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Molek FMVIDEO: Skepta’s ‘Shutdown’
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Skepta is a grime veteran in gloomy UK, but he doesn’t want ‘grime’ to be just another geography-specific subgenre. “Rather than ‘breaking’ America, I just want British rap to be treated as just another state—Britain is just another place that raps,” he told Fader last year. Now in the midst of a fourth album titled Konnichiwa, whose previous single ‘It Ain’t Safe’ channelled the glorious Fuck-Tha-Police days of NWA, his mission-making statement finally sees fruition — especially with the release of the music video to third single ‘Shutdown’ off the long-player. Directed by FKA Twigs partner in music, Grace LaDoja, the music video features Skepta and his crew decked in the most vibrant colour palette — monochrome — while loitering around a performing arts centre harmlessly, or was he? Skepta might be taking a jab at the aftermath of Kanye West’s performance at the BRIT Awards. Four days prior to the song’s release, Yeezus invited Skepta along with 29 other members of the grime scene to share the stage with him. Due to the lack of censorship (cuss words are inevitable, people), an uproar by the middle-class whites ensued. Hence the inclusion of the skit — “A bunch of young men all dressed in black dancing extremely aggressively on stage, it made me feel so intimidated and it’s just not what I expect to see on prime time TV,” — before the third verse.
Check out the passive-aggressive loitering below:
Skepta’s Konnichiwa is set to be released sometime this year. Follow his antics here.