The Million Dollar Backpack

Mad Skillz | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 22, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Koch Records
• ASIN: B000GIXINM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,622 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Explicit Version. Skillz' KOCH debut Million Dollar Backpack features Common on the single 'So Far, So Good', in addition to guest appearances from Freeway, The Roots, Dwele and more. Includes production from DJ Jazzy Jeff, Kwame (Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, Lloyd Banks), and Karma Productions (Musiq, Jaheim) among others. Hip-Hop has seen few lyricists as gifted as Skillz, a product of the same VA hotbed of talent that produced his multi-platinum friends Missy Elliott, Timbaland, The Clipse and The Neptunes. He has carved a unique niche for himself in the genre as one of your favorite Rapper's favorite Rappers, popularly known as the ghostwriter on verses for an impressive list of superstars including Diddy, Foxy Brown, Jermaine Dupri and more --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Effort in years!, July 29, 2008

By 

Lawrence Smith "jihod" (chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Million Dollar Backpack (Audio CD)

3.75 outta 5! Potential is the word of the Day w/ Mad Skillz b.k.a. Skillz. He a beast when he's freestyling and rapping about specific topics. Dude could improve his story telling abilities & beat picking abilities the latter of which he does improves on, on this album compare to the lackluster beats on Confessions of a Ghostwriter. The Albums starts off with a head full a steam 9 of the first 11 tracks are fire. Bink, Questlove, Jake White & another newcomer Fusion contribute on the beat side.v They're joints with Black Thought & Common in which Skillz makes them look old & inadequate. Freeaway kills Skillz on "Don't Act Like You Don't Know", which sounds like a leftover from the Brilliant "Free At Last' album. I rate this probably between the 9th or 10th best best album so far(July 08') this year. If he ever takes his time with his rhymes he could shock the world, Skillz needs more time working on the basics! There so much potential here

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic from Skillz, August 18, 2008

By 

G$ "Z-Wad" (B-More, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Million Dollar Backpack (Audio CD)

It's been almost 3 years since (Mad) Skillz dropped an album, andhe returns with a very solid, 4.5 star one here. Coming into the scence in the mid 90's he dropped 2 albums, and then kind of disappeared from making album for almost 10 years (doing alot of writing and some very nice songs I heard on mixtapes over that time frame) finally coming back with a decent album in '05. On this one, the man with the appropriate name, shows his skills delivery nice flows, metaphors, and story lines. Of the 14 songs on here, 3 are almost classics, only 1 is ok, the other 9 are good, most being real good songs. Guests aren't too heavy, rapping on 4 songs and doing the hooks on a few other ones. Production isnice as well. Khari Ferrari does 3 songs, Fusion Unlimited and Bink each do 2, and Jake One, Jazzy Jeff, Orthodox, Usef Dienro, Kwame, ?uestlove and Jimmy Rose all do 1 song. I also like in the booklet it has a story of how each song came together. A very impressive album to have from a very under rated MC, and will no doubt be a top 10, probably top 5 album of 2008.

#1 - 9.5 (tight beat)
#2 - 8.5 (f/ Dionne Folkes)
#3 - 9 (f/ Freeway -- nice beat)
#4 - 9 (f/ Coomon -- another tight beat)
#5 - 8.5
#6 - 8 (f/ Kristal -- nice story behind this one)
#7 - 8
#8 - 9 (f/ Truck North -- good beat)
#9 - 9.5 (f/ Black Thought of the Roots -- tight beat)
#10 - 6.5 (f/ Maumouna Youssef)
#11 - 9 (f/ Kenny Wray -- deeper song with nice beat)
#12 - 9.5 (f/ Cornbread -- tight beat)
#13 - 8.5 (f/ Khari Ferrari)
#14 - 9 (another deeper song and nice story)

D. Lewis -- Richmond, VA
check all my reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A flawless album from Skillz, November 2, 2009

By 

Lucky Sevens "music aficianado" (Tiger Town, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Million Dollar Backpack (Audio CD)

There has been a long-running joke in hip hop about battle rappers. While they are great at competing, they are terrible at songwriting and song structure. For a minute, it looked like Skillz was headed down that path, especially if you've heard his 1996 debut, "From Where???". He's back with his first new album in three years, "The Million Dollar Backpack", named so because he was more successful behind the scenes than in front as an artist. He was an in-demand ghostwriter for P. Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, and Will Smith (he co-wrote the title track to Smith's 2005 album, "Lost And Found") among others.

On this new album, it is more focused lyrically, while musically, the sound is an obvious attempt at commercial success, especially on the songs "Crazy World", "(For Real) He Don't Own Me", and "Where I Been", which features singers on the hooks. Surprisingly, it works very well. As a master of punchlines, his humor is still intact on the song "Sick". The hilarious "My Phone", in which Skillz tells the story about how he has the phone numbers to numerous beautiful actresses and singers...until his phone got run over by Jay Leno.

However, not everything is funny, as he talks about the strange world we live in today on "Crazy World". On "I'm Gon' Make It", he describes his experience being in poverty and his willingness to rise above the situation.
The album closes with the industry themed "Hip Hop Died" and "Preachin' To The Choir", a religious themed song with a surprise ending that will leave you baffled. The best track on the album is the song, "Don't Act Like You Don't Know", in which Skillz is upstaged on his own song by Freeway. Overall, I'll say that I really love this album and hated that it got overlooked.