Shout out Nev & The Cut for inviting us along for a sit down and chat with UK Hip Hop Legend, Godfather, Skinnyman.
We had the pleasure of hearing about his unique and influencial career and the many lessons learned along the way.
We had the pleasure of hearing about his unique and influencial career and the many lessons learned along the way.
So, how far do you and Nev go back?
“You’re trying to make me cry already init! I’m gonna get all emotonal and nostalgic.”
“How long have I known Nev? 11, 12 years old? Now I’m 49. Yeah.”
How would you say your music speaks to your community?
“I think I was in a very dark place with the blinkers on when I wrote the material of my album, merely reflecting on my immediate society, my immediate friends, my immediate community and what I saw firsthand through my own experiences.”
“I could only be honest from my heart in saying, in how I saw it to be, I believed that my album will be a mix tape for the kids on my estate and never reach further than that.”
“So my album was never made to go any further than burning a couple of copies for the kids that live on my estate.”
“Over many years it's been a privilege of mine to be able to put on free events to create a platform for young aspiring talent at a grassroots level to have a platform to perform on.”
“What that created was the two people living in the same block, the guy on the 10th floor has been a producer for the last 10 years. The guy on the second floor has been a rapper for the last 10 years. They didn't even know that they shared the same musical interest until they came to my show.”
“So it helped enable and connect people within the community to aspire and link up. So I was almost in a position to be the needle that weaves the fabrics of my community and society together. *laughs* Can I say that?!”
How did you respond to the initial success of your music and to being in the limelight?
“At the time of the success of my album I was incarcerated. So when I came out, it was carnival and there was more people than I knew could recognize me, were recognizing me... and I had to ask them, so how do you know me? I found out that Channel U had been pushing my single.”
“So it opened my horizons to the fact of the issues that I was addressing are not directly the immediate demographic issues that I'm suffering, but they are a wider national demographic epidemic.”
The influence of your music had spread wide across the UK at the time, why do you think Hip Hop was able to infiltrate the minds of so many young people?
“New York was very influential on the culture in America, and I think we can reflect and say same could be said about London being the reflection of the rest of the counties and cities of the UK.”
“Because we're in the capital, things are happening here. The pirate radio stations are here, the engineers here, you know, if you're from out of town, you don't have that at your disposal.”
“Now we have a flourishing national scene because we have the internet. We also have the exposure that comes with credible artists now also being from outside of London.”
What can you say about music’s influence on society and its capacity to influence future change?
“Like
I say, it could be a beautiful thing, being
influential on so many people across the nation where they're wanting to follow
the trends that are being set coming from the capital city of their country. But on the other hand, then there's also the implications of the
dangers being a child who lives in between Wood Green and Tottenham.” “So now you've got kids that live out in a nice area, in a nice suburbs and they're listening to all of the urban music that's charting and the stories that they're telling from their reality and it's being put to them in a way that's being glamorized.”
“How far
are we willing to go to take a stand in giving up what we're comfortable about
to really make a change for betterment in society? And so the real revolution
would take the synchronization of everyone.”
“If Gil Scott Heron says, the revolution happens in the mind, then when you realize something's wrong, that's the start of the revolution.”
“If Gil Scott Heron says, the revolution happens in the mind, then when you realize something's wrong, that's the start of the revolution.”
“I said it was a dream for me to see UK hip hop come to this point. It would be
beyond my wildest imagination of a dream to ever see the revolution happen in
my lifetime - but I'm not ruling it out. I'm still striving to educate people towards
what should motivate them to bring about the revolution.”
“Even if my words are lost on deaf ears in my generation, maybe our grandchildren might hear the words on our records and feel motivated by that.”
“Even if my words are lost on deaf ears in my generation, maybe our grandchildren might hear the words on our records and feel motivated by that.”
