07/16/2025
Note to Skepta, Joyner et al.
“Get the toe tags and the body bags in/ Soon as they told me about the power that came with the black skin/ Unlocked it, then I tapped in/ Alchemist, when I feel the pressure, I make diamonds
I cannot stop getting the racks in”
- Skepta’s verse on IC3
You already won my G. Real eyes, realize.
When Lucas came out draped in the Stars & Bars on one side and the Union Jack on the other, with both hands formed into gun fingers pointing at his own temple, the battle was over before it even began.
Symbolically, before he even spit a bar, Joyner Lucas had offed himself.
Joyner, like some rap connoisseurs, just does not understand what they are up against.
African Chief, 'Amuludun of Odo Aje' reigns supreme, and the fight has only just begun.
“Talk about SK, GH? No introduction needed/ The Queen offered me the MBE (Member of British Empire)/ I said no and I raised my fist/ I went home, got my chieftaincy, now I'm back on the strip
Police stop me in the street, they wanna take a pic”
- Skepta’s verse on IC3
Joyner Lucas and others are 21st century versions of 18th century John Tubman, a black man allegedly free in a land of the white man’s milk & honey.
When Harriet risked it all to free him John refused. He was already remarried and comfortable living a limited version of freedom in the United States. He was not considered citizen and existed on the margins of wickedly racist slave society as black or mulatto spectre.
"’I'm not a gentleman, I'm an African man’"/ Is what I said to the priest/ So you know I stay smokin' trees/ And the buds in the zip pack looking obese.
• Skepta verse on Pure Water
Skepta and Joyner Lucas are just not the same. They live in two different worlds, employing two different levels of consciousness.
Made famous for his silly attempt at racial dialogue through his biggest hit, “I’m not a racist,” Lucas infamously exhibited a lack of critical, social awareness. He engaged the ongoing problem of race in the USA by presenting a false equivalence, a Henry Louis Gates’ likened Beer Summit, a silly kumbaya.
“When I was in school, being African was a diss/ Sounds like you need help saying my surname, Miss/ Tried to communicate
But everyday is like another episode of Everybody Hates Chris/
Ever since mum said, "Son you are a king"/ I feel like Floyd when I'm stepping into the ring/ Just spoke to the boy, said he's flying in with a ting”
• Skepta verse on Wizkid’s Ojuelegba remix w. Drake
Really a continuing stain on a purportedly egalitarian United States, Joyner's failure to root his message in histories of African slavery and the racist legacies of white supremacy and privilege which they produced remain his biggest failure. "I'm Not Racist" translates instead as a confused apology for being Black in America.
“I'm a chief in my father's village/ We get money, don't cry over parking tickets/ You talk wicked, you've got the hardest image
My darg with it, I know your heart ain't in it”
• Skepta verse on Frisco & Infamousizak’s Bad & Clean remix
Joyner’s overly simplistic, and ignorant take is mirrored in his approach to this battle. Even worse, signs of its redundancy is reflected in the attitudes of many early battle reviewers who see their lack of awareness of UK rap or grime music as evidence that Skepta has no chance to win this battle and others.
Joyner and others must take note:
“We're touching the road to celebrate another win, we're going in
Why am I repping these ends? Man I don't know/
The government played roulette with my postcode/
All I know is it's where my people dem are suffering/
I seen it before, narrate the story as it unfolds/
Dad certified the settings and my mum knows/
My mind full of more bullets than your gun holds”
• Skepta verse on Wizkid’s Ojuelegba remix w. Drake
