Skepta: grime as punk
Skepta argues grime is punk, calling "Shutdown" and "Innocent Smile" "almost the same record." He connects grime to two-tone, featuring Madness's Suggs.
Tracklist
- Shutdown — Skepta
- Innocent Smile (feat. Suggs & Chase & Status) — Skepta
Transcript
Shutdown — Skepta
Why does Skepta hear punk in “Shutdown”? GQ names the North London grime rapper’s track among those that helped bring grime back in the 2010s. Skepta remembers the punk band Slaves remixing it. He says grime itself is punk music—and two-tone, a multiracial genre from the 1970s and ’80s. He even calls “Shutdown” and his later “Innocent Smile” “almost the same record”: both punk, British and concerned with social constructs. Hear Shutdown by Skepta.
Innocent Smile (feat. Suggs & Chase & Status) — Skepta
What does Skepta’s grime-as-punk idea make room for on “Innocent Smile”? He says the track began as piano ska with a half-step beat. Then he added a breakbeat and asked Chase & Status to make what he calls an authentic break. Suggs, singer of the ska and two-tone band Madness, sings on it. Skepta says he brought Suggs in because he rates him, and brushes off people who tell him what isn’t grime. He says he can still be grimy over a breakbeat. After “Shutdown,” does his claim that these are almost the same record hold up for you? Hear Innocent Smile (feat. Suggs & Chase & Status) by Skepta.