New York itself might as well be a concrete orchestra of clattering train tracks, piercing sirens, and bellowing crowds. Manhattan is a borough of sounds just as diverse as its denizens. Against that backdrop, rapper, songwriter, and artist Skizzy Mars always set himself apart since his childhood in Harlem. With equal readiness to name check Morrissey, nod to big screen romances, and precisely spit an ode to a stranger on the subway, an outlier perspective fuels his full-length debut, Alone Together [Atlantic Records]. “I took a liking to being different,” the man born Myles Mills affirms. “For my whole life, I was the only black kid in mostly white schools on the Upper East Side. I never wanted to listen to what everyone else was listening to.

In high school, a friend sent me a bunch of files with Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar, Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam, and a bunch of things like that. That kind of songwriting was fascinating. Once I discovered A Tribe Called Quest, I got into rap. Records like Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon and The Killers’ Sam’s Town can bring me back to a time in my life. That’s what I aim to do with my albums.” At 17-years-old, he began making music in his childhood bedroom. Shortly after graduating high school in 2011, his introductory single “Douchebag” would ignite enthusiasm from numerous blogs. Skizzy built a fervent fan base by engaging a marathon of touring alongside the likes of G-Eazy, Logic, B.o.B, Ty Dolla $ign, and more. His 2013 mixtape Phases and 2014 follow-up Pace became fan favorites, while he started to infiltrate the mainstream on 2015’s The Red Balloon Project EP. Buoyed by the single “Time” [feat. G-Eazy & Olivver the Kid], it debuted at #4 on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart and peaked at #35 on the Top 200.