Oct 1, 1985 - Present
British musician, rapper, grime artist, music producer
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I found it funny I was on \'Newsnight.\'
I\'ll never run out of things to rap about. Sometimes you sit there and think, \'I can\'t do it, I can\'t do it.\' Then something happens and you start writing.
That\'s what the world\'s about - different perspectives.
School would have been pretty dead really for me without music. I liked IT, and English was all right, but that was it.
Yeah, I love festivals, man.
When you\'re actually boxing, unless it\'s a proper grudge match, it\'s less about beating the person up and more about being better within yourself. Being patient, timing things, like chess, so really, it\'s as much down to you as what the other person does - and that\'s life.
Rappers and MCs have always had an alias. Building your character, it helps you to get things out.
Sometimes people chat loosely. Sometimes people just speak their minds and what\'s on their mind ain\'t necessarily real or facts, so I don\'t take it too serious. I\'m more interested in making the music, I don\'t really play that.
I\'m the first British artist to have two successive number ones on his own independent label.
People can\'t look down on grime anymore, it\'s an established British genre.
That\'s the difference between me and a lot of rappers. So many are unfit, just puffing all the time.
I\'m not that guy in the suit, speaking the Queen\'s English. I don\'t need to be. I\'ve done enough. I can go on \'Newsnight\' as me.
I liked going to the Caribbean, just having nice holidays, do you know what I mean?
I go everywhere quiet - like a ninja. Always have done. Think big, move quiet.
I pride myself on the energy I put on stage.
If you believe, you can achieve, innit.
I come from the underground, from the ground.
I dominated the underground and then I dominated the overground, and I did that on my own.
Kids need to be taught that your dreams aren\'t just dreams. Whatever they are, it\'s OK to push for them.
If you are going to work, you might as well follow your heart, because nothing in life is easy and if it\'s going to be hard, it might as well be what you really want.
I don\'t really class myself as a musician, I can make music but I\'m not the greatest technically. There were other people who were technically better than me in school but I knew how I wanted to sound and all I needed was to work out how to do it.
Politicians... say what they say - you might get every now and again a genuine one, innit? But I think people, like, as a whole make the difference.
I sometimes think I should write a book. I\'ve seen some things, you know, but it\'s all there in the songs.
If you want real truth, I\'ll tell you real truth, even though I know a lot of people aren\'t gonna like it.
Every summer in my old area, Bow, these kids from across the road used to bring out quad bikes in the park. They let me have a go, and I don\'t know what was wrong with me, but I drove straight into a gate and fractured my big toe. I had this mad limp for ages.
Even I find myself boring sometimes.
I made hardcore music and that came kind of easy - it was what I knew. But it was a challenge for me to make a big pop tune.
America is the land of the hustler: it\'s bigger, bolder, flasher, more in your face, whereas England\'s more about attention to detail - trying to be refined and classy, and I think a lot of people in the urban scene in this country have had trouble accepting that.
To an extent, everyone is jealous of everyone.
I think it don\'t matter what colour you are, it matters what colour your heart is and your intentions.