The Mind Of A Saint
I love a good concept album. Songs that individually can hold their own but, when listened to sequentially, contribute to a central narrative. Albums like Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Undun from The Roots, and recently, Skyzoo’s, The Mind of a Saint.
Skyzoo’s latest album centers around Franklin Saint, a fictional character from the mind of the late John Singleton. The FX series, Snowfall, was Singleton’s last gift before his untimely passing in 2019. The critically acclaimed crime drama wrapped up its sixth and final season last week. Although I’ve never seen an episode, I get the essence of the central character's inner conflict after running back The Mind of a Saint a few dozen times.
Saint’s story takes place in South Central LA in the ‘80s, where stagflation—high inflation and unemployment—has crippled the economy, leaving few options for those without privilege. In parallel, the C.I.A. is clandestinely funding Nicaragua’s anti-Sandinista "Contras," by flooding California with cocaine. The torrent fuels a drug epidemic, making LA the crack capital of the world. Enter timing, opportunity, and The Mind of a Saint.
“The sweeter your dreams, the more you can wake up a monster,
Game time with smaller bills to barter,
And to play it all depend on the blow like Contra,”
An entrepreneur is a person who risks their money for freedom rather than exchanging their freedom for money. Recently, I saw those words scrawled on the wall of a coworking space. The words struck me. What chances are you willing to take for freedom? Saint would rather risk confinement in prison than be held captive in a cubicle.
Listen to “Eminent Domain” on YouTube:
Skyzoo embodies the drug dealer’s ethos in The Mind of a Saint. He translates Franklin Saint's internal monologue into rhymes over boom-bap beats. This isn’t the narco-rap of the ‘90s. It’s less the film Scarface and more Greek tragedy, where the protagonist, a person of outstanding personal qualities, falls into disaster through their undoing.
Saint dives into the drug trade only to be dragged into the undertow of the crack crisis. Hip hop’s favorite trumpeter, Sean Taylor, provides the horns to the album’s pensive soundscape. DC-based producers The Other Guys composed the score.
The curtains open with a reflective Saint. The first song of the album, “Eminent Domain,” is a 30,000-foot view of what has passed and what’s to come. The song embodies the bluster of a naive young man who thinks he can play with fire.
Skyzoo, with his meticulous rhymes and diverse interests in hip-hop, history, and film, displays himself as a rap renaissance man. In "Views from the Valley," he makes a nod to the Artifacts' 1994 debut single, "Wrong Side of Da Tracks," a jazz-laced hip-hop ode to graffiti, and name-drops actor/dancer/singer Ben Vereen. His clever and obscure delivery is dopamine for those who get his references.
“I grew up where we ain’t never seen on no beach
But I could run on soft sand if I Ben Vereen on a key,”
Skyzoo performs at Songbyrd Music House, in Washington DC, on May 4, 2018. (Photo by Will Colbert)
In the ‘80s, Public Enemy educated a generation on social issues and black history that was often excluded from school curriculums. “Public Enemy sent you to the bookstore just as easily as they sent you to the dance floor,” author Cheo Hodari Coker said in a 2020 NBC News discussion. Recently, legislative censorship of school curricula has made it even harder for teachers to educate students on racism, American history, politics, and gender.
Like Chuck D, Skyzoo lends his lyricism to the history not taught in schools on "Panthers & Powder." The song opens with a tribute to Bobby Hutton, the first and youngest member of the Black Panther Party, who was murdered by the Oakland police. Hutton, only sixteen years old, was shot over a dozen times. Skyzoo shows how history reverberates by shedding light on this lesser-known event.
“Panthers & Powder” is a glimpse into Franklin Saint’s origin story. He isn’t your average street hustler. The Panthers' legacy and dedication to community were ingrained in him as a youngster, but he chose a counterintuitive means of survival once he reached adulthood.
“Panther in my blood, shameful of my business
But the way business been going, shame ain’t too expensive”
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future,” Oscar Wilde once wrote. Franklin Saint trades his morals for a future written in blood. Greed owes Death an outstanding debt, and Saint gladly pays the tab. The human sacrifices are outlined in “Bodies!” Saint expresses remorse for the resulting collateral damage in “Apologies in Order,” but it’s too late—his fate is sealed.
Listen to “Apologies in Order” on YouTube:
Skyzoo shows his ability to paint poignant scenes with dual meanings in “Purity.” The song recounts a random encounter between Saint and Dawit, a father out with his two adolescent sons, Sammy and Ermias. The track’s title is a double-entendre. The interaction between Dawit and his children is uncontaminated by the toxicity of their surroundings, which provides Saint hope. Purity can also refer to unadulterated cocaine, a substance responsible for Saint’s wealth and the rotting of his soul.
If you’re a hip-hop fan, you’ll quickly grasp that Ermias is Ermias Joseph Asghedom before he grows up to become the Grammy-nominated Nipsey Hussle. Nipsey used his platform to uplift his community through business ventures, investments, and philanthropy. The rapper was slain outside of his South LA clothing store in 2019. The second verse of the longest song on The Mind of a Saint pays homage to the rapper and his message of ownership, community, and self-reliance.
“Just keep everything pure
No steps to it like what I measured for y’all”
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve never watched an episode of Snowfall, which in a way, informs a unique perspective on The Mind of a Saint album. My imagination is at the mercy of Skyzoo’s pen—tabula rasa. The Brooklyn storyteller paints a nuanced picture of the ‘80s crack era, which depicts a man torn between the riches earned through crack dealing and its catastrophic impact on communities. I think I have some binge-watching to do.
Watch the trailer for the sixth and final season of Snowfall on YouTube: