The Come Up: Skeme

Young California is thriving. Home to Nipsey Hu$$le, YG, Dom Kennedy, Iamsu! and Sage The Gemini, the West is making its way back into the top spot in hip-hop. Over the span of this year, each of these MCs has made his mark with critically acclaimed projects. Whether it was the innovative campaign for Crenshaw or the explosion of Sage catching your attention, hip-hop has seen talent from the Bay to L.A. grow into recognizable rap stars.

Inglewood’s Skeme has steadily built his buzz off the strength of 2010’s Pistols & Palm Trees. That mixtape showcased the 23-year-old rocking with Tyga, Dom, Kendrick and more, as well as introduced how two worlds often collide. Three years later, the left-coaster gifted rap fans with Bare With Me that featured tracks made during the recording of his debut LP. Now, he’s focused on Ingleworld, an album set to give a slice of his hometown through a truth-telling lens. His single, “Different,” offers a compelling take on the street life, where he throws down raw rhymes without hesitation.

Skeme swung through the XXL headquarters earlier this month where we touched on how he got his rap name, being influenced by the late Dolla and almost signing to TDE. Meet Skeme in The Come Up.—As Told To Eric Diep

On Growing Up In Inglewood, Cali.:

Skeme: Inglewood is my home. It’s hard to explain. The ghetto is the ghetto. No matter where you are at. I think ours is a little bit nicer than most people. On the surface of it, it looks great. You know what I am saying? But a lot of shit happens. I think that’s really just the gist of it. I don’t really like to delve into [it] crazy. Change your heart up as far as having things go down. It kind of changed your outlook on shit, but I think it really ain’t slated for you to win coming out of where we come from. That shit is humbling to know that to be put in a position where I might be able to win something. That shit is dope. That shit is the most changing factor growing up where I come from. It’s not that this shit is promised. Nothing is really promised. Niggas not make it to be 23.

On How He Spells His Name:

Skeme: The spelling of it was because of [New York graffiti artist SKEME]. I believe I was watching a documentary on that shit. Style Wars. And I seen dude, and he was explaining that shit. “Five letters always look better than the S-C-H.” Like, literally, when it’s written down. So I’m like, “Yeah, you right. You fucking right. The S-C-H looks horrible.” I was given the nickname a long ass time ago when I was a kid. Now, that’s how that shit ended it up that way, spelling the way I spell it.

On Being Influenced By Dolla, Southern Artists And The West Coast:

Skeme: The crazy thing is most of my influences are Southern shit. A lot of shit that wasn’t rap shit is influenced by my music. That’s why we like the sample shit so much. That why Bare With Me was so sample heavy in the first place. That’s what ended up happening on that mixtape just because we can’t clear the sample like we wanted to and such. Even on Ingleworld right now, we are bringing a lot of instrumentation. Live orchestra type shit, bringing that in. Just bringing different elements of the music and trying to make it feel like something really grand. I want it to feel bigger than just a hip-hop project.

My biggest influence is probably Pimp C. On some rap shit, Pimp C for sure. The everyday shit other than that. Lil Wayne was definitely a big one. When he was having that run, that was my guy right there. Cash Money in general though. ‘90s babies and ‘88, the ‘89. You definitely was a Cash Money kid. You couldn’t miss the CMB. That’s big.

Dolla kind of molded me when I was young. He shaped me into being somebody and trying to tell me what could happen if you took this shit seriously. Most recently, the homie Nip. Dom too. All three of us bounced off each other and had those conversations, even a cat like FLii. He was instrumental in making Bare With Me. He was one of the cats recording a lot of them joints, making a lot of them beats and doing his thing. Telling me, “Niggas can’t fuck with you. You just need to put shit out. You need to stop making a million songs and just leaving them at your house. Put these motherfuckers out.” That was a constant conversation between me and him. I got to a point where I was like, “Fuck it.” My son was born. I’m just like, “Yeah, cool. Put this music out. Let’s do it.”

