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RAP & REASON
C.F. musician takes beats to bandshell at Sturgis
By Anelia K. Dimitrova
6/20/2009 12:00:00 AM
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Skylar Johnson raps about life in Cedar Falls.
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He jokes that his music might sound cheesy to rap-enraptured ears, but the goal of longtime Cedar Falls musician Skylar Johnson is lofty: He wants nothing less than to become the Paul McCartney of rap music, an artist with integrity and a super-melodic signature.
But as he hip-hops his way up the score, one line of lyrics at a time, the 32-year-old construction worker has already made his mark on town.
On June 26, when he performs at the Overman Park Bandshell at 1:30 p.m., he will become the first rapper in the town’s history to have performed at the Sturgis Falls Celebration.
His presence as well as his repertoire – five songs in 25 minutes – at the 31st annual town celebration will aptly illustrate the event’s theme, Dancing in the Streets.
It will also mark another milestone in his creative work: his 10th anniversary of writing lyrics and music, and its culmination, Skylar’s first album.
Called Killinesses, a pun on the word “skills,” the 15-song album is produced by Aplus9Records, a Bakersfield, Calif.-based independent label focusing on underground hip hop.
Skylar’s fascination with rap started when he was in sixth grade and his sister, Jenny, brought home a dub tape of NWA, a 1980s rap group.
Skylar was hooked from the get-go.
“I just loved it,” he says on a recent afternoon, holding his harmonica in his palms. “I got it right away.”
What captivated him was rap's emphasis on lyrics.
“In singing, you can get by with some really lame lyrics because if you are a really good singer, it balances it out,” he says. “But with rap, it's not so much the voice, 'cause like Eminem, he doesn’t have a very good sounding voice, but if he writes really good lyrics, that’s what gets you over the top."
In retrospect, it appears that Skylar has been preparing for a career in music since childhood. He has notebooks upon notebooks of lyrics to show for it in his basement studio.
“The genre chooses you,” he says of his love for music. “If you like country, the first time you hear country, you’re going to like country... It’s like falling in love, you just know."
In life, Skylar juggles his construction duties with family responsibilities, which he shares with wife Gina and their three kids.
His head is his first notepad, he says, as he does not always have a piece of paper nearby when he pours cement or mows the lawn.
But once his hands are free of daily drudgery, he is quick to jot down a thought that has stayed with him and is worth recording.
“I wish I could be the Paul McCartney of rap, if it all came down to it – super melodic but still have the integrity as an artist, which is probably one of the hardest things to balance," Skylar says.
He is not quite sure if hitting it big is in the cards. For now he just wants to have fun, please his fans and continue to write music.
“I make all my music, do all the scratches, write all my lyrics,” he says.
Why Skylar?
“I would have used my real name, which is Jon Voight,” he explains, joking about his famous Hollywood namesake, the father of Angelina Jolie. “Every time the pizza delivery guy comes to my door, he asks, ‘Where is Angelina?’”
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