The rise of Skepta has been phenomenal. Although we celebrate his success and rave hard to his music, few clock his true achievement. It’s not a chart position, collabo, or capacity crowd, it’s the ability to have a vision and follow it through. It sounds simple, but few of us do it within our own lives.
“There’s no money that record labels can offer us no more, its dead. There’s no point in saying these numbers to us anymore because we’ve seen them…..so now everyone’s heads on this thing in a way that all of the kids of today never have to go through what we went through…. that’s the revenge. That’s what I’m on till’ I’m dead.” Skepta has worked the roads and the music industry, but he walked away from both traps with a singular vision of what he wanted to achieve.
We have dreams, but how often do we pursue them? We are obsessed with winning, but can we honestly say are match fit? Are you ready for the sacrifice and risk coupled with the possibility that your idea might not work? Are you strong enough to get up and try again if it doesn’t work?
We are all guilty of creating aims and targets with no real intention of seeing them through. We are more comfortable with giving up than we are trying.
Skepta had the title of his album in mind years ago. 2 years ago he told me his plan, that he was never going to make another commercial record, 18 months later he told me that he wasn’t looking to get US features on his album even though he was connected to Asap Rocky, Kanye West, and Drake. 8 months ago he told me he was going to do an interview and it all happened.
“I just ran through that finish line, drop on the floor and drink the water”
This week Skepta makes history across with the highest charting, independent Grime album. Competing with Beyonce and Radiohead in the upper echelons of the UK album chart.
I witnessed the formation of his vision, the plan, and the execution. You witnessed his story and his method, his attention to detail is plain to see if you follow him, the blueprint is in front of you. Be inspired, study it, learn from it.
Skepta’s achievement is his revenge. It’s his revenge on the music industry, the critics, the opposition, and anyone who doubted him or the relevance of the Grime genre. There’s going to be more exciting developments, more records broken, and more greatness to follow. Skepta says in our interview “I just ran through that finish line, drop on the floor and drink the water”, we may be nearing the closure of the ‘Konnichiwa’ chapter, but this is the start of a new book titled ‘Boy Better Know Worldwide’. It’s a new industry, a new energy, a new focus.
