Talking about massive
WHEN you meet rising British rapper Tinie Tempah the first thing that strikes you is how softly spoken and courteous he is. In place of the expected ego and entourage, before you sits an unassuming young man, happy to make eye contact and still visibly rooted in the real world. He’s sold over a million records in the past 12 months, had a debut LP shoot straight to number one and bagged two Brit Awards — but nobody is going to mistake him for the new 50 Cent.
“It’s important you keep your feet on the ground,” the 22-year-old says in a measured estuary London accent. “If you have success at a young age it is essential you have a good team around you.”
While he is too polite to refer to them by name, it’s obvious he sees the lives of artists such as Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty as cautionary tales in how not to behave once overnight success comes knocking. “There is a fine line balance between staying sane and going off the rails,” he says. “You hear about people having a little bit of money or celebrity status. They don’t have the right people around them and suddenly it’s over. The people I am inspired by have had illustrious careers spanning decades. That’s what I want. I’m not a flash in the pan.”
He isn’t the only British rapper to achieve platinum-scale success over recent years. From Tinchy Stryder to Dizzee Rascal to the ubiquitous N-Dubz, British hip-hop has cast off the shackles of cult obscurity and is now a big time business. This is particularly significant as it is happening at a time when mainstream American hip-hop feels utterly moribund. For so long a joke without a punch-line, British rap has finally commandeered the zeitgeist.
What sets Tinie apart from his peers is his gift for making commercially accessible music without pandering to the lowest denominator. Consider his massive 2010 hit Pass Out, a hyper-intelligent rumination on fame that shoe-horned edgy grime beats into a super-catchy melody. It is difficult to think of another artist who could duet with boyband JLS — as Tinie did at Christmas — and emerge with his credibility intact.
“I gave a lot of consideration to that. At the end of the day, I’ve always wanted to be an artist who delves between genres. My album is very eclectic. There’s dance, there’s hip-hop, there’s everything. So when the opportunity to work with JLS came up, my attitude was, they’re a pop group at the top of the game. Why not? People didn’t expect our two worlds to meet the way it did. But it was fantastic.”
If that wasn’t unlikely enough, he is trying to clear time in his schedule for a hook-up with Irish soul-rockers The Script. Tinie was flattered that the band covered two of his songs on a BBC Radio live show and jumped at the opportunity to support them at the Aviva in July. To record together would, he says, be a dream come true for both parties.
“We get on really well,” he says. “We’ve spoken about collaborations. So hopefully something can come about. They’re great guys and very talented songwriters. I don’t think you should be afraid to mix genres. It’s where music is at nowadays, isn’t it? People put their iPod on shuffle and listen to all sorts of stuff.”
Tinie was born Patrick Okogwu and grew up in the middle class London suburb of Plumstead. His early life wasn’t exactly the stuff of Spike Lee movies. His parents were migrants from Nigeria possessed of a fierce work ethic. Not content to work in badly paid service industry jobs, in his mid-30s his father retrained as a social worker. His mother is employed by the local health board. Attending a high-flying local Catholic school, Tinie received three A-levels and was set to go to university when his music career took off.
From the start, he had ambitions far grander than any of his peers in the south London hip-hop scene. Where his friends were happy to be stars on pirate radio and perhaps one day bag a record deal, Tinie wanted nothing more or less than to be a global star, as big in Germany and the US as in Britain. When Pass Out went to number one he stated matter of factly that his ultimate ambition was to be a global hip-hop mogul in the same class as Jay Z “I see music as being something on a global level,” he explains. “I release music in England and Ireland. Why should it be different when I release music in America? A lot of the artists I look up to are global stars. It doesn’t matter where they are from. What’s important is that, when their record comes out, it’s there for you to obtain. When they are touring or doing a bit of promo, they come to your city. I’m willing to go there, to do all those things. So let’s see what happens.”
With a free-wheeling attitude towards music, Tinie’s debut LP Disc-Overy contains collaborations with artists as widely flung as indie songstress (and Royal Wedding entertainer) Ellie Goulding and ex Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland. Though he doesn’t expect to finish his second album before the end of the year, rumours are already swirling as to possible guests. In particular, there is chatter that he‘s in talks with Cheryl Cole. He laughs and shakes his head.
“I never said anything about Cheryl Cole. Someone I’d really love to work with is Adele. I think she is amazing. Her voice is just fantastic. I’d also love to do something with Corrine Bailey Rae. And, as I’ve said, The Script — to go to the studio with those guys would be amazing.”
His gleefully eclectic music apart, Tinie’s chief calling card is his snappy dress sense. Somewhere between Ralph Lauren catalogue model and Kanye West in his uber-preppy phase, he is a picture of country club chic. Favouring polo shirts, smartly cut dinner jackets and geek chic spectacles, Tinie stands as the antithesis of the blinged-up hip-hop stars of popular renown. Such has been his impact on the fashion world, he is even rumoured to be considering a clothing line.
“What you wear on a daily basis says something about who you are,” he says. “Music and fashion are both creative outlets. I like to make a statement with everything I wear. I don’t dress the way I do for other people. I do it for myself. That said, I was very flattered when people started to notice.”
Life as a major league pop star is, he says, exhilarating and exhausting in the same heartbeat. “Things are very hectic at the moment,” he says. “It’s like being a kid on a roller-coaster trying to describe what it’s like while he’s in the middle of the ride. It’s a hard feeling to convey.. One thing I’m sure of is that I’m definitely having an amazing time.”
Tinie Tempah plays the Aviva Stadium with The Script Saturday July 2 and Oxegen, Punchestown, Dublin the following weekend.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
