Skilz AKA Mr. Stillwaterz was born in Queens, NY in 1974 as Mahmoud Sekou Cabral Ideraabdullah. At the age of 9 he fell in love with hip-hop and began honing his skills listening to the likes of Jekyll & Hyde, Run DMC, UTFO etc. etc. Later on it was Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Grand Puba and others who influenced him. Wanting a better life for the family his parents moved him, his two brothers and two sisters to Liberia, West Africa in 1985. This was truly culture shock for Young Skilz, but to his amazement Hip-Hop had followed him. Liberia a country colonized by freed American slaves had been infiltrated by Hip-Hop and this common bond almost allowed the youngun to feel at home. Unfortunately, the small West African nation was rocked by civil war in late 1989 and Sekou and his brothers and sisters were evacuated only to return to the US (Brownsville to be exact) to live with family members. It was here, unsupervised, that Sekou's life took a turn for the worst. Fearing for his life his parents (who had remained in Africa) sent him to live in Miami with a family friend, but the change of environment did nothing to improve his path and it was in Florida that he had his first run in with "trouble". In an effort to get Sekou back on path his parents then sent him to live with his Aunt in Portsmouth, VA, who after a few months refused to take responsibility for the wayward teen any longer. Therefore he moved back to Brownsville. Still focusing on his music and improving his flow it was then that Sekou decided he was headed no where; saved some money and returned to Africa, alone in 1994. He returned to Liberia, which was still experiencing the after effects of the war. It was during this period that he touched his first mic. He ended up traveling and doing shows in the Gambia, Senegal, Mali and many other West African countries. The response he got further encouraged him to continue the art form and in 2000 he returned to New York. Since then he has recorded numerous songs, and although his true dream is not to "BLOW" up he continues to do it for the love, to keep the art alive in its truest form.