Artist Deconstruction - Skepta

Artist Profile
Name: Joseph Junior Adenuga (Skepta)
Age: 33 (19/9/82)
Place of Birth: Tottenham, North London
First Album: Greatest Hits (2007)
Biggest Hit: Shutdown (2015)
Latest Release: The Tim Westwood Mix (2015)

About

Skepta is considered one of the founding fathers of Grime music. Skepta, his brother JME and fellow Grime artist Wiley are part of the biggest most influential groups in the UK music scene BBK. They created their own record label and named it after their group, this has meant that they have never been signed by one of the major record labels. He has made songs with artists like Chip, Devlin and Young Lord and has introduced the UK music scene to some of it's rising stars such as Lady Leshurr and Krept and Konan.

           

I chose to deconstruct Skepta as an artist as I feel that he embodies many of the conventions and stereotypes that I wish for my own artist to possess. He has a stereotypical upbringing coming from a council estate in an area of London which is considered rough. He is unsigned which is a key part of the Grime genre as it is considered an underground genre which frowns on the mainstream artists and beats. he has an extremely confrontational man which has helped him to establish himself as a 'bad boy' in the music industry. The genre as a whole is considered aggressive with some of its biggest songs called things such as 'Feed'em to the Lions' and 'Soundboi Killa'.

Therefore my artist needs to be represented as aggressive and as having a chip on his shoulder. It is important that he is portrayed in this way in order for him to be seen as part of the genre. The clothing he wears is also extremely important as if he is wearing a shirt and some jeans he will not be stereotypical. If you take Skepta as an example he is often seen sporting a tracksuit and a baseball cap. Although I don't want my artist to be wearing this in his photo shoot I need to take this into consideration when I am picking an outfit for my character.