Cool, let’s go.
Hello, sir.
Hello, AJ.
How you doing?
Thank you for coming.
Thank you for having me.
I’m a fan.
I’m a fan!
Aww.
We’re both fans.
We’re both from Ladbroke Grove.
Exactly, the ends.
Yeah, exactly.
So how has the past 18 months been for you?
Boy, it’s been eventful, in good and bad ways, I guess.
It’s been a difficult time for musicians and artists, so is there any advice you’ll
give to people starting out?
Boy, yeah, this is an interesting question.
Especially in this pandemic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, boy. In general, without the pandemic, I would just say people just
starting out, you know, you gotta to channel what it is you really love and chase it as
hard as you can, then you can stop when you’ve given it a try but you have to try first and
if it means people aren’t listening to your music, they’re not listening today, but
maybe they’ll listen tomorrow, so keep trying. Now that’d be my advice. Maybe with the
pandemic, you have to be an entrepreneur, you need to think business-minded. You need
to think, what are we lacking right now? What can I capitalise on? What can I – what space,
what niche, can I jump into, and maybe, you know, innovate and create something that people
need.
And how do you remain positive throughout?
Loads of things. I don’t wanna give you a sob story, but obviously, we used to fall
behind on the bills and what not, school uniform was hard to buy. So when I’m just in these
clothes, companies are looking after me, I’m grateful. Everything makes me happy, I’m
grateful.
You’ve always been very passionate about inspiring the younger generation. What do
you think some of the big steps they have ahead of them, and how can they handle it?
There’s a lot of big steps ahead of them, I’ll be honest. As times change, things
get easier and some things get harder. So, for my grandmother coming from Trinidad, I’m
sure racism was extremely hard for her to deal with cos for me right now racism is not
too bad, and I don’t mean to say that we’re like living in some utopia, that’s something
that is a bit easier for me, and hopefully easier for my kids, when I one day have kids,
hopefully, but I think for the generation right now, it’s about the violence, man.
I think the violence is a hard thing for them to tackle and being from, you know, an impoverished
area, and growing up how I did, I understand that it’s not as straightforward as saying
to a kid, you know, “Stay away from the weapons and the violence.” They need to
have something to do. They need to have positive things to be able to go concentrate on and
put their energy into, such as music or youth clubs.
We’re both from Ladbroke Grove, and you described yourself growing up as angry. Can
you explain a bit more about that? And how did you overcome that?
Growing up, I was extremely angry. I was angry about, you know, it’s questions, it’s
why. It’s why are we broke? Why are we struggling? Why is my mum crying? Why can’t we pay the
bills? Why do I have beef? Why does this guy wanna hurt me? It’s always a why on my limitations
as a human. And I felt like a lot of those limitations came because of my skin colour,
and some of them came just because, you know, my mother’s white, but because she was poor
society looks at her as the same. So, I was just upset about life in general and I think
as I started to mature, and understand that there are ways around some of the blockades
that are put in my place, I started to be a bit happier. So, you know, when I was saying
to myself, “Why can’t I be a famous rapper?” It’s not why can’t I be a famous rapper,
it’s what can I do to get my music in front of the people who can make me into a famous
rapper? What can I do? You need to look at the positives. So, I became less and less
angry the more I was looking at things that I can do rather than what I can’t do.
In your Brit performance with Headie One, you said you didn’t feel British.
Yes.
How can we change that?
I’ll be honest with you, I do feel British. I do feel British but in general the vast
audience that are looking at that performance of me and Headie would not see us as British.
Even when I go abroad, people are like, “Oh, you’ve got an English accent, but you’re
black. That doesn’t make sense. How are you? You’re not English, you’re not British.”
But, both my mum and dad were born in England, so I’m actually English.
You’ve talked about sort of admiring Marcus Rashford for getting free food for students,
do you feel that you have to use your platform
to make the world a better place?
Without sounding ignorant, I built my platform. It was extremely hard to build it, no one
helped me. It was of my own doing, and whatever I want to use my platform for, whether it’s
good or bad, I will do so. Now, me luckily, I would rather use it for good, but you know,
I feel that people have the choice. I never look at celebrities, quote unquote, and say,
“Why aren’t you talking about this?” Or, “Why aren’t you talking about that?”
Obviously, there’s different circumstances. Some people I would feel are obligated to
speak on certain things, especially if you’re using that culture. So if you benefit from
black culture, I feel like you should say, you should speak up and stand up for black
people, that’s my personal opinion. It’s also very hard for artists, cos I feel like
when they do touch on certain subjects, a lot of what they’re saying online is misconstrued,
and twisted in ways that they didn’t even mean it. Recently, I said that I’m praying
for the people of Palestine, I hope God looks after them. That’s all I said, nothing more,
nothing less. I’m just hoping that they’re OK, my heart goes out to them. I’m making
prayers for them. Now, some people misconstrued that as I’m anti-Semitic, maybe, or maybe
they just don’t like that I’m standing up for some sort of group that they don’t
agree with, but my only intention by posting this message is to raise awareness for people
who are suffering. There’s people suffering on both sides. I just felt like right now,
at this moment, they needed my attention the most. I saw an interesting thing on the internet,
and that basically said that if someone’s house is on fire, and they’re saying you
know, “Help me with my house, my house matters.” And somebody else comes along and says, “But
what about my house? My house matters too.” Yeah, your house matters too but your house
isn’t on fire right now. So, you know what I’m saying? That’s all it is. Yeah, man.
It’s been a great couple of years for you. You had a Brit nominations, a new album, Flu
Game. You’re so young, you’ve achieved so much, what’s left?
What’s left? The world is left. I’m nowhere near finished, I’m not even started. I wanna
do so many things in my life, and I hope that I’m able to achieve them. I’m hoping that
my property portfolio is making me more money than music, within a few years. I don’t
wanna be that guy that has reached his sell-by date and is still trying to force the kids
to take in his music, you know what I’m saying. Right now, I’m good. I’m alright
for now. I hope not. I wanna do so many things. I’d love to get into acting. I love fashion,
of course. I love fashion. I’d love to do a catwalk. If you can get me. Anyone looking?
If you wanna get me on the catwalk.
Oh yeah
Yeah.
We’ll speak to people. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.
I would love to, man, who knows, write a book whatever. Just making a change. Also, you
know, living my life to the fullest I can.
Thank you so much for joining me. You’re a real Force for Change.
Thank you for having me, man. It was a pleasure.