Spanning hip-hop, grime, and wide musical generations, Skepta, Chip, and Young Adz represent a collaborative trio in the UK like none other. All have dabbled in myriad short or long-lived off-shoots of the quick cadenced and lyrically driven, and all have shown a certain resilience to the constantly fluctuating scenes in which they partake. 

 

Skepta is one of the established pillars of London’s greater hip-hop and grime scenes. Chip is a young man with an old, extensive canon, having spent half of his 30-year life dropping records from one trend to the next. And Young Adz epitomizes the young generation of London lyricists. As a member of D-Block Europe, he has been much to thank for the UK’s embrace of trap-founded, auto-tuned hip-hop experimentalism. 

 

Together, with only the city they’re from and the wave of hip-hop’s unpredictability in common, they’ve released Insomnia, and above all else, the project embodies just how transcendent each of their skillsets are within their overarching musical adherences. All three reach out of their comfort zones throughout the album whenever a specific track divulges into the preferred stylistic lane of only one of them. And that comfortability to switch lanes is really what proves Skepta, Chip, and Young Adz, as well as the greater UK hip-hop, trap, and grime scenes, as being of particularly wide range.