SAMPLEDSKECH185 came up in Chicago's most overlooked rap lineage — and it shows in every verse
Tomorrow Kings alum, southeast side native, graffiti writer first. He Left Nothing For The Swim Back is the record that put it all together.
Chicago's hip-hop history gets skipped by people who consider themselves thorough. SKECH185 came up inside it, in the legendary Tomorrow Kings crew, and his style carries that lineage — abstract, confrontational, built for people who read liner notes.
Southeast side origins
He grew up on the city's southeast side with his head in a drawing book or a comic. He remembers being told to stop rapping to himself as early as first grade. His family tree, by his own description, was full of artists, business owners, bible thumpers, farmers, drug dealers and teachers — and he describes his younger self as odd by comparison, but enthusiastic and inquisitive enough that his elders backed him anyway.
Graffiti as the on-ramp
Drawing and anime led to graffiti by high school, a medium he credits for his name. That matters to how he raps: graffiti trains you to think about a piece as a whole surface, not a sequence of lines, and SKECH's verses tend to work the same way.
He Left Nothing For The Swim Back
His Backwoodz album is where the drawing-board instinct and the Tomorrow Kings pedigree land in one place. If you want a way in, take it the way you would take an Armand Hammer record: whole, loud, twice.
His artist page, including press photos, is here (opens in a new tab).