Love. Sex. Heartbreak. Drugs. Life.
Myles Mills, better known as Skizzy Mars, is a rapper and songwriter that’s had his fair share of the aforementioned in his 23 years, leading to Mars calling himself the “voice of the youth.” The end result was a secret rehab stint last June-September, which caused the disparity of an Alone Together follow up.
In fact, my sole encounter with Mars was after his Philadelphia Show at the Coda in April of 2016. His tour was over, his was album was out and he was celebrating in the city of brotherly love for the night. A slew of friends accompanied him and based on his appearance, drugs did as well.
However, Mars is poised, working on his second album and playing shows here and there to stay busy, according to a unnamed source.
From the hood to royalty, Mars hails from Harlem, New York, attending the prestigious St. Bernard’s School, a private all-male elementary school in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Mars graduated from the Browning school, class of 2011, a college prep school for boys located on East 62nd Street in New York City. When asked about his upbringing in Harlem, Mars’ parents wanted to “get him out of the hood,” as he stated in a documentary by Young & Reckless.
“Yeah, I chose to be a rapper, and all my friends are on wall street now,” Mars said. “But, the intellect I have and the conversational skills I have, that’s what my parents wanted for me.”
Mars went on to attend Union College, a private college in Schenectady, New York, but left after 10 weeks to pursue music full-time. Before that, Mars released respective mix tapes: Kindred Spirit, and American Psycho, which are available on SkizTheRapper’s YouTube channel.
“I went to these prestigious schools with headmasters, and 99 percent graduation rates,” Mars said. “And, I was going to go college for four years, (but) I just didn’t give a f***. I wanted to make music.”
Mars disclosed his stay in rehab a month after leaving last October, but his only explanation was a series of deleted tweets.
“I was depressed, anxious and hopeless,” Mars said in another, now deleted tweet. “I came home and felt like i had more to offer myself and my fans as far as self betterment. so going back.”
Mars’ initial rehab stint came at the peak of his career with the release of his debut album and a pre-album 40-city tour to support it. Mars set out on his 40-city Alone Together Tour on February 9th, 2016 in Pittsburgh at the Altar Bar and wrapped things up across state in Philadelphia April 8th at The Coda where we met for the first time.
His pre-album tour has brought creativeness to another level in the music industry. Mars admitted in the same documentary it’s unorthodox to tour before an album’s released, but he persists on not following the rules. And let’s be clear, rules are just guidelines in my opinion.
Based on his tweet revealing his rehab stint, it appears attending these prestigious all boys schools are what introduced Mars to drugs. The things that made Mars’ music what they are: drugs, alcohol and women are what almost ended him.
“Magic” featuring Phoebe Ryan, frequent collaborator, pushes Mars’ struggles with fast-living to the forefront.
“I went to the ER, man my heart was racing,” Mars said on the track. “The doctor said I had arrhythmia. I can smoke, but I should chill with all that different stuff.”
However, shortly after his rehab stint, Mars was back on stage (where he belongs) performing after becoming the third artist recognized by Billboard & W Hotel for their Next Up: New Artists New Music series at their Minneapolis Showcase.
Mars subsequently signed to Atlantic in 2014 and occupies a weird space where he’s signed, but it’s not necessarily known. As Dom Kennedy said, “if a label offers more money than you can put up, consider it.”
Dubbed a mindie deal, Mars and label mate Super Duper Kyle are both signed to deals with Atlantic Records, providing access to marketing and promotional budgets they otherwise wouldn’t have. But, the artists’ or label don’t broadcast the signing.
The thinking is fans love supporting independent artists’, and the announcement of a major label deal makes the artist lose authenticity whether they truly do or not, according to Nathan S of DJBooth.
In a 2012 interview, Mars said he initially wanted to be a Sportscenter anchor, having wrote for the Knicks website, but anchors didn’t attract groupies. Who doesn’t like groupies?
2013 was a hallmark year for Mars, releasing his anticipated mixtape Phases. He also toured with G-Eazy, alongside Super Duper Kyle coincidentally (when is a song coming?) and Logic on the respective Must Be Nice and Welcome To Forever tours.
His music video for “Cheer Up” off Phases got Mars an endorsement from P. Diddy on Twitter. (We need RevoltTV to provide media coverage as well)
In 2014, Mars followed up Phases with another mix tape, Pace (my favorie mixtape to date) with singles “Make Sense”, and “All Say” which were made available on streaming services though they don’t appear on an album.
Around this time, Mars inked his deal with Atlantic Records, and began retailing his work (The label’s got to make money, too) with the release of his 2015 EP The Red Balloon Project, debuting at no. 35 on the Billboard 200.
Presently, anticipation remains high for Mars’ follow up to Alone Together which was released April 8th, 2016. Mars has a done a few features here and there since leaving rehab, but nothing monumental.
The same unnamed source said Mars’ second album should be released by the end of 2017 following another pre-album tour. (Can we just fast forward to then?)
Numbers don’t lie, and Mars has plenty of them, averaging approximately 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners, and just under 14 million YouTube views on his Skizzy Mars account.
Wherever he is, we hope the self-proclaimed voice of the youth’s refocused on his quest to change the music industry.
In due time, hopefully he can offer words of encouragement for others dealing with substance abuse.
