The Detroit rapper explains how he made his latest full-length, The Price of Fame.
Though he’s not that large yet, Skilla Baby contains multitudes. Word to Walt Whitman. In person, he’s quiet and unassuming, despite the layers of designer clothing and a stack of jewelry around his neck that could help pay down the national debt, he only says what’s needed, nothing more. The 27-year-old Detroit native, born Trevon Gardner, only animates when talking about his debut album, The Price of Fame, which is out today. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a project that’s deeper and more solemn and introspective than a lot of people would expect. Old heads will call it a “real album” the kind that could have dropped in the late 90s or early 2000s. That’s on purpose. Skilla says that’s the era he was reaching for; he wanted an album that played like DMX’s debut record or Lauryn Hill’s solo foray, skits and all.
You can hear it in how the record was made. Two years. Producers in the room, everybody there from twelve to twelve, songs built slowly, starting with a sample, drums added later, instead of files emailed back and forth. He’ll tell you one song, “Strength in Numbers,” took two years, because it didn’t feel full until he found the right choir. And he’ll tell you he had to learn to sit with his music: to go back and tweak it, to sit with people bigger than him and watch how they’d refine a record until it hit right. He didn’t engage in streaming-era math. He optimized only for feeling and longevity.
It’s also the reason the legends showed up. Skilla says his album had no features at first. Then Nas heard it and sent a verse for a song that he says he wish he made. Erica Campbell of Mary Mary came onto the album through Warren Campbell, her husband. Chris Brown took a year to send his verse, and Skilla waited, because he knew no one else could do it. You don’t gather that caliber of guest — a hip-hop icon, a gospel legend, an R&B star — by chasing trends or first week numbers. You get there by making something built to last, then having the patience to let it come together.
Weeks before the project’s release, Skilla stopped by the Boardroom Studio to talk about how The Price of Fame came together, how getting shot recalibrated the making of the album, and how he plans to make bread outside of the music industry. Like we said, multitudes.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Boardroom: The album is darker and more somber than I expected. What was the tone you wanted to hit?
Skilla Baby: I wanted my album to be pretty serious. I wanted people to take it serious. I wanted it to take me serious as a top tier lyricist.
You believe you need a “serious” album for people to take you seriously as a lyricist?
To be in my GOAT debates and my top tier lyricism, you have to have that type of side to you. A healthy mix. Like with Jay-Z, you can go “U Don’t Know,” or you can go “Girls, Girls, Girls.” You can go from “Song Cry” to something else. I wanted that for me, that project that solidifies me.
What’s the one thing you want people to take away from the album?
I want them to understand I was hurt at a period of time. I was triumphant at a period of time. I have wits about myself. I’m a scholar. I’ve been an athlete before. I’m a God-fearing man. I’m disciplined, but I still make mistakes. So I want people to understand that I’m not a perfect person, but I’m trying.
This album was two years in the making. The past year for you has also been extremely trying. How did the shooting factor into the creation of this album? Did it reframe what you were making?
I don’t want to make too light of this situation or be too heavy on this situation. It gave me a new purpose for this album. When I went through that shooting, I had a few songs done. And I had took songs off and I had a whole new purpose for making this album after I got into the little incident. But I didn’t want to drag it. I wanted most of all people to understand that I could tap into emotions that I haven’t before.
I want people to know that it’s more layers to me than just being a street guy or getting shot or violence. It’s part of my story, so I’ll tell it. But I’m a family man also. I work out. I have multiple businesses that I run. So I’m multifaceted. I’m not just a street guy.
Can you talk about the ethos that you took from 50 and Pac that you believe is in your music right now?
I stay true to myself. Everything I do is fueled off of raw emotion, so it’s hard for me to fake it. So I just take being triumphant and overcoming and staying gritty and staying consistent and never let nobody deter me from my main goal. Just from hearing “Many Men” and him getting shot, I wouldn’t think that 50 would be one of the major catalysts for black film. Tupac, you go from thug life to Poetic Justice. I want to be an icon. So, that’s what I got from them: Work ethic and consistency.
Pac, early in his career, was so multifaceted. He was impossible to box in. Aside from rapping, where do you put your time and energy?
My time goes into working out, helping my family. I’m acting now, so I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how I perfect that craft. I have businesses, so I have to manage my houses and my properties. So I have a lot of stuff on my plate.
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Can you go into a little bit more about the businesses that you manage?
Real estate is one. I’m working on a concierge service for athletes and entertainers. That’s my next business venture. It’s going to be called Just Us Concierge. We’re going to try to do different packages where people can take us on retainer to handle all their needs. If you need parties, lawyers, drivers, security, we’re going to try to do all things concierge.
Where did the idea for this come from?
The idea came from just being around all my athlete friends and entertainer friends. They’re always coming in town calling around, trying to figure out what’s the next move or how they can get things done. And I’m pretty resourceful. So I feel like with me and my team and my two partners, we can get everything done and take the weight off them.
