London, UK · grime

Skepta

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Grime's global ambassador — Konnichiwa-era bars and a DJ's instincts, London energy at any scale, 'Shutdown' still a detonation.

Skepta, born Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr in Tottenham, north London, on 19 September 1982, grew up in Winchmore Hill and attended Winchmore School. He is the eldest of four children born to Nigerian parents, sharing a household with his brother and fellow rapper JME, radio presenter Julie and graphic designer Jason.

He started out as a DJ with the Tottenham collective Meridian Crew, running pirate-radio sets under the name Scoopa Daniels before moving to the microphone. After police confiscated his equipment, Wiley pushed him toward MCing. Skepta and JME passed briefly through Roll Deep before founding Boy Better Know in the mid-2000s, an independent operation the brothers have run ever since.

His delivery is clipped and conversational over stripped-down, high-tempo production. That style carried through his clash with fellow MC Devilman on the Lord of the Mics 2 DVD, remembered as one of grime's defining battles, and through the independently released albums Greatest Hits (2007) and Microphone Champion (2009), before Doin' It Again (2011) reached wider audiences through AATW.

Konnichiwa, released in 2016, won the Mercury Prize and carried the singles "That's Not Me" and "Shutdown." Ignorance Is Bliss followed in 2019, charting in fifteen countries, and Insomnia, made with Chip and Young Adz, gave him a third UK top ten album in 2020. In 2018 he produced and featured on ASAP Rocky's "Praise the Lord (Da Shine)," the biggest hit either artist had had to that point.

Skepta has picked up three Brit Award nominations and appeared on Debrett's 2017 list of the most influential people in Britain. In 2018 he received a Nigerian chieftaincy title, Amuludun of Odo-Aje. He still records and DJs alongside his other work as an artist.

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