Grayskul

History

In 2003, Onry Ozzborn and JFK, two members of the Oldominion hip hop collective from the Pacific Northwest, formed Grayskul with bassist Rob Castro. Over eight months at ATB Studios, the trio recorded roughly 55 tracks. Those recordings eventually became the albums Creature, Thee Adventures!, and Deadlivers. After they opened for Eyedea & Abilities, Rhymesayers Entertainment took notice of their music. Deadlivers, their first release on that label, came out in 2005 and included guest spots from Canibus, Mr. Lif, and Abstract Rude. The track "Secret Wars" featured the Oldominion emcees who were in the group at that time. In 2007, Grayskul put out their second Rhymesayers album, Bloody Radio. For this project, Onry Ozzborn performed as Count Draven and JFK as Count Magnus. Rob Castro did not appear on the record, but Cage, Slug, and Aesop Rock contributed guest verses. Two years later, in 2009, Grayskul teamed up with producer Maker for Graymaker, released on Taxidermy Records. Onry Ozzborn told Seattle Weekly that unlike their previous work, this was a straight-ahead hip hop project. He noted that people often called their music dark, weird, and bugged-out, but felt this album would surprise listeners. He explained that Maker's beats, which used more breakbeats and slower BPMs, pushed them to write differently. Grayskul's final album, Zenith, arrived in 2013 on Fake Four Inc.