Out of nowhere, the name Skylar Grey has been attached to some of the biggest pop records on the radio. She co-wrote Eminem & Rihanna’s hit “Love the Way You Lie”. She is a featured vocalist on Diddy-Dirty Money’s “Coming Home” and most recently, she’s provided the hooks for Dr. Dre’s “I Need a Doctor” and Lupe Fiasco’s “Words I Never Said”. She also appeared on the recent Grammy Awards along side Dre and Em. Still, the question remains…who the hell is Skylar Grey?
Well, turns out that figuring the identity of Skylar Grey wasn’t hard at all. Skylar’s not a new artist, just a new name. Confused? Well, let’s go back a few years to the release of an album called Like Blood Like Honey, a ne0-Sarah McLachlan set of singer/songwriter tunes released by an artist named Holly Brook. The album was released on Linkin Park’s Machine Shop record label, and the label connection wasn’t the only link to Shinoda/Bennington and company. Brook co-wrote and performed the hook to “Where’d You Go”, a song by Mike Shinoda’s side project Fort Minor that wound up crashing into the top Five on the pop charts and propelling Fort Minor’s Rising Tied album to Gold status.
Skylar/Holly has gotten the rare second chance afforded to artists and it looks like she’s connecting the dots better than she did initially. She has a new album scheduled for release later this year and I’m certain some of the artists she worked with will return the favor and push Skylar over the top.