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[title]I grew up on Tressillian Road, a street that leads from Brockley to Lewisham. Every echelon of wealth is there – from the high-end to the lowest – but I never really caught a bad vibe from anyone. I started to be known in the area for MCing when I was 13. A couple of months before, I’d gone through a traumatic experience and was stabbed in my lung, so it was a real catalyst for me to do my thing and just do music. My friend started filming me spitting bars in my bedroom and made a YouTube channel, and from then on it spread like wildfire.
I kept my career separate from my lifestyle locally when I started to become known as an established artist. At one end of the road there’s Lewisham College, where I studied music for a bit – I remember saying to my teacher that I wouldn’t be able to come in one day because I’d be performing on the main stage at Glastonbury and his jaw dropped to the floor like he couldn’t believe me. My boys didn’t realise how famous I was, and I liked that, because I could walk around and be myself. It might not be that way anymore, but I’ve always represented where I’m from in my lyrics – I’ll reference stories or talk about places that are local to me. I could have been anywhere, but I’m from here. I want to try and affect change in my local environment and show people that what I do can be possible.
Novelist Curates for Underground Lewisham is on Friday October 14, as part of Lewisham London Borough of Culture.