Skepta premiered a new track with Kanye West at a fashion show for his brand MAINS last night (September 14). Check it out below.
Dubbed ‘Cash Cow’ by fans, the unreleased track has been teased since mid-August, when West first shared a snippet during a ‘Vultures 2’ listening party in LA.
Last night, Skepta shared a new teaser of the song during a fashion show for his brand MAINS. The track includes the lyrics “When it’s war time, I go Rambo / You want tap dance, you want sambo / It’s too many floors, I got ample / I just give and go, like I planned to.”
It’s currently unclear if the track will be included on Skepta’s upcoming album ‘Knife and Fork’, which will end a five-year wait for fans since 2019’s ‘Ignorance is Bliss’. The upcoming sixth album has yet to receive a release date.
KANYE X SKEPTA
‘CASH COW’
ANOTHER SNIPPET 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ZhQFNCFKM2
— UK Rap Daily (@UKRapDaily) August 14, 2024
MAINS was first launched by Skepta in 2017 before he put it on hold two years later due to an “amicable” split he had with his partner manufacturer at the time, per Vogue. MAINS was then revived in 2022. Shortly before last night’s show, Skepta announced an open casting call for models.
It’s not the first time the pair have crossed paths. In 2018, Skepta was credited as a composer on West’s album ‘ye‘, alongside Wiley. They contributed to the record opener ‘I Thought About Killing You’.
Prior to that, the two rappers were reportedly working in the studio together in 2015, following West’s Brit Awards performance that year, which saw him enlist the London MC and others from the UK grime scene for a rendition of ‘All Day’.
Earlier this year, Skepta unveiled the short film Tribal Mark, his filmmaking debut as co-director and lead actor. Since its release, Skepta has told NME he had plans of following it up with a full-length feature that continues its story.
“It’s like the Black James Bond thing that everyone was trying to do,” Skepta said. “We wanted to make something [where] after I’ve done the movie, I’m like, ‘OK, cool – it’s the franchise now.”
Menawhile, West and Ty Dolla $ign dropped ‘Vultures 2’ – the second instalment of their ‘Vultures’ collaborative album trilogy – earlier this year. The record came five months later than originally planned.
It was originally thought to top the Billboard 200 chart, but Taylor Swift‘s most recent album – ‘The Tortured Poet’s Department’ – blocked him from the top spot, ending his 19-year-long streak of having his album debut at Number One.
The duo put out ‘Vultures 1’ – which NME said was “far from one of his best efforts either” and “mired in misogyny” – back in February. It had features from Freddie Gibbs, YG, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, West’s daughter North and more.
Since being released, ‘Vultures 2’ has drawn a mixed response from fans and critics alike, and has also drawn heat from Geoff Barrow, who suggested that the two rappers sampled Portishead on a ‘Vultures 2’ track without permission.
The Beak> member posted a clip of ‘Field Trip’ – which features Don Toliver, Kodak Black and Playboi Carti – as well as reportedly sampling Portishead’s ‘Machine Gun’ on X/Twitter.
“FFS. Not again”, he wrote, seemingly referring to another time a song was taken without permission. “Why can’t he write his own beats?”
The initial ‘Vultures’ album also ran into a similar issue regarding alleged copyright infringement, with West and Donna Summer‘s estate reaching a settlement over the alleged “illegal” use of ‘I Feel Love’ on ‘Vultures 1’.
Ozzy Osbourne also threatened legal action over an unauthorised Black Sabbath sample.
Earlier this year, West entered his ‘Vultures 2’ listening party in South Korea on horseback.