Artist Skye Tunes on Her Role in Snoop Dogg’s Play ‘Redemption of a Dogg’, Singing Career, and What’s Next

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Skye Tunes has been doing her thing for a while, and is a hard-working entertainer hailing from Houston, TX. She’s definitely not new to this, but true to the industry. When Tunes was just 16, she was in a band called “Sophia Fresh” which later received the attention of the legendary Clive Davis at J Records. She has worked with some of the hottest artists in the industry such as Chris Brown, T-Pain, Eric Bellinger, YG, and Ty Dolla $, to name a few. She has internationally toured as a solo artist with rapper/singer T-Pain, and recently finished a U.S. tour performing with Grammy Nominated rapper/actor/exec. producer T.I. She’s graced the stages of both Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show and the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Currently, she tours with Je’caryous Johnson’s national theater production company for Redemption of a Dogg starring the legendary Snoop Dogg and Tamar Braxton.

We had a fabulous time chatting with Ms. Tunes on everything that she has been working on and what she has coming up next with some of the hottest artists in the industry.

MillBuzz: We know you are in the play, with Snoop Dogg, Redemption of a Dogg, how has it been to work alongside of a hip-hop mogul? And what role do you play?

Tunes: My role, well I will get into how it was in a second. But my role, I was one of the girls that his wife kind of despised. The whole play is about the real story of Snoop’s life; the redemption story. It tells you everything you questioned the past two decades, about what really happened in his marriage. So, my role was one of the girls that was always hanging at the studio. I was a dancer, maybe he did things with those girls or whatever. It doesn’t get too detailed in the actual play, but that’s the actual role I played along with two other girls. Working alongside someone like that is nothing short of a blessing. He is so wise and so smart, and to come from being the number one gangster rapper back in the day, and still now being relevant in today’s hip-hop and social media today. He’s got a huge social media following. I just feel blessed and I am very inspired. He really does live his best life every single day, so that song, that’s how he is high or not high, even though he’s always high, he’s always so positive, so inspiring, and he’s everyone’s Uncle. He has everyone calling him Uncle Snoop. It’s a blessing.

MillBuzz: You are doing your thing and have worked with quite a few amazing people, let’s talk about your favorite person that you’ve worked with so far?

Tunes: To name one person is going to be kind of rough, because I have so many features. But I’ve worked for so many writers and producers. I used to be in a girl group, and we were executive produced by T-Pain. We had a deal with Atlantic Records. He’s such a genius as a writer, a singer, a rapper, and as a performer. I have to put him in his top five as far as creating music with somebody. Despite all the political things going on with Kanye, that was nothing short of a blessing, and a thrill. He is so talented. Outside of his personal beliefs, now that is someone who really made me feel like oh my God, I’m really doing this for real. I’d have to save Chris for last, because he is by far the most talented person I think I’ve ever so closely worked alongside of. He writes, he sings, he directs, he acts, he flips, and he dances. Chris does so many different things, and he’s still so young. Despite the controversy that he faces often, he still manages to remain relevant, and keeps three plus songs on the radio in rotation. He never misses a season of being hot, and that’s how I want to be. His bar is so high just like Beyonce who is from Houston, like me. Even if I’m not making music, at some point, I still want to be able to have the world love me and recognize me for more than just my music. Just like people recognize Beyonce and Chris for many things, I want the same thing. So, I would have to say Chris has been my favorite to work with thus far.

MillBuzz: Tell us about the path you’ve taken to get to where you are and how it feels to be recognized as one of the top talents out right now? 

