Skepta
To celebrate the release of his debut film, Tribal Mark, our Editor-in-Chief Francesco Loy Bell sat down with Skepta and producer Adam Strawford to discuss the rapper’s first foray into cinema.
Of all the places I imagined I might meet Skepta, a sweltering room in the Sheraton hotel, deep in the heart of Austin, Texas’s financial district, was not on the bingo card. The rapper’s story and inevitable rise over the last two decades or so is practically canonical for anyone growing up in London at the time. From the early days Boy Better Know and projects like Microphone Champion, all the way through to Konnichiwa and Ignorance is Bliss, Skepta is royalty in the city and beyond, a bona fide international star in the worlds of music and fashion. The once-DJ from Tottenham’s Meridian Squad has captured the heart of his city, considered almost unofficial family by millions who live there, his music providing a soundtrack to countless shubzes, weddings, Uber journeys and gym sessions; moments of joy, moments of heartbreak, moments of love, moments of celebration.
‘Moments’ is a word that feels right when talking about Skepta. Though this has been a career built on the foundations of talent, patience and hard work, it might be best-categorised as a series of seminal moments, different points that have truly entrenched themselves in London and beyond, the kind of moments that you remember exactly where you were when they happened. Clashing with Devilman in 2006 for Lord of the Mics II, before refuelling the beef with ‘Nasty’ over a decade later. Bringing grime to New York with his brother Jamie (JME) the same year. The Risky Roadz freestyle with Wiley, Wretch 32 and Ghetto (now Ghetts.) Hopping on the Rhythm 'N' Gash instrumental with Jammer for ‘I Spy’ in ’07. That Westwood freestyle in ’08. BBK’s SBTV 100 million views freestyle in 2012. Ace Hood Flow. Winning the MOBO award for Best Music Video for the That’s Not Me video which cost him £80 to make. Shutting down a Shoreditch carpark with a surprise concert in 2015. Getting the young faces of British rap on stage with Kanye West at the Brits. Winning a Mercury Prize, the first grime album to do so since Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in da Corner 13 years earlier. Bringing out Drake at Wireless. Having a child, and talking openly about fatherhood and family in Ignorance is Bliss. The fact that I feel like I am having to leave out a bunch of others here speaks for itself; this is a man whose art has not only touched millions, but woven itself into the fabric of their lives, typifying not only a whole city, but a whole generation of rap listeners.
If Skepta’s is a career defined by pioneering cultural moments, Tribal Mark, his new short film, is the latest on the list. Having quietly started his own production company, 1PLUS1 Productions, in 2021, Tribal Mark is the artist’s first foray into direction, helming the project alongside cousin-turned-collaborator Dwight Okechukwu, director Hector Dockrill and producer Adam Strawford. The film is an unblinking portrayal of London life, underpinned by themes of belonging, displacement, and mental health. It follows Mark, a Nigerian teen adapting to London life, taking the viewer on an unadulterated day-in-the-life-style journey that results in disturbingly familiar scenes of police brutality and violence. Uniquely, the film examines Mark’s story through the lens of his early childhood in Nigeria, flitting between the two worlds and times to draw parallels between the sense of displacement felt by Mark upon leaving his country of origin, and his adolescent life now. Scored in part by Skepta’s music (the instrumental of Nasty is deployed menacingly throughout), the film feels at once hyper-local and also strangely detached, channeling a sort of observational narrative voice that almost makes you feel like you are watching someone’s real life, in the same manner that Larry Clarke achieved with New York’s skater community in his mid-90s masterpiece, Kids. Simultaneously though, the film embraces a woozy sense of fantasy at points, the hint of magical realism imbued throughout resulting in a beautiful mish-mash of styles and feelings, leaving us disconcerted and curious, yearning to know more.
Though, as the film makes explicit at the start, this is not a Skepta biopic, it’s easy to see how the artist’s own experience growing up in London helped inform the story, and the lead performance by relatively-unknown actor Jude Carmichael masterfully carries the emotional weight of the narrative. Skepta himself portrays who we discover to be the seasoned Mark, his Tribal Mark alter ego, ominously sitting at a table in front of a gun, a character that will be expanded upon when the Tribal Mark universe is extended, as is the plan.
Watching Tribal Mark again later that night, at an open air SXSW screening in the midst of the fading heat of the Texan sun, I again felt the sense that this was a moment in time, and considered what it must have been like to see a teenage Skepta hopping on the mic at a north London rave in the early naughties, fresh from being a DJ but fuelled with a self-belief and determination that he could, and would, excel in this new field. The assuredness with which he speaks to me about the project is a clear sign that the creative fire that drove him as a young artist is burning as brightly today as it did in Tottenham in 2005. Aware of his relative newness in the world of film, he carries a humility and curiosity not many in his position would possess, the fruits of this openness clear to see in the masterful 24-minutes playing on the screen.
The film’s a real triumph man, it’s beautiful.
SKEPTA: Thank you very much, man.
I guess the first thing I just wanted to ask you is whether the world of film always been somewhere it’s naturally felt you wanted to go. Obviously you’ve had some pretty major music video moments; what made you be like ‘I want to make a movie’?
SKEPTA: I think it’s been the same as with the music, innit. I always heard music or I heard certain songs, and it made me feel like ‘oh yeah, I want to rap one day’, you know what I mean? And I feel the same with cinema. I’ve always watched films and thought, ‘yeah man’, or they’ll be talking and I’ll say the next line before they say it and shit. I’ve always felt that one day I could do it too. And do it at a high level.
You say you’ll be watching films and it will kind of come to you. What were some of the films, directors, actors, that kind of pushed your interest of cinema throughout your life and childhood I guess?
SKEPTA: Um, Oliver Stone…I think Gaspar Noé is probably my favourite though.
