I enjoyed my upbringing, my siblings did, we're polite, we're respectful, but at the end of the day we're young, we like to have fun. But now, more so than ever, the youth has been vilified to the point where it feels like you can't enjoy being young any more, you just have to sit it out and wait until you get old.
Hopefully, young people will see that you can be young and make the sacrifices to follow your dreams.
Music has no race. It appeals to everybody.
I'm just a young person trying to fulfil his potential and be the best he can be at what he wants to do... I guess that's why people connect with the music.
I feel like I'm indirectly showing people, not that there's another way, but just that if you really have a dream, you should try and give it a go.
I don't think I've had to change anything, really, apart from being more serious and focussed on my drive. One thing I've realised is that you get out what you put in and because of that my work rate has increased ten fold.
At the end of the day, I'm a human being and I just think that's what it is. Challenging stereotypes by just being who I am.
I was 18, and I either wanted to go to university in the States, and experience it like how it is in the movies - you know, date a cheerleader, be the coolest guy on campus - or I wanted to take a year and focus on what I wanted to do. I got into all the universities I applied to, but I took a year off anyway and said, let's see what happens.
I was like 14 and decided I wanted to be a rapper, so I needed a hip rapper name. I was with one of my friends in class and literally went through a thesaurus. I saw "temper" and thought, "I like this, but it's too much." My friend was like, "What about Tinie for tiny," and that was that.
I find my dress sense tends to be a bit of a mixture between high fashion and unique vintage pieces with a little bit of street trends. For example, I might find a really nice, suede dinner jacket that I'd wear with a basic plain white shirt and some chinos and a pair of Nike trainers.
Every generation that comes from this family has to do better than the last.
I'm starting to think about my life, thinking about where I'm going to be in three years time: who I'm going to be with, where I'm going to be situated myself.
The way everyone in London is right up against each other makes it very real to you growing up, the fact that people have different lives to you. And that causes problems; of course it does.
I've definitely done something that's made my mum and dad forever proud.
I pray as much as possible.
I'm so down to earth, I'm bringing gravity back.
When I was about 14 I remember thinking when it came to proposing to my future girlfriend, I'd make a CD with all her favourite songs and a message that said, "Will you marry me?" Shows you what a romantic I was. No one listens to CDs any more. It's all about iTunes.
I'm quite a fan of British designers.
My glasses are from Cutler & Gross. They're not prescription: I just love wearing them. I used to wear Ray-Ban a lot and then I realised that a lot of the things I've started going for are a little bit more refined. I liked the fact that I was supporting a British brand, somebody I could have a relationship with and people that I could talk to.
Dizzee's just my childhood hero. He's definitely the inspiration. He's got himself to a very good place. He's defied the expectations of what British black urban music was like. He was the first person who made the rest of Britain realise it wasn't just a one-album-type situation. You've got to take your hat off to somebody like that.
Coming from an African background, obviously the foundation of the family home is education, probably because my parents had to work a lot harder for everything that they've got in this country.
I can wear a suit, sweatpants, a long tee shirt, and a denim jacket all at the same time.
I watched my parents go from having very basic jobs to educating themselves, to buying a house. They set a really good bar for what they wanted their kids to achieve.
I first became interested in style when I was 16 and I had my first couple of gigs. I realised I couldn't look like the people I was performing to. Not in a condescending way, but just that it would be weird if I was wearing exactly what someone in the crowd was wearing.
Being able to travel the world is pretty cool. There are places that I've always wanted to go to but being able to go there as somebody who's a musician and is recognised as one is cool.