Tunes: So, coming from a girl group, well first let me go into how I was discovered. I must always give recognition to “Sophia Fresh”, the girl group that I was in. That was how I got active in the industry at a professional level. We got our first deal with Clive Davis at J records, when we were all young teenagers. We lost our deal at J records, and not even a month later we got signed to Atlantic Records, and they appointed T-Pain as our executive producer. Maybe about four years ago we decided to go our separate ways as a group because we had a lot of issues when it came to pay and the label agreeing on the sound. Nobody else was checking for girl groups and we kept trying to make music and shows and gain followers, but we are in a time now where people don’t really accept groups of boy bands and girl bands as they did before. We’ve been doing it for so long since we were little kids. We were real friends and sisters and were like okay it’s time to do something else. I have kept my relationships and I call people on holidays and birthdays, not just when I need something. So now I’ve built so many relationships with people that they respect, that now when I need a favor or something, they ask me to be a part of it. I’m able to go to them and have resources like Chris brown, DJ Khaled, and YG. I’m not new to this. I’ve been working in it professionally for so long. Transitioning from a girl group to a solo artist is a little bit difficult because I can’t look to my left or my right if I’m slacking, and I don’t have the energy, so I can’t feed off anybody but me. But the beauty in that is, if I rise or if I fail, it’s all on me. I can go out at the end of the day and win or lose, it was my idea, and I put my whole idea and creativity into this and this is my baby, this is Skye. You can see exactly who I am. Sometimes in a group some of the songs are not you, it might be what your group member is going through, or you must dumb certain things down for certain things, and now I can be Skye all the time, and show the world who I am as an individual.

MillBuzz: Let’s talk about “Fairytale”. You got to work with Chris Brown and DJ Khaled. Tell me what that song means to you and how that experience has shaped you moving forward? 

Tunes: I met DJ Khaled a long time ago when I was in the group. He is still very close to T-Pain who I was signed to, and we lived in Miami for a while, like a year and a half. He would always be at Hit Factory or Circle House Studio, and he would always remember us because we always had crazy colored hair and were loud and just country or whatever. So, I didn’t bring Khaled on this record, Chris did. Khaled didn’t produce this record, I know a lot of people ask. But when he was asked to get on, it was nothing short of “of course”. He remembers, and like I said, I keep my relationships close. Now with “Fairytale”, its basically as a woman or a man, girl or boy, we all have our sisters, brothers, and friends telling us don’t talk to this guy or girl, and you’re basically saying I believe this fairytale. For me I feel like everyone has a different ending of their story. But everyone does have a happy ending. I don’t know if you are familiar with Jada Pinkett’s Red Table Talk, but I think that is the prime example of my how fairytale might be different from the next person’s fairytale. I do believe in giving love a shot. Chris wrote the song, and we all know the controversy with his love life and past relationships, but it’s still like I don’t care what people are saying, I’m going to cancel out all the noise and I’m going to give you a shot and give love its fair chance and something beautiful can come of it. Instead of putting a negative touch on love, that’s me just trying to bring light to knocking out the kinks in love and making something work.

MillBuzz: Who are your inspirations and what made you start singing?

Tunes: I have a few. There are two people, a female and male who is of course Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey. When I saw Mariah Carey, I was like oh my God, that’s what I want to be. That’s how I want to do it, I want to touch the world just like her. Living in Houston, a lot of people were very familiar with Destiny’s Child, which is why I got into a girl group. Destiny’s Child and Beyonce both inspired me so much to keep going. I grew up a street over from Beyonce, so to see where she is now, and we came from the same place, it made me feel like I could do that too. Its confirmation of hope when I see all the things she is doing. She’s an icon and actually bigger than an icon. The movie Bohemian Rhapsody is out right now, and I just saw it the other day. It was so inspiring, and I like to tell people when they ask me what’s my genre and targeted audience, I say I make real music just like the band Queen. I don’t limit myself to the urban world. I don’t limit myself to just being a pop star. I want to make music for everybody and I think that people like Beyonce, Rihanna, Michael Jackson, and Queen because they make music for everyone, not just one small group of people or not just one area. I’m black but I want to reach more than just my people.

MillBuzz: What’s next for Skye? Anything that we should be looking out for?

Tunes: Right now, I am working on a full album. I will be dropping more music soon after the top of the year. I’m going to drop a surprise song at the end of this week, and a Christmas song in December. But there’s so much more to Skye. I have features by Ty Dolla, YG, and Eric Bellinger. I have a lot of stuff that’s waiting for the world to experience everything that I’ve been working on. So, you’ll definitely get a couple more songs before I put out the full project.

To stay connected to Tunes, follow her on social media @SkyeTunes.

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