SKEPTA

I was working so hard at music and trying to do this whole 'industry' thing and realised that it wasn't for me.

'Konnichiwa' was made because I don't like the industry. I really had to remove myself from it to understand myself.

With the music that I've put out, I realized that putting pressure on an album isn't always the right thing to do for yourself.

I don't watch the news because I understand that I'm like a science lab. Whatever I take in is how I feel.

I'm paranoid of people hating on me.

When I finally got there, to where I thought was the top, I wasn't doing what I was doing in the beginning. I was not happy.

At every stage of my life, I've always wanted to do good for Earth.

The star, the person who's on the mic, always gets seen.

The worst thing that happened to me at a gig was when the microphone wasn't on one time, and for the three lines of the verse with Chipmunk, you couldn't hear me.

I put three productions of my youngest brother Jason on my album, on 'Konnichiwa,' and that made me happy, to be able to do that for him.

Everyone knows their wrong from right, so when people are being racist, they know they're being ignorant.

There are different things to wear in different places, and if you want to fit in and show respect, you can dress to do that, or you can dress to show that you are foreign and not from there. That can work, too.

I think the grime scene is one of the sickest, most diverse scenes ever.

It's not just my music. Not everyone just listens to grime now 'cause of Skepta. They like how we speak. They like the slang. They like how we dress. They listen to the music. It's everything.

To be able to come back to Nigeria and get so much love for my work is my biggest life blessing. I've always hoped to never get lost in translation with me being British-born.

In school, I wasn't like the cool guy who had all the new clothes and had all the girls. I felt like the world saw me as an idiot.

In this music industry, you'll find the differences with artists. You get some people who really love music... and you get people who do this because they want to have money or want to be famous.

Basically, a lot of people have asked to jump on 'Shutdown' remix, I'm not gonna front. But 'cause of quality control, we wanted to make it really big: it's all about spreading the British sound and culture.

Bullying is bullying, man. Even the biggest of the bullies got bullied. And what was happening in school comes from the media, innit? It comes from TV and society.

Pharrell loves music. When I'm with him, it's like I'm working with someone that I've known all my life, and we're both there to make the sickest track we can.

I've realised that there's art in everything we do in London. Suddenly, a photo of two boys sitting on a wall in tracksuits with a dog can go online and be considered a sick photo. That's what we've done to London.

Britain is just a melting pot for every culture. Like a pot for every culture around the world mixed into one. Artists over here understand that more.

It's almost a blessing for a new generation to say somebody like myself went to their school. It helps kids dream, and now they're getting into acting, football, whatever.

I am blessed to have been able to travel the world doing what I do.

Even with the 'Top Boy' series with Ashley Walters... I've been talking like on the creative direction wave with Drake about the series. Making greatness with it. The whole style of what's going on in London, the sound, is real. It's an actual thing that actually happened. So it deserves to be on the telly.