The grime scene’s success rate has been at an all-time high recently. We’ve got our own awards show with RATED, Skepta won a Mercury, Stormzy’s turned the charts upside down and, thanks to you, we now have the ultimate Kiss FM grime show. It’s been a long time coming, right? How have you remained so motivated?



If I’m honest, back in 2014, I thought about quitting because nothing was happening. I had no one around me. I had music, but no one to say “I’m gonna do this for you and push you.” I had no funds, and it was hard. The only thing I could keep doing was putting out EPs by myself, which cost like £50 or something crazy. I’ve never done anything else apart from music, so that was my lowest point. I think I signed a deal with Relentless/Sony and then after that, I just felt like, “What am I doing?” I felt lost. It feels like over the last two years, I’ve been happy throughout; I’ve never, ever been happy like this.

Do you feel that having time to focus on your music and getting a good team around you has been the most important part in pushing through?



It’s proper important to have management and agents around you that care. You’ve got to remember that I never had an agent that cared about me before, or a team. They would tell me bare lies and shit, but nothing was actually getting done. So I’ve never had anyone really care for me; not like that, anyway. It’s always been just me. So now, if I have to put trust in [managers] Leena and Amy, it’s stress off my shoulders and I can concentrate on my music. Whereas before, I had to do everything myself so it was harder. Having a good team is important. Either have a good team or do it well by yourself.

Going all the way back, I think I met you around 2008. But what was your story before that? What were you listening to in school?



I was listening to a lot of pirate radio. I went to my cousin’s house and he showed me a Ruff Sqwad tape...

Guns N Roses?



Nah, this was a radio set on tape and way before Guns N Roses. This was Deja Vu FM. Then he showed me N.A.S.T.Y Crew and from then on I was really into the music. Before that, I only liked garage. Garage and pop music. I didn’t really like anything else. When I started hearing pirate radio I was like, “Now this is the music I like.” His dad used to make music so he had Cubase on a computer; I started making beats, but they were rubbish [laughs]. I wouldn’t even call myself a producer back then. I think it all started from there, my love for it and my love for grime. I used to run back from school—school finished about 3.15pm—just to catch the 4pm slot, which I think was Ruff Sqwad. After Ruff Sqwad, 6-8... I forget who it was... Then it was N.A.S.T.Y Crew, then it was Roll Deep, then it was East Connection. I used to tape all the things and then listen to them all week until the next one. Everyone I’m friends with today, I was fans of them before and I still say it to them, which is what has kept me humble as well.

But yeah, grime was a next feeling. I remember listening to “Eskimo” for the first time on the school radio station, which only got played in the dining hall and a few houses around the area... I used to go in there feeling like I’d made it! I used to emcee and I remember once I was on there at lunchtime—there were probably five people listening in the hall, but I was still gassed anyway. Then, I think it was GCSE times, and I’d missed my exam because I was in there playing tunes. Everyone had gone and I was just there vibesing. I looked at the time; these times there weren’t even mobile phones, so you couldn’t look at the time on there. So I looked up at a clock and was like: “Oh, shit! This is peak.”

So you missed the exam for grime? [Laughs]



[Laughs] I missed an exam for grime! But the teacher was cool with me, so she let me sneak in at the back.