Skepta

Joseph Junior Adenuga, better known as Skepta, is an MC and record producer from London credited with taking grime into the charts without compromising on the genre’s rugged sound. Born on September 19, 1982 to Nigerian parents, he grew up on a council estate in Tottenham, with his younger siblings Jme and Julie also finding success in the music industry as an MC/producer and a radio presenter respectively. First cutting his teeth in the scene as a DJ for local crew Meridian, he soon crossed over into rapping and producing, pressing his pioneering instrumental “D.T.I” onto white-label vinyl and cementing his reputation as a lyricist with early appearances on pirate radio. After going head-to-head against Birmingham’s Devilman on the second Lord of the Mics DVD and co-founding the famous collective and label Boy Better Know, he returned with the compilation Greatest Hits in 2007, followed by a debut album entitled Microphone Champion in 2009. Signing to Universal and foraying into the lucrative pop rap industry at the same time as contemporaries like Wiley and Tinchy Stryder, he bagged his first UK Top 40 hits with “Rescue Me” and “Cross My Heart”, both of which appeared on his commercial debut, 2011's Doin’ It Again, before exploring an American-inspired rap sound on the comparatively darker mixtape Blacklisted in 2012. In 2014, Skepta contributed a verse to former crewmate Meridian Dan's sleeper hit “German Whip”, credited with grime’s commercial resurgence, and went on to return to his authentic grime stylings on the platinum-certified chart smashes “That’s Not Me” and “Shutdown” before joining Kanye West onstage at the BRIT Awards and making his acting debut in the drama Anti Social. His fourth album, Konnichiwa, arrived in 2016. Packed with international guests including Pharrell Williams and A$AP Mob, it reached number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and picked up the coveted Mercury Prize. Appeasing fans in 2017 with a brief EP entitled Vicious, he later made a full-fledged comeback after the birth of his daughter in 2019 with the entirely self-produced album Ignorance is Bliss. The following year, he teamed up with fellow North London star Chip and D-Block Europe member Young Adz for a three-way LP entitled Insomnia which peaked at number 3 in the UK. He followed up with the All In EP in 2021, highlighted by collaborations with J Balvin and Kid Cudi, and later released standout singles such as “Can’t Play Myself (A Tribute to Amy)” (2023) and “Gas Me Up (Diligent)” (2024) while curating his own Big Smoke Festival in 2024. Subsequently, he teamed up with Fred again.. for the 2025 collaborative EP Skepta .. Fred, which featured the hit single “Victory Lap” peaking at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.