Dizzee Rascal

“NME is normally associated with indie rock. It ain't something I read as a kid.”

“People can't look down on grime anymore, it's an established British genre.”

“I sometimes think I should write a book. I've seen some things, you know, but it's all there in the songs.”

“When you're doing things like Glastonbury main stage, and there's 80,000 people and your hits are going off, it's at those moments you sit back and breathe and take it in, man, cos it might never happen again.”

“People who criticise me are just jealous.”

“I got an A for music and it was at school that I learned to build a beat.”

“My first school is gone - turned into flats.”

“In the end, music was the only option open to me. It was a blessing I pursued it. I put all my energies into it. I didn't care about no other subjects.”

“When you hear 'I Luv U,' that's me doing Three 6 Mafia. That actual track is a mix of 'What's Your Fantasy?' by Ludacris and 'Is That Yo Chick?' by Jay Z. That's my version of that track.”

“I'm from east London.”

“For a bit I was going mad trying to do martial arts twice a week and go to the gym and do weights, but that can make you ill if you balance it with flying around and living like I do, so I narrowed it down.”

“I like to work with the best artists, full stop, around the world, and just make things happen man.”

“I quite like thai boxing. But then I'm not surprised because I did taekwondo and karate and judo and all of that when I was a kid, and then just stopped when I got a bit older.”

“People classify things and that's fair enough. But if somebody wants to make something different, that doesn't make them any less of an artist.”

“Sometimes you might get inspired by something, write about it, then later that lyrics sounds better on another beat. That's happened a few times. Like 'Dance Wiv Me' - those lyrics didn't start on that beat.”

“If you are going to work, you might as well follow your heart, because nothing in life is easy and if it's going to be hard, it might as well be what you really want.”

“Kids need to be taught that your dreams aren't just dreams. Whatever they are, it's OK to push for them.”

“That's the difference between me and a lot of rappers. So many are unfit, just puffing all the time.”

“In each genre, I've been around the biggest. In pop I toured with Justin Timberlake, with reggae it was Sean Paul; I toured with Jay-Z and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's all an education for me, to see how they do it.”

“I like staying in. I'm that kind of guy.”