Konnichiwa
On Skepta's long-awaited new album, the grime pioneer is full of sneering contempt for popular culture’s industry of image, the press, the police, and the government at large.
Konnichiwa is 33-year-old Skepta's fourth studio album, but his most vital yet as he capitalises on grime's newfound popularity to create the genre's defining statement
Also Family Atlantica - Cosmic Unity, Foy Vance - The Wild Swan, and Olga Scheps - Satie
Though the current, dominant trend for album rollouts is to have them fall from the sky without warning, Skepta's Konnichiwa has been years...
First Drake co-signed Skepta and his Boy Better Know crew - as well as admitting to being a fan of the grime-inspired TV series Top Boy - then Kanye West brought out half of the grime scene at his Brit Awards performance of ‘All Day’, and more recently Chris Brown teamed up with Section Boyz for the track ‘Whippin’, taken from his new mixtape Before the Trap: Nights in Tarzana.
The architect of grime’s resurgence might have an eye on the US market, but he’s a distinctively, winningly English rapper<br>
From north London to the world in two very different styles. CD review by Joe Muggs