Writer and YouTube show Swear Down TV’s host, 24 year old Shakira Scott, known by many as Scotty Unfamous will be the topic of interest for this interview. I Skype’d with the inspirational young lady last month, and had a quick conversation. I had the opportunity to get to know a bit more about Scotty, who remains adamant that she is NOT famous. In that case, I will call her a mini celebrity, who’s star shall continue to shine for many years to come, if everything goes to plan. Follow her on Twitter: @ScottyUnfamous and her stories can be found on Wattpad as well as Tumblr.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background
“Well, the name [Scotty Unfamous] came from my last name, which is Scott and my online story, The Unfamous. I am the front of Swear Down TV.I am a songwriter, Swear Down Radio show host. My mum is from Jamaican and my dad is from Guyana.”
When did you realise you wanted to be (or had the potential to be) a writer/host?
“It just came about. The original series was meand Charli. She thought we were funny so we could make YouTube videos. First video was ‘what defines a wasteman’, we filmed using a camera that was balanced on the windowsill in her bedroom (laughs). As we kept making more videos, people kept requesting and suggesting topics. I’ve been writing for ages… when I was in secondary school. I was a huge B2K fan, loved them to death. I started a fan fiction site with Charli, and posted stories.. After my second year at uni, and after Keisha the Sket surfaced, I wrote the Unfamous coz I thought I could do a better job basically, the story was just so s**t (laughs). I wrote Venom on Wattpad, for the Watty Awards, and got to the semi finals but never finished the story so I never got to the finals.”
How did you get into the industry?
“From doing Swear Down TV, people started knowing about me. It kinda took on a life of its own; people started hollering at me. After me and Charli parted ways, my manager approached me and set up different things for me to do. Twitter played a big part in it. When you build a following, people wanna know about you. People started inviting me to industry events, and I started getting free clothes and gifts. I always try and stay relevant. When you work in the media, you always have to make sure that you're appealing t your market. I always try and stay in the loop.”
How long did it take for you to get noticed?
“I don’t know, to be honest, it’s weird. I still don’t think I'm that noticed. Charli was at Brunel University at the time, and everyone was there, all the black kids, and it kinda stemmed off from there. The first time I went to The Sunday Show, someone recognised me and told me I was funny. Like I said, I don’t feel like I'm noticed now, so I'm not sure when I got noticed.”
Would you say anyone helped you get where you are today or was it all you?
“I will say that everyone that came on board, including Charli and after her departure, has brought something in. First was my brother Jigz (@jigzswitchedup), doing Swear Down On Road. I then brought on some of my brother’s friends, and they made Swear Down : Switched Up. The reason why I brought them in was because, this sounds wrong, but girls are stupid and they like boys so it brought in more attention. Next came Miss Vexy (@VexInTheCityUK), that brought a lot of attention too coz her readers came over. Dee Poetry (@DeePoetryJay) made a big contribution coz he approached us about Swear Down Radio. Rhiality Check (@rhialitycheck) used to send me messages on Facebook, and was originally on TTTV. We were both managed by the same person, who wanted me to bring TTTV under the Swear Down TV name. The TTTv team parted ways, and I brought Rhiality Check onto Swear Down TV, along with my cousin Ash Taylor. I think everyone made their own contribution
When did you first realise that you had become “famous”?
“I don’t know , really. I definitely think the Unfamous story pushed me forward a lot more. The day I felt famous, I was on my way to work, walking through Clapham Junction station, and a girl stood there staring at me. She ran over and hugged me after she started crying and was like “oh my god Scotty, I love you!”. When I go to industry events, I also see people who say ‘hey’. I still don’t technically feel famous. I’ll be on twitter and people get excited when I reply or re-tweet them, but I feel like ‘why wouldn’t I?’”
What tips or advice do you have for anyone trying to get into the same or similar industries?
Firstly, image is a big thing. You don’t have to look like a supermodel, obviously I don’t. You can’t be too arrogant, you have to be passionate about what you do, stay relevant. If you become irrelevant, nobody cares anymore. You have to be thick skinned, people say stuff to me, some really horrible stuff. At first, it bothered me, but I sit on my videos and cuss people all day. You've gotta make sure the quality of the work is good and can improve as you go along. We’ve had to buy better cameras, get lighting, get better editing stuff. We’ve got a website coming soon. Just make sure it can be the best it can be. Supply and demand is important, you've gotta cater to your audience. People wanted a Nicki Minaj/Lil Kim video but I didn’t care about the topic. The viewers wanted it so I did it.”
