Key Takeaways
- Skepta will release his sixth studio album, The Fork and Knife, on November 6 via Big Smoke/Epic Records after a seven-year gap between solo full-lengths.
- The UK rapper said he "poured [his] fucking heart out" while balancing conscious themes with high-energy music and confronting identity, immigration and patriarchy.
- The album draws on Skepta's Nigerian-British identity, Windrush history and modern London, with Chase & Status and Suggs joining him on lead single "Innocent Smile."
Skepta has announced the release date for his long-awaited sixth studio album, The Fork and Knife — and he's very grateful for the patience shown by fans.
On Thursday (October 1), the UK rapper took to Instagram to share that the album will arrive November 6 via Big Smoke/Epic Records. The news also came alongside a lengthy and very heartfelt message.
"Feels surreal even writing this," he began the post. "I poured my fucking heart out on this album, it’s been a task making something conscious but still turnt up."
He went on: "I've grown up on YouTube and ultimately in front of you all and I believe the fact you’ve supported me for so long, I really do owe you honesty, I owe it to you to dig deeper, put my childish ego to the side and look inward to find some liberation that can help all of us. I can’t wait for you to hear it 🥹."
He also opened up about the reason for the delay and why he felt like he needed the seven-year break between this and his last solo full-length album, 2019's Ignorance Is Bliss.
"For a long time I have felt like art is slowly losing its meaning and artists are slowly losing the will to keep creating," he explained. "The silencing, the excessive meaningless content, dancing for the algorithm etc.. I haven’t been ready to go."
He continued: "This album taking so long has meant it has many different emotions on it, starting out as a simple London story, then travelling deeper into the story about being an Immigrant child, then during the finishing stages I’ve been reading about the patriarchal system that a lot of us unknowingly sign up to as kids and thought that I could lend my voice to help drag even if it’s just a few of my supporters out of the bottomless pit of patriarchy."
According to a press release accompanying the news, "identity runs through the heart of the album." On it Skepta explores "what it means to be British, the son of Nigerian immigrants, and to exist between cultures. Rather than viewing diaspora through a lens of struggle, The Fork and Knife embraces it as a source of strength, a superpower that has informed Skepta’s resilience, work ethic and creative instinct."
The press release added that the "visual world of The Fork and Knife draws on 1980s Nigerian-British imagery, football culture and documentary realism, connecting the history of the Windrush generation with the energy and reality of modern London."
Earlier this month, Skepta released the first single from the album, "Innocent Smile," a track featuring Chase & Status and Suggs.
While The Fork and Knife might be Skepta's first full-length in seven years, he's not been totally quiet on the music front. In 2020, he released the 2020 EP ALL IN, and then in 2023 he released 48 Hours, a five-track project with producer Ryder.
