Hype Premiere: SIFxSKAE – Pretty Lady

Links: Facebook / Instagram / Photo / Art

Biography:

Fun, fast-paced beats combined with smooth rhymes and catchy hooks—this is what rapper and producer pair SIFxSKAE are looking to break the mold of pop music. Rapper and singer SIF (Daniel Kelly) joins forces with producer SKAE (Lane Dorsey) for a fusion of music styles packed with energy and edge.

Their inevitable collaboration started with a blueprint of friendship. Growing up only one street apart, the two were fast friends from an early age, bonding over video games and your typical 7-year-old shenanigans. Each went off to find success in a different area of the arts: SIF starred on Degrassi: The Next Generation, known as an industry launch pad for talent like Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries), Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars) and, of course, Grammy Award-winner Drake; SKAE became a sought-after portrait photographer, travelling between Toronto, New York and LA and capturing photos of pop-stars like Johnny Reid, Ria Mae, Karl Wolf and Shawn Hook in his signature bright/pop style.

Still deep into their individual careers, SIF and SKAE reconnected in the summer of 2016 and realized they had both had a passion for music—different skills but the same taste in energetic beats that were anything but cookie-cutter. They started collaborating on a few tracks, blending SIF’s sharp hip-hop lyrics with SKAE’s genre-bending production. It was just another fun way to create art.

But the songs that came out were too good for a one-time collaboration. So they decided to write, record and release a full EP, drawing on their wide range of early music influences, like Eminem, Kanye, Fabolous, Jadakiss and Redman (SIF), as well as The Strokes, MF DOOM, the Halo Soundtrack, and Claude Debussy (SKAE).

The result is a series of songs full of movement and energy, with memorable hooks you might hear on the radio but slick lyrics you definitely won’t.

Quotes:

“We’ve all been there. ‘There’ being- nowhere near the person your in love with. So if they can’t live in your house with you, I guess there’s at least somewhere you can keep them besides your heart. ‘Hey pretty lady, who lives in my phone..’” (Pretty Lady)

“This song captures the definition of “Trying to make it work”. From the sonic progression, the deep instrumentation, the candid relatable verses– to the anxious vocal chopping; we all know how loving someone from far away can make you feel” (Pretty Lady)

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