It’s been a minute since I’ve caught up with Skeme to talk shop and find out what he’s been up to and just like a well oiled machaine, he moving along as always with no sight of slowing down. But luckily for me, he always answers the call when I’m inspired to write and what better person to have as a subject than the man himself. So after coordinating out schedules, we sat down for a chat.
Mossimo Chao – You’re primarily known around the globe as a DJ but in recent years you’ve been firmly placing your stamp as a film lover as well as and have been involved in screenings and presentations of films. When did your love of movies begin?
Skeme Richards – I’ve always loved TV shows and movies since childhood. I would spend hours watching classic TV series and movies of all kinds, from old to current, from action and adventure to suspense and drama. Growing up I really enjoyed Sci-Fi, Kung Fu, Blaxploitation, Spaghetti Westerns, 70’s Cop films and more so movies are apart of me in the same way that music is and it all goes hand in hand.
Mossimo Chao – I’ve heard a few of your mixes and you seem to have a way of telling a story musically that a person could visualize without having a picture. What is it about music that you are able to create this sort of connection?
Skeme Richards – As a DJ playing for the dance floor, I’m basically taking the listener on a musical journey but when I’m taking a more cinematic approach and playing soundtracks and library music, I’m envisioning in my head how a scene would play out with the music that I’m playing so that it’s cohesive and tells a story. I want to invoke emotions of excitement or sadness, suspense or anticipation. It’s a story that only I know from beginning to end that I bring the listener along with me. At my Hot Peas & Butta Funk & Soul parties, I would always screen visuals during the night and the music I was playing was set in the same time as the visuals and connected the dots for people and capture a time and era. So I’m a pretty good storyteller.
Mossimo Chao – Recently you’ve been doing a lot of presenting films to audiences at theaters which I think is interesting and rather unexpected. How did all that begin?
Skeme Richards – Back around 2011, I used to do a monthly party in New York called Vengeance where I would screen a Kung Fu movie and then after the screening would be party time. That was kind of the entry into combining both worlds and my passions. Then around 2013 I had the opportunity to host a double feature Kung Fu film screening in Amsterdam of 5 Fingers of Death and Five Deadly Venoms which turned out to be a great night. A few years later in 2016 while doing my Hot Peas & Butta tour, I had the pleasure of working with a film group / theater in Cologne called Filmclub 813 e.v. where I presented a 35mm double feature screening of Black Caesar and Master of The Flying Guillotine. Both were movies that I saw as a kid so I wanted to present them in a way that felt like the grindhouse era that I grew up in. Each of these where great opportunities and then in 2023 something special came knocking on my door. Movie Mike, a friend and film projectionist in Los Angeles called me and asked if I wanted to present the long lost Blaxploitation film, Solomon King (1974) to a theater audience in Philly which they were touring. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to do so because I loved Blaxploitation films and this was the perfect moment to do things “officially”. I also worked with Philadelphia Film Society and Reel Nomadic and presented Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury which was absolutely amazing! To be able to see it on the big screen is one thing but to present it takes on a whole other level of excitement.
Mossimo Chao – This past year in in 2025 you did two Germany tours with DJ Oonops where you presented 5 films in different theaters and did live scoring which is amazing! How did you pick the films and what is your process of choosing what to play during the live scoring?
Skeme Richards – Yes, that was an amazing time being able to do the live screenings. We did two separate tours, one in the Summer and then the one in the Winter. For the first tour, we did City Kino in Berlin where we screened Shaft (1971), Kino Im Künstlerhaus in Hannover and screened the Italian poliziottesco film, Caliber 9 (1972) and Cine-K in Oldenburg where we screened The Mystery of Chessboxing (1979). For the winter tour we did Coffy (1973) starring Pam Grier and Bruce Lee’s Return of The Dragon (1972). When getting into the frame of mind of picking the films, I always feel like I’m the Quentin Tarantino of the DJ world combined with The RZA of the The Wu Tang Clan because of very similar interests especially with Kung Fu Films and Blaxploitation / Exploitation films so being able to combine the two loves is amazing. Those are my favorite genres and both heavy influences on both Tarantino and The RZA as well as myself so I wanted the screenings to reflect what I would have experienced as a kid going to the theaters. As far as picking the music, everything is spur of the moment with nothing pre planned on list. I go by the mood of the film and connect it with whatever record that I have in the bag that I feel fits the scene. It’s the same as if I’m playing a party, I don’t have a set playlist, I simply go off of feeling which makes it unique.
Mossimo Chao – So you’ve been traveling and touring again heavily and playing parties across the globe, what’s next for you?
Skeme Richards – I’ve got a few projects that I’ll be releasing over the next few months on vinyl and cassette, I’m always writing for music / culture publications like the new Dusties Magazine and Disco Patrick’s Hot Stuff Magazine. I’ve been curating the DJ lineups for VinylCon record shows and as always, still doing my monthly parties and traveling. Oonops and myself are already planning to do another tour run or two for this year as well.