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Going to college in Virginia only an hour north of Richmond, the home of Mad Skillz and the Superfriendz, I had heard about the freestyling abilities of this youngster over and over... "he's better than Supernat..." "he's f'ing incredible..." His debut album had not yet been released by Atlantic and that night's performance was going to be a big one for MWC and Mad Skillz -- the first local underground rap act about to blow up.

The night itself was a total disaster -- the show was cancelled after go-go group Point Blank did their set and a handful of local unsigned artists did their thing. Apparently, a knife fight had started, and concert organizers decided to stop the show before Mad Skillz could go on.

Fortunately, I managed to get my interview before the show. Drinking a Sprite and inhaling a sub, Mad Skillz talked at length about getting signed, freestyling, and what a pain in the ass working with Big Beat/Atlantic was.

Photo credit: unknown

The crew was apparently quite disappointed, but also understanding, offering to come back and do another show later on down the road. Though that never happened, and it took Atlantic almost another six months to release Mad Skillz' debut release resulting in poor sales, the crew maintained and kept their underground following.