Credit: DiFronzo

Ski Mask The Slump God had been relatively quiet since the death of his friend and longtime collaborator XXXTentacion. Still, his loyal cult fanbase never abandoned him. That said, earlier this year, the emcee released his second studio album, 11th Dimension. However, the Florida musician didn’t receive as much acclaim for the project.

The culture became aware of the rapper after he captured Miami alongside XXXTentacion with his rock-inspired, twisted take on hip-hop. Ski Mask The Slump God formed the collective Very Rare alongside Tentacion in 2014. The duo eventually renamed the group Members Only and soon began recording together.

The pair released three mixtapes on SoundCloud and regularly collaborated with their peers. Members Only Vol. One, two and three featured the likes of Lil Pump, Offset and New York rapper Desiigner. As the two Florida natives steadily climbed up the rap ranks. Shortly after, XXXTentacion shot to the top with his single, ‘Look At Me’, and by association, Ski Mask gained a lot of exposure.

Initially on SoundCloud but later via streaming services, the big shot released multiple singles, including, ‘Life Is Short’, ‘Like a Soccer Mom’, ‘Take a Step Back’, and ‘BabyWipe.’ Developing a cult fanbase by continuously and consistently releasing mixtapes by 2018, he was an XXL Freshman. By achieving all of this and more, Ski Mask The Slump God became a well-known name within the culture and, to this day, is releasing material for his eager fans.

However, when XXXTentacion was murdered in 2018, the Fort Lauderdale native began to take a hiatus. Before his friend’s passing, he regularly appeared on the Billboard Hot 100. Still, unfortunately, he hadn’t managed to maintain that momentum. In 2021, during the middle of his hiatus, Ski Mask The Slump God spoke with XXL magazine about the direction of his career and even talked about some of his favourite rappers.

Three years prior, his gold-selling debut album, Stokeley, had debuted at number six on the Billboard 200. The project boasted platinum singles and left fans hungry for more. Following the three-year hiatus, the rapper also revealed he was happy to get back to work on music and was keen to share his vision.

While speaking about the direction of his latest album, 11th Dimension, Ski Mask told the publication, “I really wanted to bring back the old me, which was really heavy bass, grunge, distortion music, kind of mosh pit music… I’m also going to be doing a lot of alternative sounds, you feel me?”

After discussing some of the album’s guest appearances, including Skillibeng and Future, the ‘Nuketown’ musician was asked about the five rappers with the best flows in hip-hop. After thinking briefly, he told XXL, “Old school Busta [Rhymes], for sure. Top five? Maybe Method Man. Maybe Jay-Z. It’s hard because if I say a new-age rapper, people are going to be mad at me. Kendrick [Lamar]. I could definitely add Kendrick in there. Maybe J. Cole, for sure. I fuck with J. Cole. That would be my five.”

However, he was also asked to simply name his five favourite rappers of all time, to which he responded, “Alright, so it’d have to be X, Juice, Busta, [Young] Thug and maybe Lil Wayne because I was listening to a lot of Lil Wayne back then.”

Ski Mask The Slump God’s five favourite rappers:

• XXX Tentacion
• Juice Wrld
• Busta Rhymes
• Young Thug
• Lil Wayne