Having come a long way chasing the arts, Skinn has managed to break out of an educational cycle that made him struggle with his creative freedom. He has now reinvented himself by following his instincts and devoting his life to his art by creating some extremely captivating Afrobeat songs.

With his upcoming project ‘Rêves’, Skinn is touching upon influences from Nigerian singer songwriters such as D’banj and Wizkid while ultimately making his own very unique Afrobeat sound. His song ‘The Year’ is underpinned by an enticing, as well as melancholic mood emphasised by a powerfully moving beat and reflective lyrics.

So far, Skinn has released 2 singles off the upcoming project via his Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/iammrskinn/ and was premiered on Beat FM, a radio station in Nigeria, as well as some other stations.

Also on the album is the track ‘Enemies’, a record that draws a lot upon Skinn’s social views and underground politics.

The artist explains: “My LP was hugely influenced by my emotions at the time. While I was recording the album I had a lot of high and low points. My mood was really about the place I was in. Eventually, I found my rhythm and found the strength to show my creative side.” To Skinn, recording ‘Rêves’ turned out to be a unique learning curve. The method he applied for recording was ultimately a mirror to him that reflected his life in general: “It made me find the balance as a human and as a creative. Allowing me to experiment with sounds in more than one way really showed me that there is an alternative in life. I dislike the notion that there can only be one way to achieve a goal & I am the type to constantly look for the odd way out. “

The Cover Art titled ‘The dreams of peace’ was shot and photographed in Nigeria by Nigerian Photographer and Entrepreneur, Lubee Abubakar ; whose work has featured on VOGUE Italia and Published on various magazines frequently in the previous years. Working with Lubee on the Cover was special, Skinn explains; “she understood what had to be done and she did it.” The Dream of Peace photo series can be viewed here – http://revesdepaix.tumblr.com/

 Still at the early stages of his career, Skinn’s music has already been well received among the Nigerian online community and radio stations in Nigeria.  Skinn has already shared stages with well-known names in the Afro-beat scene ranging from Fuse ODG to Sean Tizzle and Wande Coal.

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Skinn’s childhood was quite uncommon. He moved from Lagos to Abuja the Nigerian capital whilst attaining O’level education at a military school. Co-incidentally this was the same school that Afrobeat artist D’banj had attended in the past. Having an exceptionally hard time at the military school, Skinn remembers: “Whilst I was there I was bought my first music CD by Chamillionaire and that settled it. I decided to be an entertainer.”  The singer eventually moved to South East England where he finally stepped into the zone of almost complete creative freedom… except you have Nigerian parents.. It wasn’t as bad Skinn says “Before I started making music professionally. I would always stay up all night recording music off my phone and the next day I’ll get a noise caution from dad and that was it. Right now, although it’s hard for them take art as more than just leisure, they can understand and support me. I guess you can say I always tried as much I could to do what I wanted."

He is now tirelessly working with RDP, the creative collective behind the project. His determination and work ethic has certainly helped him develop his sound and contributed to the fact that he has managed to perfect both his song writing and his creative process. Skinn will prove to be an all-rounder when it comes to the creation of great songs.

The Album ‘Reves’ is out on 25th March 2016

Links:

https://soundcloud.com/iammrskinn

https://www.facebook.com/Mr-Skinn-187585541289515/?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/IamMrSkinn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMzbdVJ72dY

http://revesdepaix.tumblr.com/