When Omaha rapper Scky Rei claims his music is dope, that’s not hip-hop swagger talking.
The video for his new song “Whats the Word” actually depicts the artist plugging a headphone cord into his arm, as though he’s injecting a drug into his veins. And Scky Rei (21-year-old Skylar Marcell Reed, when he’s not behind the mic or in front of camera) doesn’t care whether the viewer sees this imagery as the music coming out of his lifeblood or going in. It doesn’t matter nearly as much as signifying the deep emotional quality the songs have for him.
“Music is within everybody,” Reed said. “It’s in my bloodline. Music is dope. It’s a dope thing. It’s representing sticking music into your veins and enjoying the high. My music is all feeling.”
The video, which was shot in Reed’s Omaha basement, is meant to portray a kind of music-induced stupor. The narcotic concept for the video took less than an hour to develop because the only way Reed knows how to work is on the fly, he said.
“I’m just weird,” Reed said. “And the weirdness kind of took hold.”
“Whats the Word” is the first track on Scky Rei’s debut EP, Pronounced Sky+Ree. The rapper defined “the Word” as a coming-out party for his work and for the Omaha hip-hop scene, which he calls his “family.” “Whats the Word” is the first recorded collaboration between Scky Rei and Omaha beatmaker INFNTLP. For the same reason, he said this song was a perfect blending of their talents. Reed is joining INFNTLP, or “Loop” for short, in a new project this year, called BOTH.
“It was instant magic, like a magic wand just swiped down,” Reed said of the first time he heard INFNTLP’s music for “Whats the Word.” “When he makes a beat and it hits me, it’s like a link between my soul and what it wants to say.”
Directed by Scky Rei
Filmed by Dro / Scky Rei
Chance Solem-Pfeifer is a Hear Nebraska intern. He could never be this dope. Reach him at chancesp@hearnebraska.org.