The Leicester born 18-year-old, Reece Pickett, AKA Skribblez MC, is rising up in the UK hiphop scene and will soon be recognised in many places outside his home city. 

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Although hiphop is now his main focus, he has been open to different genres in the past. He said: “I used to be highly into other genres, first was multiple sub genres in metal and I used to put on hardcore shows and play in bands, I’ve been playing guitar for about 6 years so music has been a part of my life for a while.”

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His love for hiphop came through discovering US and UK artists and rap groups, from the gangsta rap style of Biggie and Wu Tang Clan, to the more relaxed UK groups of Yogocop Records, Blah Records, and Task Force.

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Not only is Picket an artist and producer, but is also the founder of Colours of Youth Records. He said: “Me and my best mate Jack decided that we wanted a platform to put across local talent on, as I produced and made music I wanted to push my own music whilst pushing my friends and building it up as a family not just a label.”

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On the 13th of May this year, he ran his first event night with big hiphop names such as Verb T and Rye Shabby. It was a successful night to showcase artists and DJs from across the UK, alongside launching his and Chapman’s recent EP, ‘A World Full of Pain and Lies’.

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On the EP, he featured Bristol legend and Split Prophets resident, Upfront MC, alongside In The Balance rapper Rye Shabby. Pickett explained how the link up between them happened: “I messaged Upfront on Facebook and sent him some of my previous work and asked if he would be down to work with me and he was down for it.”

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He added: “All you ever have to do is put the work in, show people you are serious and if they like your music they will work with you. The same with Shabby, we started talking and grew to like each other’s personality/concepts and ideas about music so we decided we’d make a few tracks together. You can link up with anyone in the scene, you just got to go for it!”

 

UK hiphop is much more than a genre; it is a community, a culture, and it is always evolving and expanding in productivity and creativity. We asked Pickett on his opinion on the current state of the hiphop scene here in the UK: “I don’t feel as if I have enough experience within the scene to fully comment on the state of it, but from what I have seen so far, like any scene, there is bad and good within it.

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“There are many people within the scene that really care and are pushing themselves to their limits to improve the scene. I believe more people need to push further whether it be with their beats, MCing, DJing, promoting or anything else to produce content and promote everyone’s music as much as possible.”

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It seems that the artists in the scene tend to have similar ideologies and views, he added: “There are loads of artists that I’ve met or heard about that I know are every supportive to other people doing their own thing, there is a strong connection with people in this scene as we all have fairly similar mindsets and all of it is for the love and the enjoyment of music, whilst portraying a positive message or telling a story in an interesting way.

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“The scene isn’t as strong as it could be, but I believe big things will happen in the next few years to give people the recognition they deserve.”

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Boom Bap; the only UK festival showcasing and promoting hiphop from across the UK and elsewhere, had it’s last ever instalment last year. Why did it stop? Pickett told us what he knew: “To be honest, there’s a lot of rumours as to what has happened to Boom Bap Festival. I personally believe that Ivan (the guy who ran Boom Bap, who now runs Trajections) started Boom Bap to bring the scene together, not for the money at all. But I know each Boom Bap was successful for networking, the amazing range of artists and just a general great weekend.”

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Trajections, a one-day festival at Lakota, Bristol, has taken over what was Boom Bap. He told us: “He (Ivan) has now ‘cancelled’ Boom Bap and is now running a one day festival called ‘Trajections’ which I know is gonna cost a lot less for him. As he has built up his name all over the country, more people are going to attend this one day festival meaning that he may even be able to make a profit this time. If he keeps pulling off Trajections over the next few years, I’m sure he will make sure there is another Boom Bap.”

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Across his recent EP with Chapman, you will find pianistic, and some-what dark beats in his songs. Skribblez described where his inspiration for beats comes from: “I am into multiple different genres of music so all my influences range depending on what mood I’m feeling, sometimes I might make a dark hip-hop beat with influences from metal or make a nice chilling jazz influenced beat. It all depends on how i feel at the time or what melody or rhythm I hear in my head, then I put it onto the DAW or play it using my guitar.”

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He continued to say how his lyrics are translated from his head on to the page: “My music is inspired by experiences in my life, or other people’s life. Sometimes my music is just based on different perspectives, debating certain issues from different points of view.

“Usually I tend to write lyrics about how I feel, or just the things that I see around me. Contradicting ideas saying the positives and negatives of situations using different viewpoints and letting people interpret my lyrics in their own way.” 

 

After a successful debut EP launch, I wondered what was in store for Skribblez and Colours of Youth: “ I am currently working towards finishing my next solo EP ‘A Thirst For Knowledge’ which I am extremely excited to be releasing featuring other artists from the label. Chapman is also working on his next solo EP ‘The Manchester’ which I’m also extremely excited for the release.”

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He told me about the new artists they have signed to the label: “We recently signed some new artists: Draeko who is a very close friend of mine bringing a totally new vibe to the scene with influences from trap and hip-hop. Jamie who is an insane lyricist who has had a lot of experience within grime and bassline and is now writing a lot of hip-hop which is super mad, kinda like Ocean Wisdom with the skippy grimey flow. Then there’s Skinz-One from Stratford who owns Fatboy Records who will be releasing his new hip-hop EP through our label very soon. We are planning more gigs and big things are going to happen.”

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‘A World Full of Pain and Lies’ has a very meaningful, and somewhat reflective style to the tracks featured on it. Pickett told us what to expect from his forthcoming EP: “I’m also going to be releasing a lot more songs which people may see as ignorant but I’ve been trying to focus on my wordplay and flow rather than my lyrical content and stories.

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“I’ve already removed 3 songs to release as a single because they don’t fit the enlightening, reflective style that I want it to have. Expect a lot more of my thoughts about the world, about certain theories and just general life. I just like to create music that people can relate to and to help them see the light, and see certain issues in a different way.”

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Pickett has already collaborated with some big names in the UK scene, he told us the other artists he would like to work with one day: “I would honestly love to work with rappers such as Chester P, Fliptrix, Lee Scott, Milkavelli, Trellion, Benaddict and Frankie Stew. I would also love to cola with IAMBDD, Layfullstop and CW Jones. For producers I would love to work with Dirty Dike, Reklews, Leaf Dog, Moriachi, Lamplighter and Badhabitz.”

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“You can find my music on my labels YouTube channel through the link below, you can also follow us on Facebook to keep updated with all of our music and general daily life as a crew.”

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Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxH-EhxsUTIbAQNJUQjGS5g

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/coloursofyouthrecords/?hl=en

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/coyboys/

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Big up Skribblez MC, Chapman, Colours of Youth and everyone one doing their thing!