On The Progression From Each Of His Mixtapes:

Skeme: 2007 was Skeme Of Things one. And then a bunch of mixtapes that I don’t even remember the name of in between. I just wanted to record. I stayed at it. $35 sessions and shit. Recording in closets and whatever to get it off. Let’s try to do it. Just keep going. Skeme Of Things 2 did all right. It was cool. Then, All Rapped Up came, and that was with me and DJ Ill Will. That was my first time Kendrick working and shit like that. Alley Boy was on that mixtape too. I had a clip of a record from Dolla that we were supposed to do before he had passed. There were some cool little gems when I was younger.

After that came Pistols & Palm Trees, and Pistols was the one that was really popping. I was here in New York when it dropped. It was the No. 1 trending thing in L.A. It was a dope feeling. I wanted to be the guy that was cool enough to be around the gangster kids, but still at the same time they don’t feel uncomfortable. Even though I am the guy from over there period.

Bare With Me. Literally what it was called. I get a lot of tweets and Facebooks. [People] see me in the streets and ask me, “Why haven’t I put out shit? Where’s the project? Where’s Ingleworld?” I was like, “Fuck it. Let’s unleash some of this other stuff that’s not on the project. These are good records. Cool.” How many times do you catch a guy give you 21 joints?

I always wanted to do [giveaway music]. I always wrote enough to do that, but I never recorded enough to put out a mixtape and an album in the same year. That’s what I am on right now. And having a song process where you are getting all together, I think the total was like 97 songs, from Bare With Me and Ingleworld. If we got this many records, why not? That was the thought process behind that. We named it exactly what it was. I remember I said it, and my brother was like, “That’s perfect. Yup. That’s exactly what we should name it. Bare With Me. There it is.” That joint was fun.

On His Debut Album, Ingleworld:

Skeme: The album right now [features] Dom Kennedy, Nipsey, Iggy Azalea. The track with me and Iggy is fun shit. She likes the whole mash-up of hip-hop shit and EDM shit. I was like, “Cool.” When I found one, my mans hooked me up with this producer named Fox. Dude just gave me some shit. This nigga is amazing. This shit is dope as fuck. This shit is fun. Who could we get for it? Shit, sister killed this shit. We went ahead and rolled with her for it and it came out dope. This shit is called “Eye Level.” We got one with K. Roosevelt, one with Wale is on there, called “Ain’t Perfect.” And that joint is crazy. Then, J305 does what he does best, just talk shit.

I think everybody in the city right now is gassed about it too. I’m seeing gradually more and more motherfuckers referring to the city to what we are calling this album. Like I said, I’m all for giving somebody to believe in and push for. So, that’s big for me.

On Almost Signing To Top Dawg Entertainment:

Skeme: I’m trying to stand on my own two at all times. Those are the conscious decisions we are making. We just trying to make sure whatever we do, I’m not gonna end up thrown into a shuffle, just in the mix. And then you just become another one of them guys. I don’t want to be that at the end of the day.

I never want to see myself at the bottom, just in the mix. If you got 52 cards in a deck and you end up in the middle, it’s nothing special about that. I don’t want to be put in that situation. I think that’s why we taking conscious steps towards making that not happen. Making something special for us. Making something big every time our name is synonymous with whoever at the moment.

For the TDE thing, there’s a reason why it was big for even niggas that want me to be over there. Like, “Yo, that’s the guy we said was going to be over there.” Yeah, of course. That would make sense. Great. Amazing. Cool. I just think to figure it all out type of situation from my end and my team. All of that.

Like I said, at the time, I gotta figure me out before I could submit to some shit like that. Cause that’s a big one. It’s not like TDE—I can attach myself to it and change my mind? Nah, you’re gonna get thrown out there. You gotta be that. That’s not one of them decisions that you rush into. I think that was it. I think just constant growth from then to now and constantly keeping in contact. Them is my folks, outside of music. These are still homies of mine. I think that’s how we are holding that situation together.

On What's Next:

Skeme: The album is the focus. What we got going on right now. [It’s] really [just] creating something special the day of the album and making a huge ass announcement that day for some other shit. But I think I am trying to focus the emphasis on Ingleworld, keeping the actual hard copies of the disc to ourselves, putting together the merch lines and all these kind of things. [I am] making it a big experience for the fans, for the listeners, for the people who actually want to be part of the experience. When you don’t have a million motherfuckers around you, piecing that shit together, it’s really our focus and our ideas. That’s what I need to do.