J Hus

“One of my biggest influences is Fela Kuti.”

“It's just common sense that everyone should be listening to J Hus.”

“People look at kids like us and think we have no morals because we're from 'the street.' I want to show that we do live by certain standards, that we are moral people.”

“I think I make ugly sexy and attractive. If I didn't do music, the girls that like me wouldn't like me, but I think I make ugly look good.”

“'Cause it's jail, everyone thinks they're bad. So this one guy was like, 'What're you gonna do, 'Lean and Bop' for us?' I was cocky, I was like 'Oh yeah? It costs five racks to see me lean and bop, It costs five racks to see me lean and bop.' But deep down inside it was hurting. It's moments like that make me hate - I feel like I sold out.”

“I'm not really good at talking.”

“I put my mum through a lot of stress; police would be coming to the house... It just seemed normal to me, to be up to no good; it's what everyone did. But then you start to see friends dying and going to prison and suddenly it's not fun anymore.”

“My friends used to call me ugly. Even my mum would say it.”

“I wanna keep rapping, I intend to. It's good to mix it up, but I'm still gonna stay true to rapping.”

“My absolute earliest influences would be people like Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Outkast, 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' era 50 cent.”

“I don't think anyone can do what I already do. I just do it and it's unique, yeah.”

“To me now, I don't really categorize music - I see music as all one.”

“My little brother is four years old and he listens to all my music. I don't know how he finds it, but he knows how to use an iPad and he's always online. So one day my mum said: 'You know what, you have to make something for your little brother,' and that's how I made 'Lean & Bop.'”

“People always say I'm shy! But I'm not even shy! Like, if you knew what I'm saying in my brain. I'm in my own mind a lot. Even though I'm quiet I'm thinking about a lot of things.”

“Prison, I don't want to go back there again.”

“I don't like to believe in star signs and all of that stuff.”

“The women are my biggest supporters so I have to make good music for them too. Afrobeats is also often always about sexy women; we are simply celebrating the female form.”