The Glastonbury “surprise set” has proved futile this year – anonymous billings for Lorde, Haim and Lewis Capaldi were leaked long before the gates opened. Yet there manages to be a genuine twist in the lineup: grime legend Skepta, as a last-minute replacement for alt-metal band Deftones, who have been forced to cancel due to illness. Skepta happens to be kicking around because last night, at Glade, he performed a DJ set alongside Mochakk from São Paulo and Carlita from Istanbul – an advertisement of his house-techno project Más Tiempo, launched with Jammer in 2023, with regular slots in Ibiza.
But he’d not required the full force of his production for Glade, so stepping in for a billing just shy of the headline slot on Glastonbury’s second largest stage, Other, is certainly a challenge. On that, of course, Skepta steps up to the plate with incredible energy and conviction, saying “Let’s go!!! No crew, no production but am ready to shut Glastonbury down. Victory lap time. Pre-Big Smoke 2025!” (his multi-genre festival taking place at Crystal Palace Bowl, south London, in August.)
And who better to teleport to the slot than the MC and rapper who always seems to be in a million places at once, revealing numerous side missions, whether that’s heading up a luxury fashion house, auctioning off paintings to Sotheby’s, or getting a chieftaincy in Ogun State, Nigeria? That kind of calling requires someone as frenetic and spontaneous as the microphone champion.
Skepta only gets 30 minutes with the mic, but his performance is so kinetic and zesty and expansive that you feel that it is longer, and wonder what it might have been if he had been called to the stage with real notice (Skepta’s last Glastonbury performance of this kind was on this stage with Boy Better Know in 2017). A siren marks his arrival, and he’s accompanied only by long-term collaborator DJ Maximum. Though he has a forthcoming project, Fork and Knife – which will, among other themes, track his parents’ migration from Nigeria to London – he wisely reaches for the more recognisable bangers, kicking off with recent hit Cops & Robbers, his collaboration with Sammy Virji: “DJ play one for the badman, DJ play one for the ladies.” Dressed in shorts from his own Mains brand, a durag and frameless glasses, he flawlessly rattles through hits old and new: That’s Not Me, Redrum, It Ain’t Safe.
What makes Skepta so remarkable and a cut above other MCs is that clarity in his rapping delivery. His flow is so explosive and complex and his tracks are peppered with memorable lyrics and puns such as: “We don’t talk about beef, by the way, did I mention I just turned vegan?” But what also shines through is the multigenerational appeal Skepta has over 20 years on from his beginnings in the Tottenham-based grime collective Meridian Crew. Archival footage played behind him takes us from his early days of clashing, to his 2008 1Xtra freestyle with his brother JME and videos of him rapping with his crew around the estates of north London. Yet while Skepta is spoken of among his grime peers like Wiley, Frisco, JME and Kano, he is also ranked alongside the younger generation such as Dave and Central Cee. And of course, the acclaim of Mercury prize-winning album Konnichiwa and his collaboration with A$AP Rocky, Praise the Lord, (which takes off well here) helped him to crossover stateside in a way that had been semi-unprecedented for British rappers.
From this set, it is easy to see why Skepta has endured – that crisp, fresh delivery, that unceasing hunger and energy, but also the evolution. Of course he runs the full gamut of his discography, but as he closes he plays the newly released Victory Lap with Fred Again, a sickening 140bpm dubstep track with a modern electronic production and a Doechii sample. It’s indicative of how curious and genre-pushing Skepta is, and shows that his pursuits into other ventures have only complicated his music for the better. No doubt when he’s back again, with more preparation time, he’ll be an even bigger Glastonbury highlight.
