Dregs One is an emcee and producer from San Francisco who has been releasing music for about the last fifteen years. Over that time, he’s collaborated with fellow Bay Area artists like Equipto and Brycon, and he’s been part of groups like Gas Mask Crew and No World Order. His early recordings made their way across the Pacific, where a young producer in Tokyo by the name of Ill Sugi discovered Dregs One’s music at a local record store. Ill and Dregs connected over the Internet, eventually collaborating on their 2015 album, Universal Language. Since that time, they have stayed connected and working together periodically, with their last album, Thought Process, coming in 2019. They are now back for another round with Skies Over Tokyo.

Ill Sugi is great at crafting these gorgeous downtempo beats, which makes for a nice contrast with Dregs One on the mic, with his gruff and direct delivery on the mic. The two have been working together for several years now, and you can tell in listening to Skies Over Tokyo, because there is a real comfort to their chemistry on the album. They know what they’re about, and they are going to give you the best version of it each time around. Ill Sugi keeps coming with these really soulful and laid back beats that are really deceptive in that they sound simple until you start paying closer attention and you start to pick up on all of the nuances he’s packed into each song. For a large portion of the album, Dregs One is just talking his shit, which is perfectly enjoyable, since he’s still hitting you with confidence and clever wordplay on the mic. However, just when you think you have the album figured out, Dregs hits you with “All Love Tho,” a really beautiful and mature song about making peace with an ex, and then follows that up with the thoughtful and reflective “Win or Lose,” with Junonkoala, where Dregs delivers some really personal lyricism about the friends he’s kept and lost along the way. It’s with the inclusion of these songs where the album goes from just being enjoyed on one level to forging a much more personal relationship with the music that’ll keep you coming back for more.

Skies Over Tokyo is a great album from two artists that have great chemistry together. It’s soulful, thoughtful, and really easy to listen to and connect with. It’s an album without a lot of pretention, just two artists from different sides of the Pacific connecting over a love of hip hop.