Inglewood, California rapper Skeme gave insight on the current state of West Coast Hip Hop. In an exclusive conversation with HipHopDX, Skeme touched on the idea of the “Los Angeles Renaissance” as well as his relationship with Top Dawg Entertainment, his humble beginnings in music and his experiences on tour.
“It do feel like a new Renaissance, there’s a lot of new energy,” Skeme says. “New faces, nobody that was around in the old days. These are the same people I been dealing with though so it’s not a Renaissance to me, but I could see why most people say that, because we’re still new to most.”
When asked about the TDE, he reiterated that there is nothing but love for the Los Angeles-based record label. “I did most of my early stuff in their studios” Skeme explains. “The Alive and Living project we did last year, Ali mixed that joint. That’s a family of mine and that ain’t going nowhere. Those are always going to be my folks.”
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During the conversation, Skeme also reflected on how he got his start in Hip Hop. His father had joked about him writing his own lyrics while he was a teenager, and as Skeme says, “He fucked up there. All that doctor shit was out the window.”
Despite being raised in Inglewood, California, Skeme has love for the Southern artists like Cash Money. “I was really big on Juvenile when Cash Money hit,” Skeme says. “That was my thing I would know everything about Juve. I would rap his songs and my dad would always have his CDs.”
Skeme also reminisced on his tour and said he would not drop another album in the Winter due an increase in extreme weather.
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“That’s probably the last album that I drop in the Winter,” he said in reference to his most recent release, Ingleworld. I’m going for the Summer. You’ve got to save the Winter albums for the bigger budget tours. Other than that it was cool to touch people in the cities where they at. Whenever I’m at the venue, whether I’m smoking or drinking lean or whatever, I’m doing it with the people. I’ll stand outside for the next hour and a half with y’all to take pictures, chop it up with you and all that.”
Skeme released 2 albums in 2013 Ingleworld and Bare With Me. He is currently finalizing his next project, Play Dirty, Stay Dirty which features DJ Drama. No release date has been announced, but Skeme released “Look What I Did” featuring T.I. today (June 24).
Listen to “Look What I Did” here.
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