Steve 'Flash' JuonHonestly… how can one forget what they don’t even remember? “Don’t You Ever Forget Me 2” poses us a problem with its title before we’ve even begun.
Skooly’s “Baccstreet Boy” made a little noise as a WorldStarHipHop exclusive back in 2018. By “a little” I mean that in the time since then it has done a combined 200K views on YouTube, and unless you have a super viral song or clip on YouTube, the majority of your views will come shortly after publication. Skooly’s second album wasn’t on my radar back then (I didn’t even know about his first) and this video never got recommended to me. Other than the gimmick of pretending to be an entire boy band singing his song — and he is AutoTune singing this — it’s nothing special I needed to hear. He did a little better with “Really Rich” though. It’s sitting at 1.2 million viewers at the time of publication.
Thanks to DJ Mustard (on the beat) this one is more of a bop, and Skooly’s vocals are less blown out than the previous WSHH exclusive. Unfortunately Skooly has nothing to say here. “I’m fuckin on her and her best friend, it go to they heads/Lil’ shawty said she was a lesbian.” What does that have to do with anything, Skool? He spits very Migos-esque couplets of bars. He-says-this-and-then-that, and then-he-says-this-and-that, repeating the same pattern ad nauseum without ever telling us that he has a lot of sex and makes a lot of money. It’s just not that exciting.
“Habit” featuring 2 Chainz may not have the most views of any song from “Don’t You Ever Forget Me 2” but it’s the most listenable track. I would have said it was a coincidence that the rapper gave his guest star an Atlanta style beat, but then I checked and saw it was done by Mr. 2-17, the same producer who did the late Bankroll Fresh’s single “Walked In.” That’s another WSHH exclusive but it has done more views than every single song on Skooly’s album combined — sorry bro.
It was this connection that finally led me far enough down the rabbit hole to find out who the unknown Skooly was. He was a member of the Rich Kidz out of ATL, a group that briefly had a record deal with Columbia before they imploded and all went solo. They had some mixtapes and at least one EP that came out through a major but the full length studio album never materialized. One member of the group was T.I.’s cousin, another went to Quality Control Music, and Skooly was for a time signed to 2 Chainz own imprint (hence them working together). So here’s the conundrum — Skooly is telling us to not ever forget him but he hails from a rap group history forgot because they never got their act together.
The intro of “Dirty Dawg Insane” professes to have “done this shit like a hundred times” when I think once would have been enough. If I must be fair though (damn my conscience for that) Skooly may not be better than anybody who came out in 2018 but he’s also not worse. The production on “Don’t You Ever Forget Me 2” is above average while the actual raps are very close to the median. The irony for me is that this album is the textbook definition of background music hip-hop — something forgettable to put on while you’re doing other things that require more of your attention. It’s largely inoffensive to the ear but he never says or does anything that makes you think Skooly is one to keep your eye on. At least I may remember him now after writing this many words about him. Maybe.