Being Skepta’s Mum: Raising a rap icon

Ify Adenuga is parent to a musical powerhouse. Her son Skepta is a seminal figure in British culture, helping to propel grime into the mainstream. Ify has always been supportive of her son’s music career, nurturing a creative environment for all her children to thrive – a direct contrast to her own challenging childhood in Nigeria. Ify was a young girl when the Biafran War began in 1967, as government forces fought attempts by the Igbo people in the southeast of Nigeria to claim an independent Biafran state. As the conflict spread, Ify’s Igbo family had to flee their home in Lagos with nothing. They arrived in a remote village with no electricity or food. Ify remembers foraging for lizards, crickets and snakes to survive. Over a million people would die in the war, mostly from famine, including several of Ify’s own relatives. After the war, Ify managed to escape to the traditional life her strict parents had mapped out for her and moved to London. In the UK, she met the love of her life, Joe, and had four children. Living on a housing estate, Ify and Joe rejected the harsh parenting style they had each endured for a more a supportive approach and encouraged their children to be inventive. When their son Joe Jr began making music and experimenting with grime, a genre of music that was emerging from the electronic dance scene, their home became a makeshift studio with Joe Sr even providing technical computer support. Meanwhile Ify started driving Joe Jr to warehouses and venues across north London to collaborate with other young grime artists. Now, Joe Jr is known to the world as Skepta, an award-winning grime MC, rapper, and producer who collaborates with huge international names. Ify has a memoir out now called Endless Fortune.

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Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producers: Rachel Oakes, Zoe Gelber, Saskia Collette

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(Photo: A collage of two photos of Ify Adenuga with her son Skepta. On the left, a close up of Ify smiling at the camera with Skepta as a toddler. On the right, a more recent picture of Ify sitting with Skepta. Credit: Courtesy of Ify Adenuga)