A photo taken almost two decades ago has kept resurfacing on Skepta's Instagram timeline these past few days. In it, he's holding an Israeli flag, dated back to 2007, around the time of his first solo show in Tel Aviv. On August 15, he responded directly in the comments of a repost of the photo.
"Keep seeing this photo pop up, honestly I was young and naive back then," Skepta wrote. "That was my first show in Tel Aviv, I thought holding that photo would hype up the fans, but it was never any kind of political statement."
This explanation is being scrutinized because Skepta's public record on the Israel-Palestine issue in recent years isn't exactly thin. In May 2021, he replied "FREE PALESTINE" under a post that read "tell me something good." In 2024, his collaboration with PUMA drew criticism over the brand's sponsorship of the Israel Football Association, to which he responded: "Not gonna lie, this whole thing taught me that reading the fine print before signing isn't enough, you've got to do your homework. I'm forever a student, and the end goal is moving toward independent releases."
Also in 2024, he pulled the original cover art for his single "Gas Me Up (Diligent)" after it was interpreted by some as evoking imagery of Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. He explained the visual was actually part of an album concept inspired by his parents' experience moving to the UK in the 1980s, saying, "I can assure you that was absolutely not our intention, so I took it down, and I'll be more careful going forward."
Back to the resurfaced photo controversy, Skepta's position is clear: it was a photo taken to hype up his first Israel show, not any kind of political statement. As for his current activities, he dropped a House-flavored EP, "Más Tiempo Vol. 2," this past April, and revealed his new album "Fork And Knife" is in the final stages, marking his first official follow-up since 2019's "Ignorance Is Bliss," with a release date yet to be announced. He just performed on the main stage at Sziget Festival in Budapest on August 14, and is also set to appear at Reading & Leeds later this month.
