It’s a remarkable sight to see a rap artist thrive for years on end, solely in the independent circuit.
Factor in the notion that Skeme operates under a quasi-gangsta rapper, full-time reality rapper guise and he’s damn near eligible for a new category in the Grammys.
Inglewood’s finest is enjoying the release of his new album Ingleworld 3 (in stores today) and we recently caught up with The Duke to get a better understanding of his movement.
Hip-Hop Wired: The last time we did this, your son had just been born. How has fatherhood molded your experiences and what you convey in your music?
Skeme: Man! It has given me every reason to go way than I have ever done and to actually take my sh*t to a professional level and be worried how to make my money doing this and compete with every and anybody who is doing music. That’s where I’m at right now. Thank God for my son right now.
Hip-Hop Wired: For someone who is on their independent grind, Inglewood 3 is very polished effort. You have joints on this record. What do you plan on doing differently this time around to avoid being slept on?
Skeme: Nothing crazy, you know? I am a lot more active in the streets and having fun being an artist at the moment so I’m just devoted to being a part of the culture. Right now, we’re about making people pay attention to the artist before they pay attention to the music.
Hip-Hop Wired: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
Skeme: A joint that kind of touched my heart is that “We Against the World” joint. That’s one of the ones I really had fun making. In a few weeks, we’ll probably shoot a video for the “36 OZ” remix with me and Chris [Brown] as well as the one featuring Cire and Shon Doe called “All I Know.” We having fun now.
Hip-Hop Wired: We heard you on The Game’s street single, “My Flag” but I see this isn’t Blood Money release. You’re really stepping out on that independent limb, huh?
Skeme: Oh yeah, shout out to Chuck! I’ve been that way for a long time now. I don’t wait on anybody to put out nothing of mine. We never need too much help to do any of this stuff. That’s why we have always been cool with the bigger name cats who you see end up on my projects. I’m very self-contained.
Hip-Hop Wired: And we’re on Ingleworld 3 now. You have been representing your city for the entire grind. How do you feel about your city’s current state as far as financial situation and what not?
Skeme: You know, we in a revival state. I’m happy that we have The Forum is back booming again. And I’m also happy that we are able to be who we are. A lot of kids play sports; football, basketball and ball in the city and I’m very active with every sport factor of my city. Whether it’s supplying jerseys or shoes, you name it. So I definitely want the people to know we are getting more organizations to strengthen Inglewood. We sometimes get a bad rap behind everything just because of my name and everything I was doing before I was rapping and you have people trying to turn a blind eye to all the positive sh*t you’re doing. It’s kind of f*cked up but I’m happy to be there for the kids because damn near everybody in my team is from Inglewood so it’s nothing but love.
Stream Skeme’s Ingleworld 3 below and purchase it on iTunes.
