Skillz first album ‘From Where???’. The title of the album is said to relate to the regionalism existing in hip hop. Mad Skillz himself was from Richmond, Virginia, a city and state not well known for its hip hop scene until Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and The Neptunes later broke through. Mad Skillz debut album has a few bangers worth checking out, with production from Jay Dee, The Beatnuts, Buckwild, Large Professor, DJ Clark Kent, EZ Elpee, and Shawn J. Period. Behind the boards for this banger is little known Nick Wiz. I met Mad Skillz back in around 2005/2006 after seeing him perform with DJ Jazzy Jeff in a club in Bristol and he seemed like a cool guy.