There is an incredible energy and discipline to his performances– he recently started working to perform without a backing track after seeing his idols do the same, having watched the audiences over time lose their minds proportional to the effort that each artist brought night after night.

‘Show Me Love’, a single off of his debut album, ‘The Price of Fame’, is a real example of that effort: “This song was the perfect song that I felt everyone could listen to, any culture, any ethnicity, and that was my approach with the rest of the album,” Skilla told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview earlier this month. “I want to affect people’s emotions in their daily lives.” Skilla’s energy and enthusiasm is undeniable and it has produced clear, tangible results, especially in his collaborations; 50 Cent co-starred in his album release trailer, and he pulled one of the better Nas features of late on his debut album that dropped in August. Having opened for artists like Travis Scott in the early stages of his career on the Circus Maximus tour, as well as co-headlining a tour with regional superstar Rob49 in 2024 after an incredible mixtape run, there seems to be no shortage of respect for Skilla Baby.

We got the chance to speak to Skilla over Zoom about his upcoming 18-show tour across the U.S., and what he hopes to bring to the table when he takes the stage.

How did your early tours as a supporting act to artists like Travis Scott and Offset shape your performances as a headliner today, and what do you hope to bring to the audience each time you perform?

Skilla: The earlier tours that I supported taught me professionalism, they taught me energy, they taught me to be intentional and on time. They taught me the business, they taught me how to curate merch– I learned so many different things, different styles of performances, everything. Audience interaction, learned there’s a right way to perform these tracks without the [backing] audio. It’s like so many things that I took from other people that I needed to go into this tour and headline myself, it’s unlimited. I be talking all day about it because I pay attention to details. I’m a people-watcher, I’m a learner; every experience I’ve had, I’ve learned something from it. Music and entertainment [aren’t] just about money to me. I wanna be an icon. I wanna be a legend, I wanna do all that. 

Going into this tour, I’m gonna take stuff that I just learned from Chris Brown, watching him perform. I know I can’t fly and do all of the singing stuff– (laughing) no, I don’t think that– but even all of the little details, where he’s at on stage, performances, breath control, what you’re wearing. Everything goes into making this a fun experience for the audience which is the most important. It’s entertaining the people that pay to see you, and even with my project, I want people [that] go to this tour to experience the full experience. I don’t want people to just be staring at me with a mic in my hand on stage: I want people to experience it, live it, feel it, cry, laugh, have fun. I want everybody to have all of the emotions when they come to the tour.