From Chaos
Before he was 8ky, the solo artist driven to change the world, before he was Sky Blu, the international party rock superstar, he was Skyler Austen Gordy, a a kid with Los Angeles’ vast horizons and melting pot of cultures streaming through his veins.
It was Skyler who bounced around L.A. with his mother and sister from home to home, school to school, sometimes simply because they had to move, sometimes because he had been kicked out. Already driven towards creative expression but never one to back down from a fight, just like his idol Tupac, it was a teenage Skyler who was drawn into the world of the streets, orbiting around hustlers and gang life.
“I was going down a really serious path. I was around some really serious people doing illegal things. I knew this wasn’t for me, this kind of lifestyle.”
Soaking in another world of experiences would prove to be invaluable, but he quickly realized music was his path, not the streets, and after some additional urging from OGs, he focused on music, working construction jobs while pursuing the proverbial rap grind.
He and his paternal uncle Redfoo has long messed around rapping in the studio, but it wasn’t until Skyler was in his late teens that the two began to make music more seriously. Skyler took the money he had saved from construction day jobs, took a trip to Miami with Redfoo, and the LMFAO rocket that would take the man now called Sky Blu into the music industry stratosphere was ignited.
“Foo and I would go to these clubs and they would play electro. And then DJ AM gave us this CD, and it had all this electro on it. We thought, nobody’s rapping over this, we could rap over it. It could be a new wave, putting rap on a different sound. ”
Despite what many believe, LMFAO’s success did not come easy, or come overnight. There were weeks, months, years of sleeping under a drum set in a studio apartment, sweating next to the 350 degree press they set up to make their own shirts, but when their breakthrough did happen, it happened on an astounding scale.
To Consciousness
From the outside LMFAO’s rockstar lifestyle looked like a dream come true, and in many ways it was. 8ky’s clearly grateful for those times, for all that Redfoo taught him, for the world of new opportunities that opened before him. But offstage and behind the scenes, a gap was beginning to open between the pair, and between the art 8ky felt driven to make and what the business side of the industry was demanding.
“Foo and I, we had our differences, but when it came to the stage show that love was automatically there. That’s why we did it, we had love. LMFAO came from a real place.”
The pair’s time as a duo would eventually come to an end, and despite TMZ’ best efforts, the reasons behind the break up don’t really matter, not here. What really matters is that for the first time in years Skyler, now Sky Blu, was on his own. And on his own, the burden and blessing of figuring out who he was as a man and an artist was suddenly on his shoulders and his shoulders alone.
Who was he, and what impact did that person want to have on the world?
“I always had the want to do other styles of music. The label, they wanted this certain type of sound, and that wasn’t something I was comfortable with. And when the label started having influence, that’s when I started planning my exit. To me, it didn’t feel like making art. True art comes from the heart - that’s really how I feel.”
The answer was 8ky.
Fxck Yeah
For the past two years the man now known as 8ky has been making more than music. He’d made music, now it’s time to make a movement, and that movement would stem from a lifetime of groundbreaking experiences.
Living half-white and half-black had always given him a sense of belonging to multiple worlds, and on top of that he had now spent years in the streets and in major label boardrooms, befriended the homeless and shook hands with royalty.
“I’ve had a hell of a life, even before LMFAO. I’ve risen above so many things, and I’ve learned so many different things. I feel like I can speak to a lot of people, and resonate with a lot of people. And that’s why I took two years. I really want to make true art.”
That true art is now contained within 8ky’s solo debut album, Fxck Yeah: Chaos To Consciousness, but crucially his latest work isn’t bound by music alone. The last few years for him have been a time of artistic, spiritual and physical exploration; the former rockstar now cooks all of his own food and has realized that his real life’s mission lies not in his own happiness alone, but in helping others achieve their own happiness.
That’s the true spirit of Fxck Yeah, a spirit that pushes past the music alone and reaches for something deeper.
“It’s time for the world to hear this message. I want this to inspire people to look within for their own greatness. There’s so much going on in the world, but we really need love. I want this project to inspire more ‘fxck yeah’ for everybody. If you’re really tired of feeling sick, I want you to learn how to feel fxck yeah.”
From Skyler to Sky Blu to 8ky, the core of the man has remained the same, even as that man has grown and evolved. This isn’t an album, this is a movement, a key to open doors within yourself. This is Fxck Yeah: Chaos to Consciousness.
As the man himself recently wrote, “The whole world looks at me as member of LMFAO but very soon the world will meet 8ky.“ That moment is now, and it’s just the start.
[By Nathan Slavik, @RefinedHype]