Skyler Lewis knew what he needed to do after his first performance in Cleveland. “After I did my performance in Cleveland, Ohio, I knew this is what I was destined to be,” he says. “I’m here to stay.” The Canton rapper known as LBE Scar dropped two full projects in four days this October, and by the end of November, he’ll be opening for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Agora Theater. The path from that first show to this moment wasn’t random.
The Chronicles of Scar, Vol. 1 arrived October 27, five tracks in just over 12 minutes. Vol. 2 followed four days later on Halloween. The tight release window was deliberate. Lewis wanted to create something people could feel without needing visuals, songs that hit immediately and built on each other. “I wanted y’all to feel me in these songs, like really feel me, without any visuals even needed,” he explains. “I just wanted to paint a picture inside the mind of my audience and fans, and release something that everyone can relate to.”
The timing mattered because Lewis had somewhere to be. His childhood friend YBL SINATRA, son of Bizzy Bone and real name Leon McCane, had shows lined up in New York. “We grew up around the corner from each other when I lived in Cleveland,” Lewis says. They’re planning shows together in the coming weeks, interviews and performances that required Lewis to show up with actual work people could hear. The EPs gave him that foundation.
But the real breakthrough came through loyalty, which is exactly what LBE stands for. “LBE stands for Loyalty Before Everything,” Lewis says. “This whole process is personal. It ain’t got nothing to do with music anymore.” That loyalty went both ways. SINATRA stayed loyal and plugged him in. “I just want to give a special shoutout to my brother SINATRA for staying loyal, plugging me in, and making all this happen,” Lewis says about the Bone Thugs opportunity.
Born May 4, 1996, in Canton, Ohio, one of the most dangerous cities in America, Lewis has been writing since before he was six. He performed in school plays and talent shows early. As a father to his daughter Zalaya and son Junior, his kids became his driving force. “My kids. That’s it. Plain and simple,” he says when asked what drives him. “My daughter Zalaya and my son Junior are the reason I keep going strong.”
His industry background started in 2019 as promotion manager at Hit Camp Records, later managing at Loedagang, LLC, before founding Scar Management. He handles his own engineering and production work, the same self-reliance that runs through his music. “I learned that self-reliance is crucial,” Lewis says. On “Karma” from Vol. 1, he raps about cutting off disloyal people and building his own path: “I knew I could be whatever I wanted to be. All I had to do was follow my dreams. Fuck a handout and do it on my feet.”
He wrote “Choose You,” also from Vol. 1, on his 29th birthday in May after getting burned by someone he trusted. “I had to force myself to finish the song even though I’d just been betrayed by someone I thought was loyal to me,” he recalls. “I took that inner pain and turned it into motivation. We can respect the truth, but we can’t respect a liar.” On Vol. 2, “Calling Me Bae” explores the confusion of being called one thing privately and another publicly, the kind of relationship messiness that made it one of the project’s popular tracks.
The New York shows with YBL SINATRA happen in the coming weeks. “we’ll be in New York doing interviews and performing our set,” Lewis says. “Then at the end of the month, we’ll be back in Cleveland, Ohio again, opening up for all five members of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.” (tickets here) Dee Dee Vision, who Lewis calls “a goat with the camera,” will be shooting visuals for upcoming releases.
Lewis is already working on his third EP and a major collaboration with SINATRA. A full tour launches in February 2026, with dates dropping on New Year’s Day. “After my first show, I knew this was my time to get my foot in the door,” he says. Two EPs in four days, a childhood friend who stayed loyal, and a willingness to build everything himself. That’s how you get from Canton to opening for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. You can find LBE Scar on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
