CORTEIZ X SKEPTA

PHOTOGRAPHER: SEB GALLEGO
DIRECTOR: DOMSHOTTHIS

"Very few artists can claim an album that represents a cultural reset. Konnichiwa was the culmination of Skepta’s decision to stop chasing the mainstream and make it come to him. After becoming disillusioned with the commercial direction of his music, Blacklisted began a shift that came fully into focus with “That’s Not Me.” Skepta returned to grime’s foundations, making music that he “and the mandem listen to in the whip.” Its £80 Tim & Barry video became a symbol of that creative realisation: proof grime did not need major-label budgets or industry approval to make an impact. Konnichiwa took that independence global. Executive produced and independently released by Skepta, it was unmistakably British: “I want anybody from around the world to be able to listen to the album and know it comes from London.”

While Konnichiwa was taking shape, Skepta was transforming the culture around it in real time. After releasing “Shutdown,” Skepta staged an unauthorised show in Shoreditch that felt less like a conventional gig than a declaration of intent. Grime was beginning to move with the self-sufficiency and disruption of punk, building momentum on its own terms and forcing its way into global spaces that had never made room for it. Skepta approached that expansion like a restart. In the US, he was performing in basketball courts and smaller spaces with the hunger of a newcomer, even as the rest of the world was beginning to catch up with what Britain already knew.

Ten years later, that philosophy finds a natural successor in CORTEIZ. Skepta’s “Tracksuit Mafia” turned everyday sportswear into a uniform and rejected fashion’s traditional gatekeepers: if the establishment would not represent them, they would represent themselves. CORTEIZ carries that same independent instinct forward, building from the UK without compromise and making the world come to it. The CORTEIZ x Skepta collaboration celebrating Konnichiwa connects two generations that made the world pay attention to LUNDUN on their own terms."

Words by DaMetalMessiah