With his killer rhymes, rapid delivery and East London swagger, it’s no surprise that rapper Tinchy Stryder has been crowned the ‘Prince of Grime’. Louise Cummings catches up with the Cambridge-bound boy from Bow to find out all about his flow…

While I’ve interviewed a fair few celebrities in my time, I have to admit the prospect of an audience with the über cool rapper Tinchy Stryder put me slightly on edge. As I waited for his call, I wondered if I should transform my persona into something distinctly more ‘street’ to chew the fat with the East London boy dubbed Britain’s hottest new rapper.

But as the urban star’s right-hand woman prepared to put Tinchy on the phone, I decided that being ‘me’ would be the safest bet, fearing I’d end up sounding lamer than Richard Madeley doing his ‘Ali G’ impression!

‘Hey, how’s it going, are you all talked out yet?’ I probe, as the grime star comes to the phone for his fourth back-to-back interview of the day. “No man, I’m all good,” he says, with a chuckle. Phew, the ice is broken.

For those of you who haven’t yet grasped the concept of ‘grime’, no, it isn’t that thing that Kim ‘n’ Aggie off the television aim to banish with a generous dose of white wine vinegar and a Brillo pad.

It is, in fact, a genre of urban music that has been emerging from London’s underground – namely Bow – since around 2002, influenced by UK garage, drum ‘n’ bass and hip hop; think back to last summer and Wiley’s hit Wearing My Rolex
or Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers.

Twenty-two-year-old Tinchy (or Kwasi Danquah, as his Ghanian parents know him) moved to Bow when he was eight, started writing lyrics and MC-ing at the tender age of 11, and by 13 had his own spot on pirate radio, making music with his group Ruff Sqwad, alongside the likes of Mercury winner Dizzee and the renowned King of Grime, Wiley.

“My older brother used to have turntables and Dizzee and other mates would come to my house and record house tapes. Then we’d go to youth clubs and play little house parties,” Tinchy recalls. “After that, the next stage in our world was to get on to pirate radio station and it was hard to get on; you had to pay to go on there. So we did that for a while.”

From there, Tinchy’s career had a boost from a rather unconventional source – middle-age Norfolk Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb. Lamb’s son Archie re-mortgaged the family home to bankroll his music label – Takeover Entertainment – with his mate Jack – and the pair spotted Tinchy’s potential and signed him up.

“I had a mix CD out and Takeover Entertainment used to put raves and events nights on in Norwich, and they booked me for one,” Tinchy explains. “After seeing me one night, they approached me to be on their music label. I felt like there was nothing to lose and we seemed to be going in the same direction, so we did some independent stuff together.”

Though he is now signed to Island Records, Tinchy is still grateful to have had the backing of ‘down with the kids’ MP Norman Lamb. “He’s cool man. He’d come to see me at gigs when he could and would always be standing in a suit at the back,” he recalls.

The MC has since gone on to rocket out of the underground, having released his debut album, Star In The Hood, in 2007, been appointed the ‘Prince of Grime’ by Wiley, then followed up his success with his sophomore album Catch 22 being named one of the hottest albums of last year. He’s even found time to establish his own clothing brand, Star In The Hood, and claims to wear his own label clothes every day.

“It’s mad!” he remarks, bemused by it all. “It’s been a long journey when I look back at it, and it all started as a hobby because, really, I only ever wanted to be a footballer; that was my dream as a child, to play for Manchester United.

But you need a lot of dedication getting into football at that age and I just got sidetracked; the music got me in the end.”


Full story in Cambridge Style - January 2010.

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