Skepta gave fans at Reading Festival a first listen to new music from his long-awaited upcoming album ‘Fork & Knife’ during his headline set on Friday night. The rapper debuted three unreleased tracks — ‘Pandora’s Box’, ‘Aloe Vera’ and ‘Innocent Smile’ — in front of the festival crowd, marking the first public performance of material from the record.
The set also featured a live appearance from Nigerian artist Slawn, who spray-painted throughout the performance. Skepta said in April that he was putting the “finishing touches” on the album, which will serve as the follow-up to his 2019 record ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ and his recent house-influenced EP ‘Más Tiempo Vol. 2’. The project still does not have a confirmed release date.
During the performance, Skepta also invited two fans onto the stage who had gone viral for dancing to ‘Toxic’, his 2025 collaboration with Playboi Carti, while working as security at Carti’s recent London show. The pair were reportedly fired from their jobs after the footage spread online. “These are my two security guard brothers,” Skepta told the crowd. “They got fired from their jobs for dancing to Playboi Carti ‘Toxic’, so we had to bring them here live and do this.”
Fan-shot footage from the festival shows the two former security guards joining Skepta on stage and dancing alongside him as the track played. The moment quickly circulated on social media, with several attendees posting clips of the reunion and praising the rapper for giving the pair a platform after their dismissal.
The Reading appearance came ahead of Skepta’s set at Leeds Festival the following day. Earlier this month, he performed at Sziget Festival in Budapest, where his main stage show opened with ‘Shutdown’. Critics have noted that the new material appears to draw on a range of influences, with some audience members comparing the unreleased tracks to the work of Eminem in social media posts shared after the set.
‘Fork & Knife’ is expected to be one of the most anticipated releases in British rap, following the critical success of ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’, which received a four-star review from NME at the time of its release. The album arrives after a period in which Skepta has explored house music and other electronic styles, expanding beyond the grime sound that first brought him to prominence.