After a huge beginning to the year with Shutdown, followed by a brief musical interlude while he played every single festival ever, Skepta has noticeably increased his output, with a Westwood mixtape, a video for Top Boy and a freestyle for Pharrell’s Beats1 OTHER Tone show all dropping in recent weeks. And there’s more to come, as Skeppy joins in the Halloween mood with three particularly haunting verses over three current bangerz.
Kicking off with Atlanta rapper Sy Ari Da Kid’s Bankroll, Skeppy asserts his OG status with typical force and flair.’I change flows/ See me in the flesh, make these rappers wanna chainsmoke/ Felt it in your chest you’re trying to hide it, but the pain shows/ I’m gonna piss on your gravestone.’ After a wheel-up from DJ Maximum, it’s onto the next one and Skepta’s take on Drake and Future’s Jumpman that nods to his time puffing cigars avec Michael Jordan. ‘Smoking with the Jumpman out in Paris, it was bait/ You can’t smoke with me cos you got something on your face…‘ before disparaging those trying to cling on to the coattails of his success. ‘Where you when I was in the gully? Oh now you see the vision, oh now you want some money‘? Last up is the UK’s own Section Boyz and their street heater Lock Arff, a creepy track tailor-made for Halloween vibes. Referencing Busta Rhymes’ Flipmode Squad, the Tottenham MC uses the opportunity to take aim at record labels and internet gangstas. ‘Man’s on a different ting, man I told them a hundred times/ I did a bunch of crimes, and none of them were done for the Vine/ So you can take that bullshit and stick it where the sun don’t shine/ The summer’s up, it’s about to get real cold…’
All of this is hopefully shaping up to mean an imminent release from the MC, whose fourth new album, Konichiwa, is rumoured to feature collabs with Kanye, Drake and his new pal Pharrell.