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SOURCE: mlive.com
Growing up, Jeff Skigh listened to a lot of smooth tunes with his mother, Rita Williams. She didn’t let him bring rap albums into the house.
Her limit was letting him listen to “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” which Skigh said became a huge inspiration throughout his childhood.
Add in some of his mom’s favorites, such as Dru Hill, 112 and Anita Baker, and Skigh’s smooth style was born (and don’t tell mom, but some other influences from his youth included 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Outkast and Lupe Fiasco).
“Musically, a lot of my inspiration really just comes from my family and my mom. That’s why I feel like the music I make is so smooth because when I was a kid, she didn’t really listen to rap a lot,” he said. “She listened to a lot of R&B, jazz and stuff like that. … It kind of made me have an ear for that type of stuff.
“So that’s kind of what I enjoy listening to still nowadays.”
Skigh started playing the drums in fourth grade, and as he grew older, he played the snare drum in the marching band.
It was between drum beats and vocals that Skigh leaned into his musical journey, pulling it altogether when he started jotting down lyrics in his early 20s.
Since then, Skigh has released six albums, with the most recent one including some of his proudest work.
“A Pretty Smooth Album” is a hip-hop album bringing a relaxed, chill rap style Skigh is known for throwing down.
“My style just kind of comes from the things that I’m into, you know, just I’ve always kind of been into,” Skigh said. “I don’t know if you would call them art or, like, just kind of different things than the norm.
“I just kind of try to show that within the music that I make, and I’m generally just kind of a chill person, so I think the music represents that pretty well.”
On this album, a good song for those interested to listen and get a taste of what it feels like, Skigh said, is the first track, “Blackjack.”
The song features Skigh with BayBro and described it as a “really smooth song,” with the concept of being around people and meeting people is kind of a gamble in life.
“I feel like this album is one you could just kind of play and just listen through the whole thing, you know,” he said. “I feel like each and every song on there is a pretty good song and kind of a representation of how I was feeling at that moment or my personality in general.
“I think the whole album is Flint. It’s just from my perspective, you know, and I got a lot of Flint artists on it.”
The laundry list of Vehicle City artists include Jon Connor, BayBro, G-S Tha Dream, Bfb Da Packman, Tay Boogie, Shira Eyonna, Dizzy Wright, Figga Da Kid and DaeDae Flint. Other artists include King Cashes, ATM Danny, Glasses Malone, and Ysr Gramz.
“I think collaborative songs are the best songs in my opinion,” Skigh said. “You know, putting a few creative brains in the same room and seeing what you come up with is always better than just one.”
The album, which includes 13 songs and three skits, has a live concept.
“It plays out track to track like its live from an event of mine, complete with some of the skits on tracks that kind of tie it all together,” he said.
Skigh was inspired to get back in the studio after not releasing much in 2024. He dropped two back-to-back albums in 2023 — “Smoking In Kanto” and “Spring Cleaning.”
The new album, released in June, has seen a lot of success.
It was the sounds of summer heard throughout festivals in Flint, throughout Michigan and even Florida.
Of all the songs on the album, one collaboration continues to stream at an all-time high.
The track “Yeah I Know,” featuring Skigh with Bfb Da Packman and ATM Danny, has more than 227,220 listens on Spotify alone.
The album can be found on any streaming service, including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and listeners can actually buy it from Skigh directly.
When purchasing the physical copy, it comes with free entry cards to some events, an interview-style book Skigh self-published as well as an exclusive track with me Twicee and 2 Chainz.
“Honestly, man, I’m just a guy from the north side of Flint, you know? Just never really been afraid to be myself. I’m always kind of being the same rooted person,” Skigh said. “I mean, I just want people to feel good when they are listening to it, man. I feel like it’s just good riding music.
“It is good music you wake up and clean the house to, or just vibe out to. It’s something you can sit and live with for a minute and really take in to appreciate something different from it every time you listen.”
