Kano

“Initially we were spitting lyrics over garage beats, in that eight-bar gap where there wasn't a vocal. But we were rebellious towards garage because they were rebellious towards us; a lot of their gatekeepers said grime was too violent.”

“I think great art poses questions and doesn't necessarily give answers and solutions - that's not what I'm trying to do.”

“You know, I was going to be a footballer at one stage, but... nah.”

“Grime, in particular, is not really about pirate radio and local raves on top of pubs anymore. There are things I miss about those times but as an up-and-coming MC, back then, I would have loved to have had SoundCloud and YouTube and all these platforms to promote my music.”

“When we started out we didn't expect anything would come from it, definitely not money. We'd pay to go on pirate radio: twenty quid a month just to go on and spit for an hour.”

“I feel it's important to create moments, especially in a time where things are so throwaway.”

“Most raves used to end by getting CS gassed. It wouldn't be like: 'Last orders! We've gotta go!' It'd be: 'Sigh, it's been CS gassed, we've gotta leave.'”

“I can clearly hear a lot of grime influence on Timbaland's stuff, on some of Drake's flows.”

“I like Jay-Z for his lyrics, his flow; he's always forward thinking.”

“I just have no interest in the industry of acting, I don't want anything to do with it. But I respect the craft.”

“Personally, I enjoyed school as much as the next kid. I was into art and every sport going from football to table tennis, so I kept busy. I never bunked a day off and left with 9 GCSEs, if I remember correctly.”

“He will go down as a legend along with Elvis and the Beatles and Michael Jackson. Bob Marley is right up there. He was a leader for reggae music - he really made it appeal to a world audience.”

“I love the building and the history. I understand not many people like me have played there. But the aim is not to conform to that building. It's to bring the Albert Hall into my world.”

“We don't need Kanye to spit on grime instrumentals to show grime is great.”

“I do feel that it's very important to see positive imagery.”

“At some of my earliest shows, we used to roll up 20 deep - if my mates can't come in, I can't come in. My record label couldn't understand it: plus-19 on the guestlist?! But that was how it was. Over the years - as it is with everyone, but amplified from being in the public - it's got smaller and smaller.”

“I'm always working out how people perceive me, and that's a hard thing to navigate sometimes.”

“I recorded my first song at 15. But I started rhyming a few years before that. At first it was trading lyrics at school. We'd get in a circle in the playground with a beat-boxer and spit rhymes. Then it would turn into a big gathering after school.”

“I think music is great at posing a question. It doesn't always have to give the answer, but it can open the dialogue.”

“In most of my music it's firsthand experience, and some of the same rules apply in TV. The difference in music is the control, whereas doing this, it's someone else's words that you can play in your own way.”