Gimme Some More
Almost a decade after emerging from Florida’s SoundCloud underground, Ski Mask The Slump God is a young OG determined to level up with a new album and tour. He’s back outside.
Interview: Peter A. Berry
Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Summer 2024 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now.
Since unloading Sin City The Mixtape three years ago, Ski Mask The Slump God has been as subdued as his name suggests. Yet he’s still been active. With the release of a few loosies and collabs during that time, the Florida rapper has reckoned with personal losses while making changes to create a more sustainable lifestyle as a young rap star. He’s immersed himself in gaming. He’s gotten new pets. He’s found a new lover. He’s delved into new business ventures. And when he wasn’t in the studio, he was on the road with $uicideboy$ for their Grey Day Tour between 2022 and 2023. Through it all, his kaleidoscopic swagger has kept fans locked in, as they have been for nearly a decade.
Ski Mask, born Stokeley Goulbourne, first emerged from South Florida’s explosive SoundCloud underground alongside his close friend and collaborator XXXTentacion nine years ago. Ski Mask’s rhymes are a collision of eccentric wordplay and jittery flows reminiscent of Busta Rhymes. Ski’s 2016 debut mixtape, Drown in Designer, showcased those bars and earned him plenty of early attention.
By 2018, he was already signed to Republic Records and released Stokeley, his critically acclaimed debut album that crystallized his status as an emerging rap force. Unfortunately, that same year, XXXTentacion was shot and killed during a robbery. A year later, Ski’s other close friend and rap ace Juice Wrld died of an accidental drug overdose.
Since then, Ski has been focused on healing from the loss of two close friends and exploring new ways to grow. He continues that process with 11th Dimension, his sophomore album, which dropped this June. The project features a voice memo from XXX and a new Juice song. Arriving six years after Stokeley, the new LP is coated in glitchy raps, surrealistic rock, reggae and his customarily quirky charisma. Its title is a nod to Ski Mask’s latest self-imposed artistic mandate, which stipulates that he uses different sounds to recover varied pieces of himself through his music. It’s catharsis via intricate world-building. Or maybe it just sounds really cool. Either way, It’s Ski Mask 2.0.
Speaking with XXL on Zoom from Los Angeles in May, Ski, 28, discusses 11th Dimension, rap mentorship, his new clothing line, joining the streaming community, staying health, potential AI collaborations, touring and more.
XXL: It’s been three years since you dropped your last project, Sin City The Mixtape. That’s not incredibly long, but in rap years, it kind of is. Why did you take that break?
Ski Mask The Slump God: Well, really, I was just going through a lot of real-life sh*t, my friend… Other than my friends passing away and sh*t like that, dealing with that. My living situation, figuring out where I wanted to live.
So, I decided to move back to Florida where all my family is and where I’m from originally. After I dropped Sin City, I just wanted to make sure the next project I dropped was perfect. So, that’s what also was holding me up a lot, trying to perfect the next sounds that I was really doing. And it didn’t really come together until this year and a little bit later of last year. But I recorded all throughout that whole time. So, I have songs even from back then that’s on the album, but I have even much newer songs that I’ve been recording. So, it’s like a mix of both.
Sorry to hear that. Glad you’re doing OK.
Yeah, one of my best friends had passed away. And then I had been really close with Juice Wrld, too. [He] passed away. And then, other than them, too, I’ve had friends in my life pass away abruptly, too. So, two or three friends. It was really crazy.
A crazy three, four years for me around that time. So, my mind was on making music, but at the same time, I wasn’t in the right headspace to really perfect my craft at that time. That’s why I feel like I dragged it on.
What did you do to help yourself and bring yourself through that period of trauma?
Either video games or going to the studio sometimes. Even if I’m making something I’m planning on dropping, just getting the work in and just making sure that I get that practice in. And that was also a really big help.
Just being around good friends also. It’s a combination of things that helped me get through those times. I’d stay home. I didn’t really go out too much.
Musically and personally, how would you say you’ve changed these last three years?
Since I dropped Sin City, definitely just trying to perfect my craft a lot more, trying to… Because I do different genres in my music, so I’m definitely trying to pinpoint on those genres that I’ve been doing and trying to do it better.
Texting the family more. Staying home more, not really going out as much as I used to. I used to go out a lot. How else have I changed? Really just more level-headed because I used to be kind of crazy and way more… Even though I’m still spontaneous, I’ve gotten way more calm and just gotten really better at planning stuff. Planning things out and planning things for my career.
So, trying to bring together this world for the album that we have going on. I think it’s been going really well for it. We’re trying to build this world for 11th Dimension.
What do you want to prove most with your new album?
I really want to prove my talent, my skill on songs and the fact that you could be rapping and not have to dumb it down for the new age to appreciate it.
What have you been up to outside of music? Have you been starting any businesses? When you spoke to XXL in 2018, you mentioned possibly starting your own durag line.
Basically, we are going to do that. I got a collaboration with Revenge. Revenge is helping me make it with the designs and just the production of it. So, it’s going to be my clothing brand. It’s called Castle and the first drop is [coming soon].
