Ski Beatz Talks Doubting Himself After Producing For Jay-Z

After early success with Jay-Z and Camp Lo, Ski Beatz tells SoulCulture why he had to fall off in order to reclaim his spot as one of Hip Hop's elite producers.

Ski Beatz had as good a run as any producer during the mid-to-late ‘90’s. In addition to placing credits on Jay-Z’s critically acclaimed Reasonable Doubt, Ski garnered praise for his work with others such as Camp Lo. Jay-Z’s debut would eventually be certified platinum, and despite being relatively unknown outside the world of Hip Hop, Camp Lo landed a single in Billboard magazine’s Hot 100, when “Luchini (aka This Is It)” spent 17 weeks on the charts. Instead of joining the upper echelon of popular producers, Ski says his critical and commercial success had the opposite effect.

“I started out with that confidence…not giving a fuck about nobody,” Ski told SoulCulture UK during an interview for their “Back to the Future” series. “Then I got jaded through the industry and started changing my music up. I was like, ‘Oh shit. What the fuck am I doing? Who am I? Where’s my music going? Am I supposed to be on top?’”