Who is Justin Clarke?

Justin Clarke... I guess that’s who I am around my mum, and my nan: cool, calm, and collected. Actually, not so much around my mum, because my mum, she’s a teacher—she used to work in youth clubs—so she’s familiar with the behaviour of the youth. But around my nan, I am definitely Justin [laughs].

Who is Ghetto?

I see Ghetto as the raging MC, with nothing but aggression inside of him. That’s Ghetto. The raw aggression, straight-to-the-point stuff—still with the substance, but just a different type of delivery.

Who is Ghetts?

Ghetts is in between Justin Clarke and Ghetto. In terms of people—nowadays, they’re not too different. It’s the styles; they’re different styles. Ghetts and Ghetto don’t really differ, but in style, they’re very different. Ghetts is when I fully learnt the techniques and the art of spitting.

Have you ever been in situations where you’ve struggled to separate the three?

I have, but not anymore. I’m very much comfortable in life right now, and it’s very hard to draw me out [laughs]. My decisions are very calculated but that all comes with age and growing up. I guess those three characters just represent the various stages of my life. And, in terms of music as well. Coming back round to Justin, I guess that represents me just being comfortable with who I am, the person I am behind closed doors when I’m sitting watching TV with my daughter.

Lyrically, do you think you’ve calmed down since your Ghetto days? For example, when I look back at your 2005 clash with Napper, you looked like you just came straight off the block, ready to rumble. Nowadays, though, it seems like you’re a lot more chill—on mic, and in person.

I feel like I had this crazy, raw talent and it’s like learning to air-bend—I can bend the fire inside, but I couldn’t always control it. It was hard to control the fire, bro [laughs]. But that’s how I look at it. Now, it’s much more concentrated. I know when to do it, and when to pull back and go for it.

On the subject of clashing, you’ve had a fair few in the past: one with Wiley, one with Skepta, one with Tempa T. But is it something you’d ever do again? I interviewed P Money last year, someone that you were close to clashing, and he said that he wouldn’t rule it out.



My whole thing is forward thinking, and what I haven’t yet accomplished. I try and dream big. Not even try, I do dream big, very big—but some of it I like to keep to myself. I believe that our paths are very different and sometimes on different paths, you do cross paths with others. But with me, I just love making bodies of work. That’s my thing. In a weird way, I don’t want anyone to be part of my story and I’m actually pissed that I’ve had to clash people in the past. You know when you just want everyone to acknowledge your work and ability... Win or lose, what happens is: “You like Biggie, so you can’t like Tupac.” I realised this from an early stage and I feel like I’ve got so much to offer in terms of music, that I don’t want to give you a reason not to fuck with me. Once people choose a side, they choose a side. But I want everyone to appreciate the music that I’ll be releasing.

Do you see yourself as a grime legend, or do you ever feel like you get counted out in any way?



Nah, man. You know what I’ve realised? I get the props from people who have the knowledge, the ones who know what they’re talking about, so like yourself—someone who’s been in the scene and been around and seen the works—and other people that are bloggers and whatnot, the real bloggers who were blogging when grime wasn’t the hottest thing. So when I see something in a mainstream mag and I’m left out, I’m kinda cool with that. I just put it down to... Well, what’s happened here is that real grime fans saw that and they were like: “Rah, bro, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re void! Your whole article is void!” When a real grime fan reads these things—someone who actually has the knowledge and knows what events have taken place, and what part I played in the grime scene—they’re just like: “Ah, yeah. You don’t really know, though.”