Who is your biggest role model or idol?
“My dad. Because of how he is, his work ethic and approach to life. He came from Guyana, which isn’t too rich. When he came over here, he worked his way up and did what he had to do, to provide for us. Which is why I'm a bit of a brat (laughs). I wanna get to that point where I can give back to my parents. I appreciate that my dad is still around.. He speaks really proper, he’s always ssuited and booted. When people meet my dad, they’re surprised by how I am and people like to say I'm not a lady. My manager is another because she also came from a harder background and became a life coach. She started the whole management thing because of me, she said she saw my stuff and thought I was really good. She manages the Swear Down group, as well as T-Boy (of Don’t Jealous Me), Hardest Bars and will soon be working with some other people. She started off small and now we’re all blossoming. She's got me doing work later this week with Jump Off TV. Hardest bars had their stuff on Link Up TV. She makes sure she gets to know you, it’s not just a business relationship. She took all of us little hoodlums (laughs) and made us get where we are. I like that she is a woman and is feminine, she tries to make me act like a businesswoman but its a bit of a battle, coz I'm lazy sometimes (laughs) Gina Yashere is my last one, if I could meet her I would die.”
What drives you towards success?
“This is gonna sound so weird, but I don’t like embarrassment. People expect me to fail in areas, but I'm not gonna let that happen. If I'm determined, I make sure I stay on point so no-one can laugh at me and say I've failed. People expected me to flop with SDTV after Charli left coz I'm the ‘fat one’. After a while I got used to being alone. I make sure that I don’t fall off, coz I wanna take this somewhere. I'm not in uni anymore coz I have to make this work. I wanna provide for my family the way they did for me. I like hearing my parents brag about me to others, no matter how annoying it can be. I love having my parents feel proud of me. When the Unfamous play happened my parents were in the front row, and were extremely proud of me coz I had made this.”
What are your aims/goals/plans for the future?
“Ultimately to be an author. I’d love to take SDTV somewhere but I don’t want it to get boring, but one day I’ll probably just be like ‘okay I'm done’. I wanna do book tours, and have book signings in Waterstones.. The book is going to be published later this year, but I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to self publish, but it would be a lot easier. If I can’t get as publisher to take it seriously, I’d rather just do it myself coz I don’t like rejection. I wanna be an established author. I would love to have it made into films and everything. I wanna get the online series onto TV eventually. It’s always the typical stories with black writers or programmes, drugs, estates, baby mums etc.. The Unfamous is more than that, it does have that but essentially its more about urban kids in uni. Its always the ghetto rubbish on TV, I don’t live in the hood or have friends with guns. There is a gap in the market and the media kinda ignores the more positive stuff. Once we get the stats, we can show it to the media that this is really what people wanna see,”
When is your next project out/what is your next big project?
“The online series should come out in autumn, hopefully in September to go along with the academic schedule. That’s my biggest project right now, I've gotta have the script done soon, I've got a team with me but its mainly me and Rhiality Check adapting the story into a script
It will probably be on YouTube, I'm gonna start a page for it on there”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
“When I'm 34... I’d like to see myself have written all four Unfamous books, maybe one child, I wanna be married... I wanna sit in my house all day, writing my books. If not, then I’ll do what my manager wants and take on more acts. I definitely wanna work in the media, I don’t see myself doing a 9-5. If I don’t like something I wont try hard enough.”
What sort of experience would you say you had of the education system?
“I'm not a studious person, I was fine until secondary school. I went to Burntwood.. I was so bad. I did so crap in my GCSE’s, its amazing I even managed to write a book. I was always late or in trouble. They tried to put me in anger management and I wasn’t even angry. I went to college and did my retakes and did really well in them, I got B’s and stuff. I then did my a-levels, I did crap in my a-levels too. When I hand out cv’s I'm always embarrassed about my grades. I managed to get into uni at Greenwich for media writing. I dropped out in my second year after having some personal issues. I moved onto campus and experienced freedom. I re-applied last year to South Bank and got in, made it all the way to enrolment. Then it turned out I had written something wrong on my UCAS application, and they told me coz I'm doing everything I wanna do already there’s no point in me doing the course. But I feel that I wanna be better at it. So I gave up, but I don’t think it’s the best thing to not have a degree, however every time something has gone wrong with my education, something better happens. I'm still progressing and doing better than some of the people I was originally with at uni. It’s not down to whether or not you have a degree, its how much you want it. If you want it you’ll go for it and get the results.”
