Skillz

Skillz (formerly Mad Skillz, born Shaquan Lewis in Richmond, Virginia) is an African-American rapper. known as a talented freestyle rapper, Skillz has not received widespread acclaim outside of the hip-hop community, but within it is considered one of its best performers.

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He first made a name for himself by finishing in second place in a national freestyle competition in 1995, which resulted in a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Skillz' Atlantic debut, From Where???, and its single, "The Nod Factor", were released in 1995, but sank without a trace. In the late-1990s, he allied himself with fellow Virginia natives Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and The Neptunes. He made appearances on Timbaland's albums Tim's Bio in 1998, and Indecent Proposal in 2001; Timbaland made plans to sign Skillz to the Blackhand label he was developing, the label failed to materialize. He and Danja Mouf, a member of Mad Skillz' Supafriendz collective, also appeared on a remix of Aaliyah's hit single "Are You That Somebody" in 1998.

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Skillz eventually got a deal with Rawkus, where he released his 2002 LP I Ain't Mad No More, the title of which commemorated the official change of his MC moniker from "Mad Skillz" to just "Skillz". A Supafriends LP, Supavision, and another solo LP. A client for the Mama's Boys management company which also includes Musiq, Skillz has been a featured artist at okayplayer.com, run by ?uestlove of The Roots.

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Richmond, Virginia: :This article is about the city in Virginia. For information on other cities with the same name, please see Richmond (disambiguation)....

African-American: African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans, Black Americans, or simply blacks are an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and Central Africa. Many African Americans have European and/or Native American ancestry as well....

Rapper: redirect Rapping...