Exclusive
Naomi Campbell breaks silence on Skepta GQ cover: "It was for the culture"
2 December 2019, 12:59
The supermodel spoke exclusively with Manny Norte about her iconic cover with the 'Kiss And Tell' rapper.
Naomi Campbell has revealed the real story behind her iconic GQ cover with Skepta.
Skepta & Naomi Campbell reveal the moment they first met
During an interview with Manny Norte, the 49-year-old supermodel spoke candidly about the shoot and confessed that the photos were never initially intended to be published.
"The [GQ] shoot that you done with Skepta with the Mains that was insane!" Manny exclaimed, to which Naomi replied, "Well can I tell you a secret about that, which I hope Skeppy won’t mind?"
"Junior actually, I don’t call him Skepta, I call him Junior. We basically did that shoot on our own, it wasn’t for any publication, and once I saw the pictures I was like ‘no, no, no we should come out.’ And so then I started making some calls."
The prestigious cover, which broke the internet back in March 2018, saw Campbell and Skepta, 37, pose topless while wearing nothing but a pair of boxers from the rapper's MAINS fashion collection.
Naomi continued, "It wasn’t like I was going to wait months for it to come out – it’s either got to come out in the next few or it ain’t coming out at all."
"So first I had to send someone with the pictures and da-da-da, and then, you know, of course Dylan [Jones] did have other people lined up for that cover. Dylan Jones from GQ, he had other people lined up, and so I was basically telling him “unline them”."
"And I was like “you need to put this [on the] cover!” And actually I’ve gotta give him the credit, he did do it and he did push it up and it came out in March and I think, you know, for me it was for the culture. It was for us, it was for all of us."
"It was fun shooting it, and Junior just loves the camera. He’s great. And the whole team, we shot that in one day in New York, like hours, because I remember he got off a plane straight from London and came to the shoot."
The conversation then turned to Skepta's new song with fellow British rapper AJ Tracey, 'Kiss and Tell'. "We don’t kiss and tell," said Manny, before Naomi confirmed, "We do not kiss and tell!"
Manny questioned through laughter, "But we kiss though right?" to which Naomi replied, "We love to love…"
Over the last couple of years, Naomi and the 'Konnichiwa' rapper have been romantically linked, despite neither party confirming the alleged romance.
