The last time I sat down with Lucas “Skibs the Kid” Scibetta, in the summer of 2013, he was an 18-year-old, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing rapper and fresh Hong Kong International School graduate, still riding high on the success of his viral 2012 hit, “Hong Kong Kids”.
His G.O.D. clothing line had just launched, and his local notoriety was such that in December, he would open for Pharrell Williams at the inaugural Blohk Party music festival in West Kowloon.
Our catch-up nearly 13 years later takes place over the recent Easter weekend. Scibetta, now a mature student at New York’s Columbia University, is on the cusp of turning 31.
He talks over video call from his flat near the Ivy League university, where he is carrying a GPA over 4.0 (A-grade). His physical transformation is striking.
He wears glasses with retro-looking frames, he has a goatee, his hair is shoulder length and his trucker hat now faces forwards. “Skibs the man,” I say incredulously, and he chuckles. Behind him on the wall hang two prints by Jean-Michel Basquiat: another New Yorker who grew up between worlds.
Before we talk about what he is up to now, I want to know when Scibetta last listened to “Hong Kong Kids”, that paean to his hometown from the age of 12 – and how it made him feel.
“It’s been a minute,” he smiles. “Every once in a while though, I come back to it. It captured a youthful moment, and youth is precious – and it reminds me that I fully lived my youth, which I think is why I’m kind of chillin’ now at 30.”