Skepta traces The Fork & Knife to his family's hopes
His maternal grandfather's hopes for a hard-earned family meal helped give the forthcoming album its name.
Skepta performs with Fred again.. at Crystal Palace Bowl on August 10, 2025. Unrelated file photo. Photo by Raph_PH / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0. Raph_PH · CC BY 4.0 · Resized for display.
Skepta is bringing family history into the frame for The Fork & Knife. In a Complex UK cover interview published November 4, he connects the album's title to a hope his maternal grandfather carried: that hard work would let the family eat with a fork and knife.
The measure of success at home
The image makes the title about more than table manners. Skepta discusses British-Nigerian identity, fatherhood and the sacrifices behind his family's path, themes that give the record a personal center before listeners hear it. The interview is Complex UK's debut cover story.
He also tells Complex that he recently bought his parents a home in Lagos, where his family has roots. It is a concrete example of the kind of security the album title gestures toward: success measured by what the next generation can inherit, not only by a career milestone.
Skepta credits his mother with shaping his confidence and revisits how an earlier record deal affected his creative freedom. Those memories place the new album in a longer story about who gets to define his work. Apple Music's U.S. listing schedules The Fork and Knife for November 6 and still labels it a pre-release.
Heat check
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