Interviewed By: Jameelah Wilkerson
Written By: Gregory Brown
Jameelah: “Alright, well first off tell our readers where you’re from.”
Skrilla: ”I am from London , UK , England . From the Northwest a little town called Harlesden, I am very popular on this side of the world because of the violence and the crazy stuff that happens; but the little town called Harlesden is at the tip of London.”
Jameelah: “How did you get involved into music?”
Skrilla: “Well….. Music from Bob Marley to Barry White to Luther Vandross, I was always around music. My mom loved music. My brothers are all talented in the music, my cousins are all talented, my brother
is actually in Jamaica right now shooting a video, but he chose to go into the reggae side of things, originally I am Jamaican by the way. I went into the hip-hop side of things; they used to call be biggie smalls back in the city too. So you know, I came up with the talent, picked it up, mastered it and became the best rapper from the UK .”
Jameelah: “How would you describe your music?”
Skrilla: “I would describe my music as poetic, authentic, original, and positive. In all my songs I try to have a message, a positive message so if you listen, my music is like a song within it self.”
Jameelah: “What are you working on right now?”Skrilla: “Right now I’ve got my video shoot coming up in two weeks, we got the track “Back to the Money”, based on the film called “Back to the Future”, it’s gonna be great. That’s how it goes, we’re trying to get on the next Hot97 show in Manhattan, Who’s Next Online that should be for the 11th of Dec., its going to be a big week for us because we just started advertising our website, Global promotions and advertising in a couple of big radio stations in England which are very popular. We are trying to work with Asia right now and African communities, and right now we’re just trying to advertise www.nafskrilla.com, the best rapper from UK. You can download the mix tape, twenty-eight tracks, downloadable for free. The samples are free but you will comeback for more.”
Jameelah: “I heard that. When will your album drop?”
Skrilla: “My album is looking to drop late next year, ending of summer.”Jameelah: “How is the UK music scene different from the music scene in the US? You’ve been over in the states, what are the noticeable differences?”Skrilla: “Well in the UK, because black people are only like two percent of the whole population of England, in the UK you can see investors are very slow and do not invest their money into the music scene over here. Major music over here is like, funky house, rock, punk and like Indy music. Hip-hop Music can’t really come up in London because there aren’t enough customers out here to support the movement, but if you come from here and go to America, then we will find more competitions/ opportunities in the hip-hop scene.”
Jameelah: “What inspired you to do your music?”
Skrilla: “I got my inspiration from a whole load of other artists, legendary artists like Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra. I listen to a wide range of music. I got my inspiration from the old school to the mix school to new school, and it inspired me. I write songs to be very musical instead of being just creative. I love music, right now I am listening to some records in the background (Temptations – Al Green – The Whispers – Isley Brothers) and the beats are very up tempo….”
Jameelah: “Naf Skrilla….Is that’s your real name?”
Skrilla: “My real name? No, my real name is Nathaniel, an African Name.”
Jameelah: “How did you get that name Naf Skrilla?”
Skrilla:”Well my name is Nathaniel. They cut that short and they made it Naf. Then because I was so young and I was always paid, when I was moving on coming from a broken home, I always had the best of things. I was at my friend’s and my friend came up to me one day, they are older than me and said, “You know you should have the name Skrilla because you always seem to got Skrilla.”
Jameelah:” I hear you’re involved in allocating children’s interest in the arts?”
Skrilla: “Yea, I got my little crew out here called the Skrilla Kids. We’re like the Skrilla kids, my crew are true artists, hip hop, singers, actors, dancers, DJs, MCs, and my crew Skrilla Kids, are like my children.”
Jameelah: “What are your plans for the future, what should we look for?”
Skrilla: “I would say just look for the takeover. Right now we are looking to produce the best hip hop music figure that has ever come from England, and I’m gonna shock the whole world because the world doesn’t really understand what’s happening in England. They think that we see the queen everyday and we get those cups of tea. They don’t understand there’s projects out here. It’s high rise buildings, just like in Queens and Brooklyn, and there’s a whole scene that has been forgotten about, never heard of. It’s so much talent out here, and I am going to try to be the first to take the talent to the world, and let them know. Deep in London black folks are trying to take over right now and they have to look out for them because they are on some big movements. That’s what it is, we have to let the world know our sufferation that’s happening over here, because right now, over here racism is still very strong, you feel me? Its still very strong, you could wind up getting yourself hurt severely by white boys and vice a versa. There’s places where the white boys can’t come in because its still a very strong happening over here but its not publicized at all, they hold it down, they cover it up, they don’t let it reach the tabloids. It’s a very concealed thing but we try to look past that and make it better now. Were trying to make careers grow, trying to introduce the world to a new generation, cause what America’s gone thru with all that, the Black Panther movement, we are just about going thru it now over here. Right now they just released a law that’s over here, that the police can stop and search anybody at any given time with no reason at all and that rule, that law is directly for young black men. So we are just trying to let the world know about our struggle over here, there’s struggle over here trust me.”
Jameelah: “Is there anything else that you want to add to this point, anything else you want to say to our readers?”
Skrilla: “Well, there’s a lot more Id loves to say. Ids like to make the world know the way society is running out here in UK. Does America know about how the black fellows are living out herein the UK? No……….and that’s exactly what we want to do, thru my music I want to be just like Bob Marley and 2 Pac who told u their stories. We are gonna tell our story and its gonna be very entertaining, because we are going to rap now. I think America done gone thru and worked and build up something, now black people are well established over there in America but over here, we aren’t established at all, there’s probably couple black millionaires over here but not in music and that needs to change. Just like Barack Obama is saying ‘Change is coming”.
