S.K.I.T.Z BEATZ
“Grime is dead” are the words that have been on the tips of music critics’ pens for the last couple of years. But recently grime has started to gain commercial recognition thanks to the likes of Tinchy Stryder and Wiley, regularly appearing in the charts as well as similar artists getting offered record deals left right and centre.
“Everyone’s chartin at the moment. (record companies) just want to have some sort of hold… I know exactly what they’re tryin to do…” says S.K.I.T.S Beatz, 21 year-old producer living in Leytonstone with a list of grime collaborations longer than Johnny Vegas’ weekly grocery list. He tells me that he has conflicting offers from Universal and Warner for his unfinished album The Concrete Orchestra, none of the tracks they have heard, but thanks to his back catalogue of underground smashes they seem to have every faith in the output he can rustle up.
I went to visit S.K.I.T.Z at his home in Leytonstone where he was resting after a long night remixing a track for newly signed Universal artist Keri Hilson at a recording studio in London Fields. With him is Diz,an MC from Chingford whose album S.K.I.T.Z is producing. When I get there I’m instantly played some if Diz’s tracks, some exclusive tracks from Brazen’s (of Roll Deep fame) album which S.K.I.T.Z is currently finishing off and some tracks that the recently belated Esco recorded on. All of them carry that distinctive S.K.I.T.Z sound: angry yet melodic, violent percussion vs nostalgia-evoking synths. They are all definitely tracks to remember.
Looking around S.K.I.T.Z’s studio beyond the Korg Triton rack, his two Akai samplers and his three very obedient dogs, I see a framed and signed Manchester city football jersey hanging on the wall with his name written in capital letters, which I find strange as he has already mentioned amidst a conversation himself and Diz have about football, that he is a devoted Blackburn Rovers fan. “They’re my mates…” he says, continuing with an anecdote about being out with the Man City squad and not being able to drink champagne as fast as they can pour, and also about keeping them up do date with his latest tracks for them to play in the changing room while they get prepared for a match, saying with an excited gleam in his eye: “Don’t think they didn’t play Battle Riddim (an underground smash produced by S.K.I.T.Z featuring Tempa T) in the changing rooms before a match!”
All of this is a clear sign of his road to success. When S.K.I.T.Z was 16 he was featured in the About to Blow section of RWD magazine while he was studying for his GCSE’s: “I thought it was a prank from a friend when I first got the call but yeah, it was true so it felt good… Before I (was featured in RWD), only established artists were in there so it was an honor, promotion-wise it did help enable me to network with people who may not have already been familiar with my name/face etc so yea it helped…” Around the same time S.K.I.T.Z had a helping hand in giving some production ideas towards Amy Winehouse’s first album. His ideas didn’t surface on the album, but none the less, he still had that opportunity to be involved in the production of one of the biggest selling records of that year.
