Key Takeaways:

• In a brand new GQ function, Skepta confirmed that his first solo album in over six years, Fork & Knife, is ready for 2026.
• He shared how fatherhood and private progress are shaping his artistic route.
• His trend model, MAINS, is now an unbiased design studio, with Skepta main artistic route.

In a brand new function revealed for GQ’s “2025 Men of the Year” issue on Wednesday (Nov. 12), Skepta dismissed the concept anybody nonetheless controls who will get to achieve rap. “Old people always gonna be old people, innit?” the North London star stated. “Old people are still in their heads of like, ‘You ain’t done this,’ but they don’t have to. There ain’t no gatekeepers. Whoever thinks they’re a gatekeeper needs to look again at that gate.”

The 43-year-old artist, who rose to worldwide prominence with 2016’s Konnichiwa, used the interview to mirror on legacy, mentorship and the subsequent era of British expertise. He stated his aim now could be to make issues simpler for rising artists and creators. The Boy Better Know frontman then made it clear that he doesn’t need his baby to repeat his previous struggles. “I don’t want my son to be [anything] like me,” he expressed. “I want my son to be a regular, nice boy. Like, that’s what we’re doing this for.”

Within the identical dialog, Skepta confirmed that his long-awaited solo album, Fork & Knife, is formally on the way in which. The venture — his first solo launch in over six years — is slated for “the first few months of 2026.” Skepta initially announced the forthcoming album in 2024, which, on the time, was titled Knife and Fork. The rapper defined that the title comes from a household saying shared by his mom: “’In this life, we have to work hard, so one day, we’ll eat with fork and knife.’”

Regarding the LP’s subject material, he added, “I wanted the album to be about the immigrant mindset — being in my house, and it smelling this way and looking this way and feeling this way and sounding this way, and then I leave my house and [through] the front door is like going to Narnia; you’re in the U.K.”

Skepta additionally mentioned his rising deal with trend by way of his model MAINS. Originally launched in 2017, MAINS has since turn into an unbiased design studio working out of his Soho workspace. Alongside designer Mikey Pearce, Skepta oversees manufacturing, design and runway exhibits, together with September’s “Eurotrash” assortment at London Fashion Week. “Some of these records I make now, they’re great, but people remember me for the freestyles, when I was wearing the white tee,” he says. “It’s the same thing with fashion — I want to have like, seven, eight years where we’re just doing it because we f**king love it, you know?”