Secret Agent 23 Skidoo is a Grammy winning, internationally touring, purple velvet tuxedo wearing family funk phenemenon. Combining the positive, primal power of hip hop with the surreal storytelling of science fiction, 23 Skidoo has concocted a potent potion that wows family crowds across the planet.
The ingredients of his magic spells include reverence for the boundless mindstates of young children, respect for the culture and DNA of hip hop, funk and soul music, and a deep belief in the power of the imagination to change the world in positive ways, both personal and universal.
If you can imagine a band with Jim Henson on guitar, Shel Silverstein on bass and PIXAR as the lead vocalist, you’ve pretty much got it. And if George Clinton and Q Tip stopped by the party, that might clarify things even more. Basically, if Dr. Seuss and Dr. Dre had a baby, it would be the music of Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. Nuff said.
In 2007, Skidoo had already spent over a decade touring the nation with various live band/hip hop groups as a rapper and producer. He’d opened up for MOS DEF, RUN DMC, P-Funk All Stars and The Sun Ra Arkestra. And best of all, he’d helped bring a beautiful little baby girl into the world. By that time, she was 5 years old, and as smart as a smart car that runs on smart drinks. Taking a break from the road, Skidoo taught little Saki (aka MC Fireworks) how to rap, and together they made the world’s first album of family hip hop, literally from a family that makes hip hop. It caught on quick, and they soon had a #1 hit on SiriusXM’s family channel, which started planting seeds across the nation and beyond.
In the next decade, 23 Skidoo, MC Fireworks, and Bootysattva (aka Mom) rocked lots of shows with a bunch of awesome friends who sang, scratched records, danced, played instruments and did backflips. They played Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and the Smithsonian. They flew to Canada for the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and to India for the Buddy Daddy Family Festival. They got glowing reviews in TIME, USA Today, People, and a bunch of other magazines and stuff. They racked up a total of ten #1 hits on SiriusXM, and ended up on NPR’s All Things Considered twice. Their music videos are currently playing on NBC’s kids’ show Sprout House. And in 2014, they got nominated for a Grammy, and in 2017, they WON the Grammy for “Best Children’s Recording”!!! That was cool. Got to go onstage in a tophat and everything.
As well as releasing six full length albums, two books, one record, a line of hot sauce, and an E.P. that combines the entire Asheville Symphony with beats and rhymes, 23 Skidoo has written and produced the music for the US Library’s Summer Reading Program for six years running. He been its official New York State spokesman in 2010 and its official Reading Champion in 2017, because books are awesome. And he’s taught countless kids to write their own rhymes in workshops across the country.
In the decade of dancing down this crazy path, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo has evolved a sound and style that never dumbs down the music or underestimates the audience. With funk and beats as real as bands that play at midnight, and with lyrics that aren’t afraid to employ a larger vocabulary that what is currently heard on mainstream radio for grown ups, Skidoo fashions a world intended for the whole family. The universal constants that we all deal with, such as love, struggle, dreams, fear and learning to become ourselves, are the soul of these musical adventures that bounce, fly and slide smoothly through landscapes of wild imagination.