Detroit rap feels like the only scene that is still largely self-contained.
You can’t contaminate it.
How do you manage staying true to the scene, but also growing and getting bigger?
You can tell the same stories, be on about the same blocks, but also you mix it in with what you learn and what’s new. I think you start with wherever you’ve been and then you end with where you’re at. So I started in Detroit, so I still have Detroit values, but now I’m here. I think that’s what we’re failing at right now. We grew so much in a small amount of time that we forgot to make it our own thing and grow it as a corporation or a business.
The first song on The Price of Fame I wanted to get into is “God’s Favorite.” Walk me through the order of the album, and the writing of the song.
The order of the album is story based. So if you get with all the skits and stuff, you’ll get the story from I started here and I landed here.
Did you write it all in order? Or did you write them as they came to you and then you ordered it on the back, like how you edited a movie?
I wrote it as they came to me, different stories in my life. And then I put them in the order where I felt like people would understand it. So all the stories not in order based off track listing, but points in time. I wanted people to understand that I was mentally here. Mentally I got here and I landed here. So I wanted to tell the story like a classic album, how I would think of Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, with the skits.
Walk me through “God’s Favorite.”
I wanted people to understand that the album started with a prayer, but I still was feeling like this in my mind. Even with my talks with God, I still felt betrayed. I still felt like people were fake.
Very DMX-ish.
I think people would think after prayer would come something mellow and not aggressive. So I wanted to let them know that I was feeling this way in an aggressive way, but I’m still a God fearing men.
How did you approach the production?
Everybody that was on the project pretty much worked on every song together. We sat there and really made the songs, led with samples note, no drums. I produced some of the beats. I helped produce “London Ting.” I helped produce “God’s Favorite.” I helped produce a little bit of “Paranoid.” We all pretty much sat in there and really picked the songs apart, added drops or added this instrument here. So it was a pretty cool process. I never been through that before.
Do you start with the idea? The sound? A sample?
Every song started differently. So if you go to “Strength in Numbers,” I started with an idea. And then we built a beat around it. Then we put a choir on it, then we put Erica Campbell on it. I started with the sample, rapped over the sample. “Show Me Love,” I heard the beat. I whistled to it. Then I replaced the whistles with words. “Standing On It,” they showed it to me [and] I was like, “I need to go upstairs with this right now.” And then I just freestyled to it. So everything had its own process.
Which song took you the longest to write?
I think “Strength in Numbers” took me two years.
Why?
Because I wanted it to be like “We Are the World.” I wanted a song with that message to send me in that trajectory. So I had this idea, but I didn’t know what I wanted to say completely. Then it didn’t feel full. So I said, “I need a choir.” Some type of divine intervention happened to where I meet Warren Campbell and his wife happened to be a member of Mary Mary. So I got Erica Campbell on the album.
It’s refreshing to hear someone say that they sat down with a song and wrote it over a period of time instead of every song being instantaneously created and then they moved on.
I had to learn that though. And I sat with some people that inspire me that’s really big in music and I watched their process. If this person is this big and they’re that humble enough to go back and tweak their music and sit with it and understand it sonically. Then I should do that because I’m not on that level yet. You have a target audience, but you also want to effect listeners in a way where they emotionally connect to it. So I think if more artists did that, it’d be reflective in numbers and sonically.
Did you seek out Nas? What was it like working with him?
My album didn’t have any features at first. Somebody on my team let Nas hear the album and they kept saying, “Man, Nas like your album.” I’m like, “Man, Nas don’t like my album.” So one day they called me with Nas. I’m really starstruck. But Nas is such a personable person and he’s so coo, he’s just talking to me regular . So months go past, they fly me to New York, and I meet Nas and we get in his studio and we still don’t get the verse done. One day they just called me with the verse and I was like, “Oh my God, this Nas.” And it was big for me more personally than for the album. He’s just one of my inspirations. And a guy that’s on my Mount Rushmore.
Did you tell Nas anything before he wrote the verse?
I didn’t tell him anything [laughs] I asked him stuff. I was asking him what he was doing in ’93. Do he have any stories of Tupac? We just was talking about that. He told me, “I wish I made this song.” Nas told me that. I was like, “Damn, that’s crazy.” I didn’t want to give Nas any direction. It’s Nas. Let that man do him. I was glad he sat with it and did him. I was so appreciative.
How did you make sure the Chris Brown song wasn’t a departure from what the rest of the album sounded like?
I didn’t really have a plan for that, but I wanted to put it in a spot where it made sense. And that’s another record I worked on for two years, but it didn’t originally make the album because we didn’t have Chris Brown on it yet. I knew who I wanted on it when I originally got the record. And eventually I built the courage to ask him. It took me another year to get that verse from him but it was worth it. And I’m just appreciative of how humble Bryson and Chris are when it come to me. They treat me like they invited me into their space. This is my first project that I’m completely satisfied with and going with confidence. I think this project could catapult me when it come to people respecting my pen and respecting my production and value me as an artist.
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