skaiwater, Lil Nas X, 9lives - light! (Official Music Video)

[Celerity]

Meet Skaiwater, the Rapper and Producer Who Caught Lil Nas X’s Attention

Their recent collaboration “light!” is only a taste of what’s to come

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/skaiwater-interview-lil-nas-x-collaboration-1234993979/



Last week, Skaiwater released the single and music video for “light!,” featuring none other than Lil Nas X. The rising 23-year-old rapper-producer says securing a feature with one of the biggest artists in the world was a “surreal moment.” Naturally, the two met online. “I was in a lot of music communities, so it’s just like you cross paths with a lot of people, but I think we just stayed in tune,” Skaiwater explains. “I guess we have a similar understanding of things. We think in similar ways.”

Indeed, “light!” is precisely the kind of song you’d expect Lil Nas X to appear on: an ode to self-love and not letting a toxic ex into your headspace. “I just had a lightbulb,” Skaiwater croons on the song’s chorus. “I’m tryna break the cycle/Yeah, go ahead with that groupie shit/Yeah, I’m sure that bitch a nice dude.” Produced by 9lives, the track is one of only a handful of Skaiwater tracks that wasn’t self-produced. “We built it in the room, so I gave him a reference for what I wanted and he just executed it in his way,” Skaiwater explains. “But I kind of had an idea. It was the last idea of the session. It was just the idea I’d had for a while. I wanted to take reference from Pink Friday-era Nicki Minaj, Kid Ink, DJ Mustard-type beats.”

That sound is increasingly prevalent on TikTok, as Gen Z and Gen Alpha begin to mine the recent past for inspiration. A previous version of the track, without Lil Nas X’s verse, made the rounds on the app earlier this year, and this latest cut is poised to reach a whole new audience. “I feel like over the years, we’ve tried to work on a lot of music, but it’s never really aligned perfectly. I think this was the first time it really made sense for us both,” Skaiwater continues. “Honestly, him sticking with me this long, sticking around this long, believing in the dream before I really even had it laid out kind of thing. It was definitely a surreal moment.”

Skaiwater is originally from Nottingham, a town about two hours away from London. Like most musicians their age, they started out making songs in their bedroom and uploading them to SoundCloud. “The past year and a half, I think I’ve just been learning more about it being about living as much as it is about creating,” Skaiwater explains of the song’s origin. “So that’s the feeling I had when I was first creating it, just making sure I was in control of what I’m doing, just in control of how I’m presenting myself to where I was forgetting how to present myself to the world for a sec.”

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