Show & Prove: Skrilla
Words: Peter A. Berry
Last October, an otherwise nondescript piece of street code became Skrilla’s ticket to singer Natasha Bedingfield’s concert. Adorned in what he calls a “soul-snatching” mask, the 26-year-old Philadelphia rapper performed his sinister single, “Doot Doot (6 7)” beside the popular singer known for the 2008 hit “Pocket Full of Sunshine,” leaving the audience inside Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia completely perplexed.
It was the type of random culture collision that could only happen in an extremely online world that thrives on irony. But it really all happened because Bedingfield’s son, like thousands of other kids across America, just wouldn’t drop that silly “6 7” meme—a meaningless play on Skrilla’s song that also comes with its own hand motion of palms facing upward, casually moving them up and down. The unexpectedness of it all isn’t lost on the rhymer.
“To this day, I would never picture myself being on the stage with somebody like Natasha,” Skrilla says on Zoom, calling in from his hometown before watching the Delaware State versus Norfolk State football game on a chilly evening last October. “‘6 7’ came from Philadelphia, and she’s like, ‘Oh, I want to meet the person [who popularized it].’ And her team contacted my team, and it was just up from there.”
Lately, his career’s been up, too. Since the unofficial release of the viral single in December of 2024, and its subsequent official debut last February, the rap newcomer has simultaneously become an ascendant rap star and one of the most inescapable forces in viral culture. With its ominous soundscape and Skrilla’s rambling flows, the track itself is an engrossing exercise in street rap, culminating in over 62 million Spotify streams and 22 million YouTube views for its accompanying music video.
The “6 7” catchphrase—which is also a “187”-esque police code used to describe homicide—became a meme after a high school basketball player was filmed in 2025 ranking a Starbucks drink by saying “6 7” while motioning up and down with his hands. Dictionary.com even named “6 7” its Word of the Year last October. It’s everywhere, and Skrilla is to thank for that.
“I’m pretty sure nobody saw that coming,” Skrilla says of the track going viral. “Every song that I make, I have a feeling that it’s going to blow. But this one actually did.” The track’s level up, along with his off-kilter brand of macabre gangsta rap, are the reasons he’s on the precipice of legit stardom. Naturally, it was preceded by much humbler and more dangerous beginnings.
Born Jemille Edwards, Skrilla endured a fairly normal childhood playing AAU basketball and plotting to become a fashion designer before completely jumping off the porch. He grew up in Philly’s Kensington area, a primarily low-income, working-class neighborhood in which an open-air drug market exists.
When it came to school, Skrilla got good grades. He even sought justice alongside classmates. Although he denies even knowing who George Zimmerman is, a 2013 report from The Philadelphia Enquirer features a 14-year-old boy with the same name and face participating in a demonstration honoring Trayvon Martin following Zimmerman’s acquittal for killing Martin a year prior.
Unfortunately, in high school, he found himself on house arrest for two-and-a-half years for multiple heroin-related charges. Despite those circumstances, he still graduated.
Prior to deciding to make his own songs, Skrilla remembers listening to the jagged, narcotized stylings of Kodak Black, Chief Keef, Future and Young Thug. “Those are my favorite artists in life,” he shares. “Them being themself helped me be myself.” After spending time with his friends in the studio, he decided to record his own tracks. And unlike most first-timers, he was actually really good.
His 2018 track “Dog Food” features a more linear, Atlanta-indebted cadence, with its ominous piano loop, which only adds a layer of danger to the mix of what’s otherwise a customary flex song.
With subsequent tracks and projects like Kutthroat (2022), Thrilla with Thwaglord(2022), Santos (2023), Gemini Season (2023), Underworld (2024), and Zombie Love Kensington Paradise (2024), Skrilla’s flows became more asymmetrical.
Taking a cue from his Mexican mother (Skrilla is also Black from his dad’s side), he began lacing music videos with imagery nodding to Santeria, an Afro-Cuban faith he adopted when he was 7. Unwieldy, yet deceptively precise, his sonic and visual ID had crystallized into something that evaded easy classification. By the summer of 2023, his talent had earned him a deal with Priority Records.
Skrilla’s younger brother and manager, Jevon “Von” Edwards, saw key ingredients to his stardom years ago. “He always had a hustler ambition, and he always had the cool-kid charisma,” explains Von, who recalls Skrilla going to Walmart to buy iron-on print sheets and making his own shirts to tell. “Those are two things that when it comes to a rapper, you got to be a hustler and you got to be a cool kid.”
The rapper’s striking all-around aesthetic, one Von compares to Tyler, The Creator, also shocks and ensnares. “It’s raw, so even when it looks ugly, [there’s] still beauty in it,” Von adds. “You take a double look and actually look at it, it looks smooth.”
Propelled by serendipitous virality and his own idiosyncrasies, Skrilla’s only built an even bigger ramp to national viability. “Doot Doot (6 7)” now has a remix with G Herbo. This past October, he unloaded his Lil Yachty collab, “Rich Sinners,” and connected with Coi Leray a month later for the “Lick Back” Remix. At the top of January, he also dropped the music video for his track “RYLO.” Then there’s Z, Skrilla’s forthcoming album, which will feature the Yachty track as well as a Tierra Whack collab. The title is a nod to Zombieland, a nickname for his Kensington roots. Z is expected to arrive in the coming months.
“The album Z means the ending of a lot of stuff, though and changing your lifestyle, though, to the better, the ending of a certain path, and just starting over,” Skrilla expresses. While he says he can’t specify, he reveals he’s progressed over the last year and has curved some of his own self-destructive habits for the better.
Good thing because Von expects Skrilla to be the face of the next generation. But presently, Skrilla is probably more focused on the football game he’s attending, which is set to begin any minute. Their dad surprised them with tickets before this interview. Moments like that make great memories, which Skrilla can look forward to with his own children. He wants to be remembered for being a father. Skrilla has two daughters, 3 and 4, and two more kids on the way.
While being a present dad, Skrilla’s music is also top of mind. “My goal for my career is just keeping my head on my shoulders and making music as much as I can,” he says. “And just being me.”
Authenticity at its finest.
Listen to Skrilla’s Zombie Love Kensington Paradise Album Deluxe