Favourite film of his?
SKEPTA: Whew, rah. Oooooh…
It’s hard.
SKEPTA: Yeah, that’s a difficult one bro. Enter the Void I think.
Solid choice. So what made you be like, ‘now’s the time, I’m going to do it this year’? Did it have to just feel right?
SKEPTA: Yeah, a combination of tings, a culmination of different tings, but it just happened at the right time. I don’t think there is any other explanation to it.
Was it always a short in your head?
SKEPTA: Nah, it started off as a series, then went to a feature film, then went to a short.
How did the casting of Jude come about?
ADAM: Skep posted on Instagram, looking for someone to play a younger him. Obviously then a lot of people thought it was like a biopic, which obviously it’s not, but then Jude just…from the first tapes, he was just great.
What was it about Jude that like felt right to portray the character? Obviously he’s quite a new actor.
SKEPTA: Um…he kind of looked like me [laughs]. Nah but he actually did kind of look like me, so obviously I’m engaged straight away; I’m like ‘rah who the fuck is this guy?’.
ADAM: He just ticked that box really really well and then he was so easy to work with. I know he came from GoHub which is kind of like an acting facility class, and I know all of the guys there, so I knew that for sure it he would be a well trained actor, even through he maybe hasn’t done a lot. And he was. That scene he’s thrown to the ground, that was in during Hurricane Kieran I think it was called, I don’t know if you remember Hurricane Kieran -
Yeah, oh my God.
ADAM: So we just happened to be shooting that scene on that day, and obviously, for him to keep doing it and being thrown on the floor…he was great.
As you mentioned, although the film obviously starts by saying, ‘this is not a Skepta biopic’, there are obviously some autobiographical elements within it. Was it quite freeing, considering so much of your art and career has been about yourself, to make a piece of art that is a fictional narrative?
SKEPTA: Yeah, for sure. Going back to your question, ‘why now?’; I feel like I have spoken about myself for a long time. I’ve spoken about myself to a point where I can have hindsight about my life, you know? Stuff that I’ve said, stuff that I’ve done, that has led me to different things – I can see the coordinates now, innit. So now, it’s like, okay, it would be great to write a story – but it just wasn’t about me.
Mental health, and mental health among men especially, is a topic that has been talked about a lot over the last few years, but this is quite an unique exploration of mental health in immigrant communities, and I think it’s something that a lot of people watching will resonate with. What was it that prompted you to talk about mental health in this way specifically?
SKEPTA: Again, hindsight innit. Even looking at old videos of me freestyling when I was younger, I’m looking and I’m like, me now? I wouldn’t wanna know that person, like, 22/23 year old Skepta. I would probably like his music and stuff [laughs], but I wouldn’t want to be around him, not me now. You know what I mean? So it’s about understanding now, like, why I was like that and what that was, what that pain and passion I was screaming into the microphone was all about. You know? Yeah, it’s all about that for me.
ADAM: For somebody being displaced for whatever reason, that acclimatisation to a new place is always gonna be hard, and it’s always going to take time to adjust mentally as well. I think within our community, among people of colour, mental health isn’t always explored and talked about, and it’s kind of pushed under the rug sometimes. Hopefully this will encourage people to open up a little bit more and start the conversation.
One hundred percent. I read that it was not only a 90% minority ethnic cast, but there strong representation within the crew as well. We talk a lot about representation in front of the camera, but representation behind the camera is just as if not more important to properly shift things. How did it feel for you as a producer, working on a project like this?
ADAM: I think that was the main thing from my side. Obviously the story was already written, and there was nothing from my said being like, ‘we should make this character this’ etc. It was just who they were, and that’s the story, if that makes sense. But then, behind the camera…it’s usually impossible. Like, I go to so many functions and it’s just me. So we just thought, with our team anyway, we wanted to make sure the key people working on it were people who were going to properly get the story, and understand it. With a lot of actors who were new to a set, there are certain people who just make them feel more comfortable when they see them behind the camera. It just makes them feel more at home, and able to give a better performance. Even down to the wardrobe, and what certain people are wearing, or when we set up a Nigerian house for example – it made you feel safe knowing that everyone understood, and we didn’t have to waste any time having that conversation.
You can see that trust and comfort massively in the film and how authentically the characters are portrayed. Skep, I heard that the animated bit of the film, when they are running away from the party, was your idea, and that you put it in after. Can you talk a bit about that animated section, cause I really loved it watching the film and it was kind of surprising, but it worked.
SKEPTA: There was another film that I was watching, and that there was a scene – I think they were like running through a prison, or they were escaping a prison. And when they were running through the prison, it turns into an animation…
You mean Natural Born Killers?
SKEPTA: Yeah exactly. I always loved it cause I just thought it was it was a different way of showing how they see it; as to what is happening in real life, as to what is seen in your head…as well as all the other stuff we did in the movie, that was definitely one.
What do you hope people take from the film?
SKEPTA: I think that story is a universal story. Obviously people are going to have their own different experiences, but the nuances are all the same innit. I just think, as a story, it’s important. And I’m happy to be able to tell it. I wanna say that. I’m grateful.
And is there a plan to push it into being a feature or a series in the future?
SKEPTA: I would love it to be a feature. I wish we were sitting here talking about the feature to be honest
Maybe in five years.
Nah don’t say five years man! You’ll make me cry [laughs]
One year! You need at least a year to shoot it right?! Nah but well done guys, it’s incredible. Thank you for your time.
SKEPTA: Thank you, man.
ADAM: Thank you.
Skepta headlined British Music Embassy at UK House for the US premiere Tribal Mark, hosted by the Department for Business and Trade
Words: Francesco Loy Bell
Photography: Harry Moore