Music
Your 7-point Guide to Skepta's Konnichiwa
From international link-ups to Chip pep talks, here's an exhaustive guide to the BBK man's ace newie
Skepta
© Press
1. Skepta is thinking internationally
The title is a Japanese greeting – and accordingly, Skepta decided to launch the record with a Boiler Room stream all the way from Toyko, with support from local names like Kohh, a blue-haired trap MC in a Marilyn Manson T-shirt who wasted no time in turning the room into a moshpit. Brilliantly, the title track opens with the swish of a samurai sword and the ring of a struck gong, kung-fu film style.
Elsewhere, there’s link ups with A$AP Mob’s Young Lord and A$AP Nast, not to mention Pharrell, who appears on album highlight Numbers. Man (Gang) even samples Queens Of The Stone Age.
Konnichiwa is all about presenting a united front
Importantly, though, all this never sounds forced. The message is clear: grime is now a UK sound with a global reach.
2. But he’s still talking to the roadmen
For all this, Konnichiwa never sounds watered down. Crime Riddim finds Skepta relating his troubles with the law (“Feds wanna strip a male/I’m not a Chippendale”) while It Ain’t Safe is a trap anthem, done UK style. Then there’s Detox, a BBK-packed banger about intoxication that finds Frisco, Shorty and Jammer talking about their poisons of choice.
Watch the video to Man below.
3. That Drake bromance hasn’t yet been consummated on record
No Skepta on VIEWS. No Drake on Konnichiwa. Looks like we might have to wait for the Section Boyz album?
MORE: 6 times Drake big-upped British street culture
4. Skepta won’t be co-opted by no-one
Much of Konnichiwa is about Skepta doing things on his own terms. “Right now I’m trying to get out the Matrix/Far from the agents,” he raps on Konnichiwa, while Numbers is all about shunning the conventional music industry. “I just wanna talk to the yout/Nah I don’t wanna talk to the press/All these numbers are making me depressed…"
Skepta is doing things on his own terms
5. There’s beef here – but there's also togetherness
Devilman gets called out again and Man (Gang) is directed at some unnamed figure trying to make like they're cousins. But Konnichiwa is all about presenting a united front. He hooks up with Novelist on Lyrics, shouts out Stormzy on the Wiley-featuring Corn On The Cob and turns out a grimy slow jam with D Double E called Ladies Hit Squad.
Skepta is hard as they come, but the tone he strikes here suggests he’s out to unite the grime tribes. The Tracksuit Mafia isn’t a closed society – it’s a gang anyone can join.
MORE: Skepta shuts down Future Underground – in pics
Skepta and crew on road in 2015
© Red Bull Content Pool/Steve Stills
6. Chip gives a good pep talk
At the end of Corn On The Cob, Skepta calls up Chip, seemingly having a rare crisis of confidence. “Mad pressures from every angle… it’s coming like I’m too ambitious to be with the mandem on the road, but I can’t be up there with those people either – it’s like I’m too black to be up there, see what I’m saying fam?” Chip gives him a pep talk: “You’ve got the call from God to do something deeper, bro… it’s not everyone’s phone that gets that bring-bring. Superpowers, man.”
7. And there’s a great grime love song at the end
Text Me Back is all about holding down a long-term relationship with the girl of your dreams when you've got shows to shutdown. "Our love's strong like Mufasa and Simba/Never need to download Tinder…" It's the perfect way to end an album that pushes grime into new territories.
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Check out Sketpa’s live performance at Sole DXB this Saturday here.