Skepta Talks Drake Connection And Shares A New Freestyle

Skepta stopped by Australia's triple j radio this week for an interview. The MC discussed his passion for music—"every day I wake up I hear beats, I think of lyrics"—and his work with Drake. "When me and Drake first met," Skepta explained, "he was talking about maybe doing something on 'Shutdown.' I just didn't see the necessity of it; I thought there was no point—it was just going to a place where I didn't really want the song to go... I kept listening to [Wizkid's "Ojuelegba"] all the time and [Drake] was like, 'why don't we just do a cover of that?' Just to put it out there, show the allegiance, show that we're working together. But nothing we're trying to make money off... we ain't trying to force nothing."

Skepta also suggested that his bond with Drake stems from the fact that both rapper's come from outside of hip-hop's traditional power centers. Apparently Drake once told him, "I take pride in putting people on that other people don't think should be [on]."

Later in the interview, the host queued up the beat to Kano's 2005 track "P's And Q's"—which Skepta described admiringly as "a classic from a legend"—and the MC let loose a freestyle. Listen below, and revisit his FADER cover story.