We’re going to drop little figurines of me. And then also, for my merch clothing brand, we’re going to definitely do the durags as well. It’s been a long time coming. I could have been capitalizing on that.
Besides the clothing line and making music, what else has been a focus in your life?
Really just staying home, trying to get my… I’ve been trying to fix up my house, living life with my pets. I have two cats and a dog. I just got a hamster. Other than that, just trying to figure out how I’m going to start this streaming thing that I wanted to do. Because I want to start streaming soon, probably sometime after the album drops.
So, trying to figure that out. I bought this big gaming chair. I think it’s an AG gaming chair. It’s called a Scorpion. It’s huge. And it has this big hanging screen. It’s like this big machine. It has a massage chair in it and sh*t. It’s pretty crazy. I’m about to start streaming off of that. So, yeah, just trying to really get everything together and right for everything to fall into place.
You mention streaming. Who is your favorite streamer?
Definitely probably Kai [Cenat] and YourRAGE right now.
What are some games that keep you on your toes?
I play Apex Legends, Overwatch, League of Legends, Dark and Darker, Elden Ring. It’s a lot of games that I play. There’s not one specific one I could say that I tap into [more] than the other because I like switching games and not getting bored on one. So, it’s always a different combination.
What is the music world missing without Juice Wrld and XXXTentacion?
A lot of good music. They’d be making a lot of good music. A lot of different sounds because they always were experimental in their sounds. So, it missed the whole generation of music really, from just them two or Lil Peep or some sh*t like that. Just all those people being gone. And we missed out on generational music, so it’ll always be a hole in that.
There’s certain people that are still there, like Trippie Redd and me. But it would’ve been a lot more different. I feel the sound would be different now if they still were here. The underground sound. How people look at making music. I feel like it would’ve been a lot different.
This AI stuff is pretty crazy. Have you heard any of the Juice and XXX AI songs online? Like there’s an AI XXXTentacion “Lucid Dreams.”
I haven’t heard the X “Lucid Dreams” one yet, but I’ll definitely check it out now that you’ve mentioned it. That’s funny. I haven’t seen that one yet. That’s crazy.
You sound almost like you’re more amused by that idea than disturbed like some people are.
It’s more amusing than disturbing really. Because they’re already passed. So, it’s just interesting to see how it would sound. I’m not really too against it, [or] too crazily against it like some artists are. It’s not something to make money off of. It’s just something for the fans to enjoy.
So, I feel like everybody should just chill out, take a step back. Some people, they’re the artists, honestly fighting for them like they know them or something.
It raises some interesting intellectual questions. Would you use AI to do new collabs with Juice and XXX?
It depends if the people are more open-minded to it. If the people get more open-minded to it and they’re more willing to not be angry at it, really, so, yeah.
Who do you think won the recent Drake versus Kendrick Lamar battle?
They’re both good artists. I definitely feel like Kendrick dropped the better songs during the beef. So, it was even hard to decipher the battle because Kendrick just kept dropping over and over. I would think that Kendrick would have won, for sure.
Do any older artists give you advice?
Young Thug. I was in the studio with Thug one night. He would have hella strippers in there and he would be giving advice about music and playing sh*t for me. Definitely Busta Rhymes when I was living in New York and sh*t. He would be coming to my studio sessions, and he would listen to the songs I have and give me some advice. We would just be drinking heavy together.
Since you’re sort of an OG now, are there any younger artists you’ve given advice to?
I met NLE Choppa when he was first starting off, and I met Baby Santana when he was first starting off. So, definitely just to tell them this sh*t ain’t easy. Take sh*t slow, especially with tour because tour could get tiring. It’ll make you want to not tour at all.
Just take it slow. Just watch out for people. Watch out who you work with, and just be cautious. Don’t be trusting. Be cautious when you’re in the music industry and that’ll take you far.
Six years ago, you tweeted about your health and how you had a “fat boy disease.” How have you dealt with that?
I still haven’t had the surgery yet. Yeah, it was gynecomastia or something like that. And I still have to get the surgery done for it. But yeah, I’ve been healthy. I’ve been working out and sh*t. So, it hasn’t really been too much affecting me how it used to back in the day. But I still have to get it done and stuff like that.
When your career is done, what do you want to be most known for?
I guess just always putting in work. Always creating a different lane. Never copying anything, just creating something different.
What does success look like for you in 2024 and beyond?
Just having this album do well, and the tours selling out, and completing these tours and to start working on another project. And just getting the people back and interactive again. That would be success to me, for sure.
Read the exclusive interview with Ski Mask The Slump God in the Freshman issue, on newsstands now. In addition to interviews with the 2024 Freshman Class and producer Southside, there are also conversations with Sexyy Red, Ski Mask The Slump God, Mustard, Rubi Rose, Ken Carson, Ghostface Killah, Lola Brooke and more, plus, a look back at what the 2023 XXL Freshman Class has been doing, how podcasters and streamers are playing a major role in rap beef, and a deep dive into the ongoing scamming and fraud plaguing hip-hop. The issue is on sale here, along with some exclusive Freshmen merch.
