Skepta Talks Long Awaited Album 'Fork & Knife'
Skepta Talks Long Awaited Album & Growing His Clothing Brand As ‘GQ’s’ Man Of The Year
It’s been almost a decade since British rapper Skepta started making some major noise stateside, and in the years since, he’s grown.
Fans have been clamoring for a new album for years, patiently waiting for Fork & Knife, and in a new interview with British GQ’s Men of the Year, he says it should be coming in 2026 and describes the album’s tone as one that vividly brings fans into his world.
“I wanted the album to be about the immigrant mindset – being in my house and it smelling this way and looking this way and feeling this way and sounding this way, and then I leave my house and [through] the front door is like going to Narnia, you’re in the UK.”
He adds that it will be a “liberating album – of immigrant trauma that was transformed into hyperfocus and success.”
Skepta acknowledges how long he’s been out of the studio since 2019’s Ignorance Is Bliss, even telling GQ, “What the f-ck have I been doing for six years?”
But he’s actually been pretty busy managing other parts of his empire that music launched, namely his clothing brand, Mains.
He started the brand in 2017, then went harder in 2022 when he decided he didn’t just want to create a capsule but to truly develop his own fashion imprint.
He tells GQ that building a profitable clothing brand hasn’t been easy, admitting that “fashion money comes in dribs and drabs,” and that he lets his accountant bear that burden while he focuses on the creative side.
“I just leave that to my accountant,” he admits. “I try not to think about money and stuff like that. I know one day I’m gonna ask my accountant to pay for something and she’s gonna be like, ‘There’s no more money.’”
The 43-year-old also looks at Mains as an opportunity to create something of his own, rather than what he did as a kid when he coveted the typical luxury goods like Gucci, which he infamously trashed on “That’s Not Me” because those fashion houses don’t care about them.
“People are stabbing each other, shooting each other, in the name of making money to buy clothes and nice cars and stuff,” he says. “But then we’re not represented in the ads; at the shows, front row, we’re not there. These are big artists who are making big records and buying designer clothes, but we’re not represented.”
With other areas of creativity getting his energy nowadays, he acknowledges that rap is a young man’s game and it won’t be a huge focus for him much longer.
“But I’m a music man, innit? I reckon I’ve got another two tours as Skepta, as excited, energetic Skepta, until I pull some sort of ligament.”
