Sykez, The Greatest Emcee You Never Heard Of
Sykez, born "Ray Warren Sykes III" began his interest in music in the 4th grade after joining the chorus and learning to play the recorder.
After several years of singing and gaining basic knowledge of music he lost his singing voice due to puberty. In junior high he was taught the basics of piano by Troy Bell. It was during these early stages of life where Sykez, who was constantly moving to different locations, in turn making it difficult to form friendships that he began writing to vent his emotions.
He read an article called The Source 5 Mic Albums which he began to listen to, influencing his music style today, but often getting him ridiculed. As a result he was a loner who only had music as his constant friend. During elementary school he met future group member, Dray (Safe2wosay), where they began playfully free-styling and exercising their common love for words.
In high school he shrugged off the label of poetry and began writing rhymes, he infused various types of writing styles to create elaborate and concise bars. Even early stages he was not content to be simply referred to as a rapper. It was during this time he met another future group member, Sem Etienne, who he began to challenge, Sem was already a musician and already had a love for music, it was there that Sykez dared Sem to make beats in the program Garageband.
The next year he met another future group member, a poet, Clyph (Johnny Delight), who after reading his poetry, he convinced to rhyme. They shortly thereafter formed the Orange Powerhouse Group SOUNDBOX BANDITZ.
Sykez has produced a series of songs under the affiliation of Soundbox Banditz while still managing to produce over a hundred songs solo under his other alias:
· Sykez
· Digisnacks
· Kraken
· King Saturated
· Battousai
· Dr. M
· Clyde
While proof to his versatility is evident with his numerous aliases, to really understand the man behind the name, one would only have to listen to the music behind it. While listening randomly to his music, you can decipher some of his aliases presenting themselves through lyrics or just a slight change in pitch to the voice. All changes which are usually vague and subtle are very deliberate and precise, yet smooth and fluid. It gives new meaning to the phrase that music and its artist are one and the same.
Sykez still keeps himself humble, even stating “I don't really have much talent, but I work hard enough to make up for it" and that statement holds true. Sykez spends long hours of the night in his recording studio, sometimes skipping out on sleep altogether and then leaving early to make his morning classes at the university.
“The Studio is my lab” and Sykez is the mad scientist, pushing out bars with grimy contempt, to words akin to smooth jazz, to songs about your favorite anime. Without even fully realizing it, he pushed himself to a notch of Hip Hop that has already made its way to climbing the ranks to become one of the great you have heard of.
Passionate is an understatement if you want to describe him. He takes great care with every track he produces; he perfects every mix tape he releases so the process could be seamless and play from front to back and repeat without listeners even noticing.
What makes him really great, however, is not his amazing breath control, or his acute ear for mixing music, but instead it’s his true loyalty to real Hip Hop. He understands that Hip Hop is not just a music genre but instead it’s a culture and it’s a way to live. He understands the true difference between Rap and Hip Hop and he makes sure that all his listeners get a taste of his passion and his life with every word he speaks.
In every song you get a glimpse of his life, and those who have similar situation find a kindred spirit in a person who has mouth to verbalize their feelings.
He’s a breath of fresh air if you were looking for more than just music.
Check out his music for yourself and form your own opinions: Sykez
Also, watch out for his new mixtape: ‘Great Power, Great Responsibility’ dropping August 25th.
