A Letter To Skepta

Dear Skepta,

How are you? Hope all is well. Anyways, someone posted this video on my wall:

I watched it and I liked it but I thought, “Bro….”

So I have pose this question to you….

Are you that hungry for the bait commercial cash?

I’m not trying to boy you off or anything. I respect you heavily as a artist but negro to negro, I need to break it down that you’re a confused individual…

Wiley is pushing a Bentley, Tinchy is on TV every hour of the week, Dizzee is doing 300,000 units off Tongue & Cheek on his own label and your still living in the ends, catching a munch in Tottenham Green Kebab…does that make you want do these commercial tracks? If so, why do you find the need to still do the road shit? You want road mans and shotters to respect you but then you to appeal to the young 16 year olds as well…Bro, you cant do both…you cant be doing mad road tune like this:

then do some bait pop-electro like this:

you’re alienating one crowd for another, this has a negative impact because your core grime fans are going to think your some bait wannabe pop binman, while you don’t crossover to the mainstream audience properly anyway..

Look at Tinchy, Chipmunk and Dizzee; they are all playing their position because they (and the record label) know the market they are aiming for. Tinchy makes tunes for commercial / commercial teenage audience. He rolls with Sugababes, while Fraiser T Smith produces his music. Chipmunk is marketed strictly to girls in Year 7 who only see blacks on MTV base or on Crimewatch UK. Dizzee has an older fanbase which was naturally derived from the Grime scene, which is now more of a Urban/Mainstream audience but a much wider and older demographic. Chipmunk is signed to Jive, Tinchy is signed to Universal/Island and Diz is putting out his own stuff on his own label, with each having their own success.

Where as for you, I don’t think you even know what your doing…either that or you’re just floating by following other acts. Firstly, for example, Wiley comes out with “Wearing My Rolex” on Warner :

Then you come out with “Rolex Sweep” on Ministry of Sound, trying to catch face :

How are you gonna tell me that was going to work?? Song-writing wise, Wearing My Rolex is a better song Rolex Sweep and therefore would always going to be in the shadows of Rolex Sweep. Label wise, Warner has always had a solid track record with putting out UK Urban Music (The Pure Garage Compilations, Kano, The Streets, Craig David, etc, etc), while Ministry of Sound is more of a Compilations label, UK Urban music they have lackluster results (Soundbwoy Ent, SLK, etc, etc)

You can argue that Wiley and Dizzee is on that mainstream cash too but Wiley is more natural and Dizzee’s mainstream success was a natural progression, where you proper force it with the mainstream stuff…

Secondly, lets say you just focused on the mainstream…the singles you put out don’t do anything at all because you do not have any structure whatsoever..

Even with ‘Bad Boy’, getting Agent X to produce the track and having a catchy hook is not a guarantee that it’s going to get played in Radio 1. Where’s your regional radio Plugger? TV Plugger? National Plugging team? Specialist Plugging team?? PR Officer? Physical Distributor? I bet you that if Chipmunk re-vocaled the track in the exact same way the track would do Top 5 – No Hype! simply because the label is handling it….simple as. You need all of these people on board if you want to get A-List Radio Play. Doing a video for GrimeDaily.com and putting it on iTunes is not gonna make it to top 10…You know it, I know It….

Let me assure you that I’m not some jealous prick or a black version of the industry hater, because he is a prick. I market brands and work with artists visually and strategically everyday so it’s fair for me to have my say, as I know my stuff.

These are my points and I suppose my real questions to you; I would like a reply on why you feel the need to do both road tracks and commercial songs and why you don’t have a proper structure around you….

Regards,

Mr Kenzo.