Coming up on today's show I caught up with Mad Skillz. Starting out as a Freestyle rapper, he received a recording contract with Atlantic Records in the mid-90s. Which resulted in his 1996 debut album, From Where???, one of the early and influential Hip Hop albums coming out of Virginia. Dropped from Atlantic,  he became a lyrical hitman for hire before totally retiring from rap altogether in 2014. He also is the inventor of a yearly staple called The Rap Up which he summarizes all things pop culture that took place in the year that has been.

His credits for who he has written for reads like the who's who of Hip Hop with the likes of P. Diddy, Will Smith, Nas, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Nicki Minaj, Travis Barker, The Neptunes, Cee-Lo Green, Common, Freeway, Talib Kweli, Chris Brown, The Roots, and A Tribe Called Quest just to ...