Skin has called for more recognition for Black artists who helped shape the UK music scene in the 1990s.
The singer, who found success as frontwoman of Skunk Anansie with her unique brand of hard-hitting, politically charged rock and roll, is currently celebrating 25 years of success with an epic summer tour.
Speaking in the July 2022 edition of Retro Pop ahead of her performance at Grace Jones’ Meltdown festival at London’s Southbank, Skin opens up about finding fame in an era often characterised by Britpop and the Oasis Vs Blur saga.
“That’s what the industry at the time was trying to project,” she insists. “You know what racism looks like? Racism looks like what the fascists are trying to do now, trying to pretend that Auschwitz didn’t happen, that there was no ethnic cleansing. And what I mean is that, if you don’t talk about something and make it become invisible then it almost doesn’t exist.
“It wasn’t just Skunk Anansie that was selling millions of records; so was Goldie, so were the Black R&B singers and the Black girl bands,” the Weak hitmaker explains. There was a whole R&B scene, drum and bass was starting, there was also Bristol and all the music that was coming out of there.
“And in terms of influence, I would say that drum and bass is the most influential music that has come out of Britain since the ‘90s, because you see that now in what Stormzy’s doing and what Dave’s doing. You see that in dubstep, you see that influence in London Grammar, you see that influence in Björk. You see that influence in so much music now.
“Whereas Britpop kind of raised its head and died in the ‘90s and no one’s ever really tried to do that again. I think that it’s just a kind of erasure; like that’s what the journalists want to talk about, and you try and erase things by just not talking about them.”
Skin adds: “The amount of people that had no idea that we headlined Glastonbury, because nobody talks about it… Until I started shouting about it, that moment was ignored.”
Read the full interview in the July 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store or use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist.
