There are people who take on different objectives and missions in life. When you grow older, there's a a void - and right now, I'm filling a space where a lot of old rock, grime, hip-hop, punk artists left a vacant space.
— Skepta
I was about 18 when I started making music, making beats. My mindset was totally different.
I suppose when I was growing up, it was all about fitting into a box or fitting into a category. You know, looking like I listened to hip-hop, or looking like I listened to grime. You'd see someone and go, 'Oh, look at that person. He's wearing that or that; he listens to punk rock.'
I did drama at school, as a kid, but I ain't been to, like, acting school or anything. I was in a couple of school plays.
If you don't put your crew on your album, you're a snake.
Bullying is bullying, man. Even the biggest of the bullies got bullied. And what was happening in school comes from the media, innit? It comes from TV and society.
When I was a youth, to be called 'African' was a diss. At school, the African kids used to lie and say they were Jamaican. So when I first came in the game, and I'm saying lyrics like, 'I make Nigerians proud of their tribal scars/ My bars make you push up your chest like bras,' that was a big deal for me.
Getting in touch with your life purpose is important.
Pirate radio is like street art.
The thing about awards is that a lot of those moments are about the whole world telling you that you deserve it and rah, rah, rah. I'm very appreciative of that, but I love experiencing stuff by myself. Because it feels different. You know the truth, and you can hear what the voice in your head is saying properly.
I haven't just come up with a hit - I'm not like a one-hit-wonder - I've been here for ages. No one is questioning my ability, so just enjoy the wave, spread the wave.
'Konnichiwa,' to me, is a classic because I don't make music for today where everyone is going to judge what I did in two years; they're gonna tell me today.
I'm not gonna ever announce that I'm going to do an album again. Waking up with that on your head almost doesn't allow you to make the best album you can.
A lot of us who've made grime might be in the chart, but that is because of the country we are in.
You have to understand, that's all I've ever wanted: for London to have a credible musical voice. I will honestly, honestly die happy knowing that I saw it happen.
I think about this every day. I wonder, 'Is today the day where everybody stops lying to themselves and realises that the government is the enemy?'
For a long time, men weren't respecting women. They weren't understanding Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the Motherland, all the motherly stuff. And now we are.
I feel like the Earth is a re-print of a re-print of a print of a re-print.
There would be weeks when I'd just go to Paris on a cheap ticket, sleep on my friend's floor, and just do a show because I knew I was going to do a show. Do it, get home, see it on my timeline, and be happy that I was just working.
I think 'Inception' was a sick idea, but they didn't do it correctly.
I'm from the street, but I'm not a street head. I'm not one of those guys who believe that life is about the street. I'm nerdy at heart, man.
Adele texts me all the time and keeps me in check.
I used to think my accent was blocking me, and I hated it. Then I went to America, and every time someone said, 'What? Can you say that again?' I started liking it.
England is so black and white, so plain, like a burger with nothing on it. No salad, nothing. That's why it's so real.
I'm winning even if I have zero pence in my bank account, because my mind's free.
It's not just my music. Not everyone just listens to grime now 'cause of Skepta. They like how we speak. They like the slang. They like how we dress. They listen to the music. It's everything.
I definitely think that my vibe has rubbed off on Drake a bit.
With the music that I've put out, I realized that putting pressure on an album isn't always the right thing to do for yourself.
Pharrell loves music. When I'm with him, it's like I'm working with someone that I've known all my life, and we're both there to make the sickest track we can.
Becoming a commercial scene? I don't think people in grime would be happy about that.
Every year, I always go abroad with dark music, and I'm going to these places, and I feel like I want a party rep - I want something that everyone is going to go crazy to and enjoy and have a good feeling.
I've realised that there's art in everything we do in London. Suddenly, a photo of two boys sitting on a wall in tracksuits with a dog can go online and be considered a sick photo. That's what we've done to London.
Now, I think you'll find a lot of rappers and artists are getting girl managers. It just makes sense. The guys in my team have learnt a lot from bringing girls in.
Everyone knows their wrong from right, so when people are being racist, they know they're being ignorant.
I was like, 'I can't do grime. That's for kids.' - I was 20 at the time, and I thought I was a gangsta, a proper rude boy.
There are different things to wear in different places, and if you want to fit in and show respect, you can dress to do that, or you can dress to show that you are foreign and not from there. That can work, too.
When I do music videos, I like to do a take, then see how it looks, so I can correct it.
I think some things that are better for me are not good for other people, innit. They need to run theirself. Everybody should run theirself.
I don't watch the news because I understand that I'm like a science lab. Whatever I take in is how I feel.
All my early lyrics were about confidence.
In school, I wasn't like the cool guy who had all the new clothes and had all the girls. I felt like the world saw me as an idiot.
Radio 1 doesn't exist to me. I don't judge my success by anything they say.
Even with the 'Top Boy' series with Ashley Walters... I've been talking like on the creative direction wave with Drake about the series. Making greatness with it. The whole style of what's going on in London, the sound, is real. It's an actual thing that actually happened. So it deserves to be on the telly.
A good diss track needs to have some facts in it and definitely tell some truth.
When I was trying to make songs to go to America, to go to Japan, they'd never work.
In this music industry, you'll find the differences with artists. You get some people who really love music... and you get people who do this because they want to have money or want to be famous.
Britain is just a melting pot for every culture. Like a pot for every culture around the world mixed into one. Artists over here understand that more.
I don't know what I'm going to end up doing, but its definitely in the right direction for freedom and truth.
All the other rappers around me aren't saying anything worthwhile. They're lost in rap: all they do is tell you they're a sick MC and they're better than you. I don't want to look like all these other little punk, dress-up, fake, manufactured artists. I'm not a rapper. I'm an activist.
I am for feminism. I stand up for women standing up for themselves in the same way I stand up for being black.
