Jme

“MCs want to represent how it is on their streets. But many of the younger ones are closed-minded: they think about the image more than the music. But as they grow older they realize the music matters more than their image.”

“Sometimes I feel like we don't need to vote - like it doesn't matter.”

“My dad used to DJ too, so we used to hear music all the time.”

“My dad had records, but only one deck, so Skep used to try and play a song on one deck - the Music Centre we used to call it, a cabinet with a glass door - he would play one tune on the record and then mix the tape to it, that's what he used to like doing. He became a DJ.”

“Graffiti is art, but you don't see graffiti in the National Gallery. Graffiti is on the street - that's where it belongs.”

“I didn't understand how to make it in the music industry, I just wanted to make music.”

“When I'm making music... or writing a bar... I'm not thinking, 'Ah, I can't wait to put this on Spotify! I can't wait to put this on Apple Music!' I don't make music for that. I make music so I can see it - I need to see the reaction. I need to feel it.”

“The fabric of our community, our culture, is MCing.”

“Everyone feels like there's something you should do: you should make a song, do a YouTube video, get your views, put it on Spotify, tweet it, Instagram it, do it again and again and again. And I think, that's not what I'm living for. I ain't living for that.”

“When you grow up in a council flat, sometimes living on top of members of your crew, the feeling of community is intense.”

“I will eventually grow into a businessman.”

“We lived together until Skepta was 30-something. We've been together so long, it's impossible for us to have any differences, no matter how long we're apart.”

“A lot of young artists think that by looking tough in a homemade video they're worth something. In time they'll realize getting respected for your talent is what counts.”

“I'm all right if the NHS gets privatized. I'll just spit two bars, get a bit of money and go fix my ribs.”

“'New Slaves' is too real to me. It's like a freestyle of real talk, with the sickest beat. It's like the beat was made for the verses themselves.”

“We're a really close family, we've only ever been in three-bedroom houses, so we were always sharing bedrooms, two of us, or three of us at times.”

“I've grown up making the best out of what I've got.”

“Music videos are like tools that young artists use to earn respect from their peers, to 'represent.'”