How has peoples’ attitudes/behaviour changed towards you since becoming “famous?”
“From doing the videos, you can see that I'm weird (laughs). I was never a neek in secondary school, I just did neeky things. I had like a Michael Jackson club and stuff (laughs). People never thought I’d amount to anything, they thought I was a class clown. Once it [SDTV]started to take off, people I’d stopped talking to years ago suddenly started popping up. Its not that we weren’t friends, but its like when people forget about you and you become ‘bait’ or ‘famous’ they wanna latch onto you. I know who my friends are, I’ll still entertain you but I know who was there when you weren’t there. People in the industry try and size up your value to them. You’ll see if you're being treated special coz they’ll do extra things. I've had friends that have been gassed because I'm ‘someone’. Some of my friends, even ones I've known for like 10 years, they call me Scotty. Everyone used to call me shakira before. They’re proud of me, but I feel like I'm normal. You're gonna get a lot of two faced people, they’ll smile in your face and turn around and talk s**t. Karma will deal with them... they fail at something and I laugh.”
Who is your favourite actor or singer?
“I don’t know... I love Johnny Depp. I think he is a hot potato (laughs). Actress... I like Sanaa Lathan, she's the only one that’s come into my head so I'm gonna assume she's my favourite. My favourite singer changes all the time... Michael Jackson, The Weeknd is epic. His songs are all about drugs and sex but he’s innovative. I love Miguel, his voice is gorgeous, Jhene Aiko, I knew about her from the B2K days, but once she released Sailing Souls, I didn’t expect it. You can see she's grown. Lyfe Jennings and Lauryn Hill.”
Who do you admire/look up to the most within your industry?
“I wouldn’t say I look up to anyone, but as far as admiration goes… There’s The Vujanic, he came on SD Radio, he blew up overnight,. People think he’s really silly, but he’s really smart. He hasn’t let his fame go to his head. Hes a really lovely person, he’s in that D’banj video doing the Azonto... he’s become a global phenomenon and I admire that. He did it strategically. His videos are always high quality. He’s formed a brand and is a celebrity now. I admire him for that. Mr Poetical simply because he was a journalist then released a book ‘one day it will all make sense’, he started up Pardon <y Blog. He’s very business minded, he’s a really nice person. He’s been doing PR for Lloyd which I hated him for, he’s done it for Big Sean, too... he’s done interviews with Wiz Khalifa, Tyga, J Cole. Miss Vexy is another person I both admire and look up to. She's been doing her blogs for however long and that’s gained a lot of success. She writes plays, she has a new online series, Venus vs. Mars, she’s also been in Love is a Losing Game. I like her work ethic, she's very confident. We had to do an event where we were both arguing for the female side. I'm really shy and she came out and was still Miss Vexy. She commands attention when she speaks, she's like a feminist activist (laughs). I definitely admire her. She's a wonderful person.”
What are your pet peeves?
“I have loads (laughs) I hate everything. I don’t like stuff. I don’t like when people tweet thirsty things, like why are you giving out your genitalia on Twitter?! I hate when people chew with their mouth open. I hate pigeons, they’re disgusting. Insects, I don’t like any insect, I don’t care how small they are, if they are near me I’ll scream. I hate liars, I know everyone lies but I hate hardcore liars. I'm a very honest person, if I don’t lie to you why are you lying to me? People that are on an ‘image ting’ people should just be who you are, people buying designer clothes as if anyone cares. People tweet things but when you meet them they’re nothing like that in real life.”
What would you say the worst thing about being famous is?
“I’ll just say fake people. They’re the worst.”
If you could go back in time to wherever you first started what you are doing nowdef would you still do it?
“Definitely. You go through struggles to teach you life lessons. Everything I've been through has taught me and brought me to where I am today. All the arguments were worth it. Anything that’s worth having doesn’t come easy
I like writing songs coz I get bored, I'm a big music person.. I don’t think I have the best voice but whatever. I write poetry and songs all the time and think that I can’t keep to myself. Most of my music gets a good response, that probably sounds bigheaded though (laughs). You can find my music on my Sound Cloud.”
Anything else you wanna add?
“We’ve got new SDTV shirts with the Michael Jackson logo on it, as well as new opening titles for the SDTV videos on YouTube.. I wanna do different designs; I think it’d be really cool to see people walking down the street wearing it. Not for publicity, though, just for the feeling of it... that’s what keeps me going, people get upset when I re-tweet compliments. Its really humbling when people send me comments and everything, I appreciate it all, coz I'm no-one.”
