There’s not a lot that Skipper’s Smokehouse hasn’t witnessed in its nearly 40-year history as a pillar of the Tampa Bay music scene. The outdoor venue has hosted blues, roots, reggae, Zydeco, world music and rock and roll. Artists — from locals to up-and-comers and well-established names — have come from across the United States and every corner of the globe to play underneath the safety of the oak tree canopy affectionately known as “The Skipperdome.”
But there’s a first time for everything, and on Friday, the iconic Tampa institution will open its doors to a homegrown talent who’s staging what might be (as far as we or our contacts at the venue can remember) the first hip-hop show at Skipper’s. Sam E Hues is to blame, and he’ll have an ambitious vision — plus a new soulful album called Easy Tiger — in tow.
“I was a teenager the first time I went to Skipper’s,” Hues, who turned 30 years old last week, told CL. He can’t remember the last time the venue hosted a rap show either, but he does recall some of the talent onstage during his first visit. “It was the first time I saw my now best friend and guitar player Sam Lagos. He was onstage and playing some solo, shredding behind his back — he was, like, 12 years old.”
Lagos will be onstage this Friday, handling guitar and backup vocals, along with singer Alyssa Conte, drummer Jeremy Bambery and trumpeter Jason Charos. Tampa producer Jordan Patrick — who produced every track on Easy Tiger alongside Hues — will DJ and provide backup vocals as well. Every one of those musicians figured into the creation of Easy Tiger, but the album also features contributions from Jackettes and FayRoy guitarist Dallas Eubanks and Samurai Shotgun’s DJ Qeys — who scratches on bouncy album highlight “ASSets.” Qeys will play selector at the Skipper’s show, where an all-star roster of some of the best Bay area rappers opens the show.
“I’m a fan of every one of the opening acts, and I consider them my friends,” Hues said of a lineup that includes Mike Mass, Louis Junior, Young 40, Stoney Hoop, Ty Walker and J Roc Jones. "Every one of them is different from each other, but they all have a similar sense of soul in their music.”
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Soul is a key element of Hues’ own output, and his 2017 album, Ghost I Remember Loving, or (GIRL), was drenched in it. Highlights from the outing found Hues dishing an ultra-smooth, Southern brand of rap music that felt like the communion of Big K.R.I.T, Toro y Moi and even Anderson.Paak. Interludes featured the voice of his mother — a single mom who raised Hues and his two brothers — dropping advice (“regrets can add salt to your wound, so be careful”) and jokes, too (“a burger king always wraps his whopper”).
“She’s a strong woman with a heart of gold,” Hues, who grew up near Leto High School, said about his mother. Some of that strength came from his nana, who was a 15-year president of the women’s side of Ybor City’s Italian Club. Family is a big part of Hues’ life, and his friends were adopted into his family life as well. “If you came to my house, my mom was your mom, too.”
Another woman who figured into GIRL was a nameless romantic who burned sage with Hues on “Indigo Nights.” On one of GIRL’s interludes, Hues is falling in love.
“Her soul is quite beautiful… there’s something about her, I can’t explain it,” he says on the track. The new album ups the ante on that devotion and doubles down on the soul and texture.
Its opening track, “ginseng,” kicks off with 30 seconds of guitar scratching and ethereal horns before unfolding into a meditation on being lost in her eyes and thinking about kids. The free jazz and bells on the song fade into a hooptie-ready head-bopper, “minutes,” wherein Hues is drinking in his muse ahead of the funky bass and guitar freakout that closes out the tune. “ASSets” adds snare claps, hi-hats, Qeys’ scratching and trippy, reversed samples before giving way to “waters” in which Hues completely surrenders to the object of his affection while Contes’ breathy vocal dances in the background.
Together with engineer Maxx Forman, Hues spent countless hours tweaking Easy Tiger at the since-shuttered Red Lounge Studio. Last-minute edits were pored over at The Dojo, a new Ybor City studio that Forman, Hues and his business partner Sky Grey opened this year. A few clients are already wrapping up projects at The Dojo, but the space should be open to more artists by mid-July. Hues envisions the studio as a creative hub that will host concerts and events as well.
As The Dojo gets off the ground, Hues is also working with local artist Sebastian Coolidge to put final tweaks on an elaborate setup and build-out that will engulf the stage at Skipper’s. Hues won’t give many details about what the live set will look like, but it stands to be something the venue has never seen. Like Easy Tiger — whose rich textures and nuances were built from scratch alongside Patrick — the live setup will be a reflection of Hues’ unwillingness to half-ass anything and his commitment to only giving listeners the best of what he has to offer.
“We had more songs but I cut them off and left what I feel are the perfect arrangements to depict the feel of the album,” Hues said of Easy Tiger, which runs just under 20 minutes long. “I’ve become very aware of letting things be what they should be and not forcing it — GIRL, to me, was just a warm-up.”
Sam E Hues Easy Tiger Experience w/Louis Junior/Stoney Hoop/Young 40/Mike Mass/Ty Walker/J Roc Jones/Hype Cuz. Fri., June 21, 8 p.m.. $10. Skipper’s Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Rd., Tampa. samehues.com.
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