Hip hop recording artist Tyler Skyy (former Vernon resident Devan Head) has just released some powerful, love-packed visuals for his spoken word ode to women.
Included in Skyy’s most recent release, Rainy Days + Peace Signs, the single, entitled Women, has just been released to YouTube as a video and features profile-like shots of more than 100 females, some of whom reside in Vernon.
Filmed in September, Skyy, who is now based in Vancouver, said he wanted to film at least part of the video in Vernon, as that’s where he started making music while a student at W.L. Seaton Secondary.
“Vernon is home to some really fantastic people and I felt that it was only right to feature them in the video,” said Skyy. “It’s more of a sentimental thing for me. I have a certain spot in my heart for Vernon and I really just wanted to carry that with me into the video.”
After putting a casting call through his social media outlets, Skyy says he and his girlfriend ended up spending a full day in Vernon meeting up with a number of residents and were also able to scope out locales for the shoot.
“I’ve got anywhere from family, to close friends, to strangers who are new friends in the video,” he said.
“I only lived in Vernon for three years, but it feels like a lot longer. I think that might be because of the time period in my life that I lived there. I was a young teen just figuring out my life, making friends, and still in high school. If I’m being completely honest, being in Vernon for that three years were some of the best years of my life.”
A simple concept, Skyy starts his spoken word piece by talking about the different women in all our lives before going into his love for mothers and everything they do.
The video slowly goes from positive, smiling clips to serious, emotional ones as Skyy starts to shed light on the struggles women around the world face everyday.
“I wanted to write this song because of all the misogyny that fills up the media,” he said. “I have an absolutely wonderful girlfriend, and the women in my family as well as my women friends definitely don’t deserve to be referred to or spoken to like that. I just feel like it’s something that needed to be said.”
Well versed in the areas of rap and hip hop, Women is also Skyy’s first attempt at spoken word.
“I feel like it went really well. It’s gotten some mixed feedback on YouTube, but aside from that I’ve only heard good things,” he said. “I think that some people in the world might not be ready to hear some of the things I said, but like I said, it needed to be done.”
Tyler Skyy’s Rainy Days + Peace Signs is now available for purchase or streaming on iTunes, Spotify, and Soundcloud.