Skepta Ends Seven-Year Wait With 'The Fork and Knife'

Skepta has ended the longest wait of his career. The Fork and Knife, his first solo album in seven years, came out on Friday.

The record runs 15 tracks and 55 minutes. It is out through his own Big Smoke Records, under exclusive licence to Epic Records. His last solo album, Ignorance Is Bliss, came out in 2019.

The title comes from a family story. His mother used to tell him about her father seeing fine cutlery in a hotel and saying the family had to work hard so that one day they would eat with fork and knife. Skepta has called the album an immigrant story. He told British GQ it was “a liberating album, of immigrant trauma that was transformed into hyperfocus and success.”

He first announced the album on New Year’s Day 2024, under the flipped title Knife and Fork. It was then rebuilt. By April 2026 he had picked 17 tracks for the record. The finished album has 15.

What is on the record

The guests span generations and genres. Central Cee and Jorja Smith appear on “Broken Hearts.” Project Pat, the Memphis rapper, is on “Cold Shower.” Asake is on “Aloe Vera.” Aya Nakamura is on “Chippie.” Novelist is on “Outside.” His brother JME is among the voices on “Belly,” a nine-minute posse cut near the end of the record. “Victory Lap,” with Fred again.. and PlaqueBoyMax, closes it. “Gas Me Up (Diligent),” released in 2024, is on the record too.

The two singles came first. “Innocent Smile,” with Suggs of Madness and Chase and Status, arrived on September 18. “Pandora’s Box,” a quieter and more reflective track, followed on October 23. He performed both on Later with Jools Holland on BBC Two on November 1.

Skepta, 44, is Joseph Junior Adenuga. He co-founded the Boy Better Know collective with his brother JME and Wiley, and won the Mercury Prize in 2016 for Konnichiwa, the album that took grime back into the mainstream.

He marks release day with an intimate show at The Cause in London, rather than an arena. Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam follow in early December.