Edward Skeletrix Doesn’t Even Want You to Care and its Maddening
“life so funny, it gotta be a joke” – Edward King Bass IV on ‘Life’s So Funny’
Rare in the underground, where music is deep-fried in creation, disruption, and consumption, is there an artist who has a message worth analyzing. To those familiar or just scrubbing his name off their underground rap bingo card, Edward Skeletrix is an oddball; the lead figure in rap’s Lynchian-like art crusades fueled by skin crawling maximalism and an open arms embrace of AI defined as artificial surrealism.
Edward Skeletrix, born Edward King Bass IV used to go under the alias, “Cight” producing music in architecture class computers at Georgia State University. His debut beat tape, titled “A R C H I T E C T U R E” is one of the few living signs of his past production. His evolution into the Skeletrix kayfabe was during a 2021 TikTok AI Slop post run that fans just kept asking more of. (he was the one behind the infamous Hubert meme)
He credits his work in painting, music, photography, and even furniture design, to his time working at a mental institution. And it’s no wonder its influence has branded itself on skeletrix. A facility for the mentally ill, on either side of the extreme spectrum, will challenge normalcy at an obsessive decree. To an outsider, and at times even to myself, the world is unrecognizable in the world of normal.
Edward is an artist whom I just can’t put my finger on. What is he trying to be or hoping to prove? The conclusion I come to is nothing. There is nothing hiding behind the kayfabe, as there is no kayfabe. Sonic wise he makes hyper trap music that feels pulled apart an almost exoskeleton all the elements of newgen rap music.
So, what do I latch onto? If theres barely a musical core; atleast to the average ear; What keeps bringing me back to Skeletrix?
Edward says the quiet part out loud; he is the emperor in the classic folklore of the “Emperor Clothes” but instead he is dripped to the bone in all the design but telling you everything is fake; laughing with you. His relentless pursuit of authenticity in the whole definition of weird and never showing out for a larger crowd. There is no spineless route to the top, instead, Edward Skeletrix wants to be considered elite high art in the junkyard of underground music. He wants to stay within the trash house of the underground and keep building off it. I feel that’s his core goal, and it’s infectious for us to be a part of his rise, his journey. He is feeding us, new, in each artistic endeavor.
There really isn’t a sonic revelation with Skeletrix, sure the music is experimental and ear crawling but there are others destroying the beat and amping the vocals even harder. Instead, the appeal is from everything else that comes with the Skeletrix experiment. The imagery, the lifestyle, the covers, the exhibitions, the vocal delivery, the subject matter, the music videos, and more.
Powered by each creative outlet, the AI powered tectonic plates pushing Skeletrix Island farther and farther from shore just get stronger and stronger.
His most recent studio album, “Body of Work” is now officially out. It took me a couple listens to truly appreciate this body of work called “Body of Work. I hope you can appreciate it too, just dont take it too seriously:
