In Depth: Skintman
“This is a new thing for us, it's going to be a learning experience for us. You'll just have to wait and see what we come up with. I often say we're inexperienced as fuck, but we're just going to put some sick shit out. Know what I mean?”
“Man got sacked from his job today still,” laughed Skintman, the day after releasing a video for his Strike One single lifted from his self-produced debut album, Fly Spray. The Sheffield based hip-hop artist had been tipped by many to blow in 2020, despite only releasing freestyles up until the previous day this conversation took place. Skintman had already earned respect from established artists across the country, who have assisted his musical progression. After finalising the album set to put Sheffield back on the map, Skintman spoke in depth to reveal his history and exclusive insights into his upcoming release.
Born in Dublin, Skintman moved to Durham as a child, then to Sheffield as a teenager close to a decade ago. “My mum moved here so I just moved with her,” Skintman reminisced, “I was getting into trouble where we were living. I'd say I grew up most in Sheffield, it’s a great city man - it's mad green, there's bare trees and shit. Obviously it's got its dark sides, like every city init. But I consider it my city, my people here are bless. My circle is kind of small. But I know a lot of people got a lot of friends, contacts and shit in Sheffield. There’s a lot of guys who are doing little bits at the minute, it's good to see the scene kind of developing a bit more. Where I grew up in Durham there isn't a lot of anything, except like Wigan Pier happy hardcore and techno. It was just like a council estate, not a lot going on, it was kind of dire. Obviously, love to all my guys from back there still.”
“Because bassline is from Sheffield,” continued Skintman, speaking on how active Sheffield’s hip-hop scene is. “I think that kind of overpowers the whole thing of it. When you go out, you don't really get hip-hop nights. It's more just bassline, etc. Most people that I chat to coming up, other artists and shit. They all tell me, 'You need to get to some contacts from London' and shit, if you want to do anything. See like, I'm not majorly aiming to do anything like, even get noticed that much. I just want to bring some good tunes out.”
Still in the early days of his artistry, Skintman considers his first official track to be the one which dropped the day before this conversation; Strike One. “But I did do one other track with a guy called Hush One,” recalled Skintman, “He's one of my close boys, a producer from Sheffield. He's been doing bits for a long time, but when I look back now I don't really like the track. It's kinda dead, the beats fire but I didn’t come nice with it. It’s called Ice Box. Go check that, you can see the development, init. Oh shit, actually! I did a track with Jack Danz and Sniff as well. Sniff has been my boy for time, he's kinda the guy who brought me into this shit. Because obviously he's from Sheffield, so I met him through some of my pals. I was only young init, but he was impressed with my bars and that, so he kind of introduced me to certain man. Hold tight Danz too he gave me some good pointers on release, ‘cos I don’t know shit.”
Bristol is known for chewing up outsiders then spitting them back out, such is what happened after Skintman messed up his first year at university by “getting wrecked.” However the experience wasn’t a complete wash, as he became tight with artists from a local rap collective called Split Prophets whilst there. “I met Datkid and Bil Next, Bewbonik and that,” said Skintman, “Sniff introduced me to them man, so I was kinda just chilling with them when I was at uni. I was just impressed to see some true barrers.” As well as this, Skintman did also learn a few production tricks from his course whilst there. “I was at uni doing production and shit,” Skintman explained, “I'm proper into making beats. They showed me Cubase at college in Sheffield, I was just like, 'Yes, this is sick, this is me.' I never really took the rapping side seriously, then I started getting sick of both so I just thought fuck it, I'm gonna start doing my thing. I'm not that complex with it, I like cutting audio. Just sampling, basically.”
Although Skintman hasn’t been visibly active over the past year, he has been busy. Since supporting Babylon Dead at a show in Leeds last Summer, once back in Sheffield Skintman began finalising his debut project - patiently perfecting his ideal sound before releasing any content online. “A couple of times in the past I've been close to releasing stuff,” Skintman confessed, “I just held off, I wanted to wait until I knew what my sound was. Because obviously once you put it out, you can't take it back. You'd better make sure it's the best it can be, init.” Rather than seek the assistance of existing music labels, Skintman decided to set up his own. “Sheffield's not got a mad amount of hip-hop going on,” admitted Skintman, “So I set my own thing up, with all my g’s - the collective’s called BLUGA. Most of them are all big graff heads - hold tight TBC, TDT, all them man.. we just decided to make a label, but more like a platform. A little movement, know what I mean? All the gang wants to get involved really so, we're just trying to figure out different avenues that we can go in that's not just music. Eventually we're going to sign some other artists and shit, there's another group of my boys what have got a group called Kollective Minds. They're from Leeds, that's Jordan and his brother Corey aka J.O, SYNERGIST. They dropped an album recently, one of the tracks on it is called Black Suit.”
Outside of Sheffield, Skintman has been collaborating with artists such as Teno, from Shrewsbury. “I just done a feature with him still,” confirmed Skintman, “He's a bless guy man, I rate him. He reached out to me, saying he had a beat and he thinks I'd sound sick on it. I think I only had him on Instagram, I remember seeing his profile before and I was like, 'Yo! This guy.' I said yeah bruv, I'm down. I sent him the track, recorded in about a day.” Another artist who has been in talks with Skintman is London producer Formz, founder of Shadow Player Records. ”I’ve got a few things in the pipeline with Formz at the minute,” continued Skintman, “I don't want to talk too much about that in case it's one of them, you get me. But I've definitely got a few things coming out in other places. Once I've established my collective and that, I'm happy to reach out and work with other labels and shit. But until I've kind of solidified myself, I want to make sure I do that first.”
The creation process for Skintman’s debut album started when he returned from Bristol back to Sheffield, despite a few losses due to damaging his laptop whilst partying with Sniff. “It's kind of a collection,” mused Skintman. “I kind of hit a stage where I started feeling my bars more, then I was like, 'Right now it's time to fucking put some of this shit on some beats.' I waited a long time, I come back from uni in 2017 and I didn't have a laptop because I spilt E&J all over it when I was partying with Sniff. We lost a track and everything, but obviously that was some funny shit G. Obviously I've come back to Sheffield, I stopped making beats for time because I didn't have a laptop. But I just worked through, started writing bars. I was dotting about Sheffield working with different artists, but I couldn't really find... Shouts to everybody I've worked with and shit, but I kind of just ended up going back to the laptop and recording my own shit. I felt like I just wanted to bring my own sound completely, where I've got full control in the studio.”
“I kind of just like that proper gutter shit,” continued Skintman, revealing some of his rhyming influences. “I listen to a lot of Griselda and shit, the UK guys whose styles I like... Stinkin Slumrok's got a mad flow, and Jack Danz gutter style. I like complex bars as well, I like rhymes that are dumb and raw, but also I like dropping things and saying shit that makes you think like, what the fuck? That's either super fucked up or super weird, or just made me think. Know what I mean? I rate them kind of bars, but... I just like proper hard, gritty sounding beats. Shit that's pitched down by like, 50. I'm not really fussed about a tempo either, I can go from 140 grime shit as well.”
In terms of lyrical features, Fly Spray also contains a verse from Skintman’s close friend, Cagey. “We sound hard on a track,” Skintman enthused. “I met him a couple years back when I moved back from Sheffield. We clicked, he's a safe guy. We've had some mad times and that. He features on my album, he's got a proper... It's hard to explain, he's a dark guy in his mind, he says some mad shit. It's a good contrast to my shit I think, I like it.” Aside from a few singles, the album is entirely self-produced. “A good 90% of the album is produced by me,” said Skintman, “But I’m contemplating using some tracks I’ve made with Hush One and one of my boys, Reptar Beatz. I didn't make the album in any particular order, but I am going to make it so you can sit down and listen through it if you want, or you can even put it on shuffle and it's still going to be bangers.” The meaning of the album title itself is in the name, or as Skintman describes, “Just spraying off these flies, these dead rappers.”
Our final question for Skintman: were there any producers he had not met yet, but would like to work with? “Jeez, that's a question fam,” Skintman paused, “That one's hard still. I have to think about that for a quick second you know... Beat Butcha and Illinformed.”
Skintman, thank you for your time.
Words by Evo @ethanevo