His restless, Mercury Prize-winning record Konnichiwa celebrated its second birthday this past weekend and we’ve been listening to the tracks from his Vicious EP since it dropped out of nowhere late last year. Truth be told, there’s never a time that we’re not ready for new stuff from Skepta.
After a short radio silence on the music front (apparently he’s been busy collaborating with Nike on a new Air Max 97 we’ll be desperately wanting to get our hands on), London’s leading voice in grime is back. Pure Water, which you can stream below, is our refreshing first taste of Skepta’s solo sound in 2018.
It’s a stone cold cut of classic grime that riffs on old-fashioned nursery rhymes and references his newly-crowned status as a chief in his parents’ home state of Ogun in Nigeria. Over a traditional grime beat, one that wouldn’t have felt out of place on Konnichiwa, Skepta lyrically champions his own excellence by comparing himself to the Gingerbread Man, “cause they just can’t catch him”.
He also imagines how his well-earned place in the upper echelons of grime will lead to him being jetted off to the Red Planet by tech giant (and Grimes’ new beau) Elon Musk when the time comes, rapping: “I just came back from Mars in my new spaceship, it was a perfect landing”.
Its aqua-blue pool water cover suggests this will be the ultimate summer soundtrack for Skepta fans everywhere. But might it be a one-off drop he’s decided to gift us, or could it be the opening marker for the next chapter in our favourite grime hero’s career? Album number five, Skep, we’re ready and waiting.