Written By: Gregory Brown
Jameelah: “Alright, well first off tell our readers where you’re from.”
Skrilla: ”I am from London , UK , England . From the Northwest a little town called Harlesden, I am very popular on this side of the world because of the violence and the crazy stuff that happens; but the little town called Harlesden is at the tip of London.”
Jameelah: “How did you get involved into music?”
Skrilla: “Well….. Music from Bob Marley to Barry White to Luther Vandross, I was always around music. My mom loved music. My brothers are all talented in the music, my cousins are all talented, my brother
is actually in Jamaica right now shooting a video, but he chose to go into the reggae side of things, originally I am Jamaican by the way. I went into the hip-hop side of things; they used to call be biggie smalls back in the city too. So you know, I came up with the talent, picked it up, mastered it and became the best rapper from the UK .”
Jameelah: “How would you describe your music?”
Skrilla: “I would describe my music as poetic, authentic, original, and positive. In all my songs I try to have a message, a positive message so if you listen, my music is like a song within it self.”
Jameelah: “What are you working on right now?”Skrilla: “Right now I’ve got my video shoot coming up in two weeks, we got the track “Back to the Money”, based on the film called “Back to the Future”, it’s gonna be great. That’s how it goes, we’re trying to get on the next Hot97 show in Manhattan, Who’s Next Online that should be for the 11th of Dec., its going to be a big week for us because we just started advertising our website, Global promotions and advertising in a couple of big radio stations in England which are very popular. We are trying to work with Asia right now and African communities, and right now we’re just trying to advertise www.nafskrilla.com, the best rapper from UK. You can download the mix tape, twenty-eight tracks, downloadable for free. The samples are free but you will comeback for more.”
Jameelah: “I heard that. When will your album drop?”
Skrilla: “My album is looking to drop late next year, ending of summer.”Jameelah: “How is the UK music scene different from the music scene in the US? You’ve been over in the states, what are the noticeable differences?”Skrilla: “Well in the UK, because black people are only like two percent of the whole population of England, in the UK you can see investors are very slow and do not invest their money into the music scene over here. Major music over here is like, funky house, rock, punk and like Indy music. Hip-hop Music can’t really come up in London because there aren’t enough customers out here to support the movement, but if you come from here and go to America, then we will find more competitions/ opportunities in the hip-hop scene.”
Jameelah: “What inspired you to do your music?”
Skrilla: “I got my inspiration from a whole load of other artists, legendary artists like Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra. I listen to a wide range of music. I got my inspiration from the old school to the mix school to new school, and it inspired me. I write songs to be very musical instead of being just creative. I love music, right now I am listening to some records in the background (Temptations – Al Green – The Whispers – Isley Brothers) and the beats are very up tempo….”
Jameelah: “Naf Skrilla….Is that’s your real name?”
Skrilla: “My real name? No, my real name is Nathaniel, an African Name.”
Jameelah: “How did you get that name Naf Skrilla?”
Skrilla:”Well my name is Nathaniel. They cut that short and they made it Naf. Then because I was so young and I was always paid, when I was moving on coming from a broken home, I always had the best of things. I was at my friend’s and my friend came up to me one day, they are older than me and said, “You know you should have the name Skrilla because you always seem to got Skrilla.”
Jameelah:” I hear you’re involved in allocating children’s interest in the arts?”
Skrilla: “Yea, I got my little crew out here called the Skrilla Kids. We’re like the Skrilla kids, my crew are true artists, hip hop, singers, actors, dancers, DJs, MCs, and my crew Skrilla Kids, are like my children.”
Jameelah: “What are your plans for the future, what should we look for?”
Skrilla: “I would say just look for the takeover. Right now we are looking to produce the best hip hop music figure that has ever come from England, and I’m gonna shock the whole world because the world doesn’t really understand what’s happening in England. They think that we see the queen everyday and we get those cups of tea. They don’t understand there’s projects out here. It’s high rise buildings, just like in Queens and Brooklyn, and there’s a whole scene that has been forgotten about, never heard of. It’s so much talent out here, and I am going to try to be the first to take the talent to the world, and let them know. Deep in London black folks are trying to take over right now and they have to look out for them because they are on some big movements. That’s what it is, we have to let the world know our sufferation that’s happening over here, because right now, over here racism is still very strong, you feel me? Its still very strong, you could wind up getting yourself hurt severely by white boys and vice a versa. There’s places where the white boys can’t come in because its still a very strong happening over here but its not publicized at all, they hold it down, they cover it up, they don’t let it reach the tabloids. It’s a very concealed thing but we try to look past that and make it better now. Were trying to make careers grow, trying to introduce the world to a new generation, cause what America’s gone thru with all that, the Black Panther movement, we are just about going thru it now over here. Right now they just released a law that’s over here, that the police can stop and search anybody at any given time with no reason at all and that rule, that law is directly for young black men. So we are just trying to let the world know about our struggle over here, there’s struggle over here trust me.”
Jameelah: “Is there anything else that you want to add to this point, anything else you want to say to our readers?”
Skrilla: “Well, there’s a lot more Id loves to say. Ids like to make the world know the way society is running out here in UK. Does America know about how the black fellows are living out herein the UK? No……….and that’s exactly what we want to do, thru my music I want to be just like Bob Marley and 2 Pac who told u their stories. We are gonna tell our story and its gonna be very entertaining, because we are going to rap now. I think America done gone thru and worked and build up something, now black people are well established over there in America but over here, we aren’t established at all, there’s probably couple black millionaires over here but not in music and that needs to change. Just like Barack Obama is saying ‘Change is coming”.
