Where I'm from, there ain't a lot of other options, you know what I'm saying? Entertainment or football or crime. I don't want to spread the message that all you can do is music or sport. You can be anything. Anything. That's the message I like to spread.

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.

Even I find myself boring sometimes.

I'm definitely not proud of some of the stuff I did as a youth, but that's where my mind-frame was at one point in my life, and I can't pretend those things didn't happen. I'm not glorifying them, I'm trying to make them into art.

America is the land of the hustler: it's bigger, bolder, flasher, more in your face, whereas England's more about attention to detail - trying to be refined and classy, and I think a lot of people in the urban scene in this country have had trouble accepting that.

Hip hop is the way it is because of America.

School would have been pretty dead really for me without music. I liked IT, and English was all right, but that was it.

I don't really class myself as a musician, I can make music but I'm not the greatest technically. There were other people who were technically better than me in school but I knew how I wanted to sound and all I needed was to work out how to do it.

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

People talk about the pop part - they don't talk about me being an independent artist. I made it look easy, that's the problem!

I dominated the underground and then I dominated the overground, and I did that on my own.

No U.K. rapper has been in my position; there are loads of big rappers like Tinie Tempah or Skepta, but no one has done what I have: had mainstream success with underground music and pop music.

I'm not gonna lie; I don't always like everything about Bow and I don't always like everyone in Bow and they don't always like me but on the whole I love where I come from. I'm proud of where I come from and I'm proud to represent that area.

I learned to MC over drum 'n' bass music.

I grew up on the pirate radio scene which started out as drum 'n' bass music. U.K. garage picked up and got bigger on the back end of that.

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.

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

The world's a jungle in my eyes, innit? Everything's tribal. If you see someone who don't look like you - especially the colour of your skin - you're going to be suspicious, or not as welcoming or warming, innit? I've learned not to take it too personal.

I'm an entertainer.

My London is racy. Hyper. Unpredictable. Uncontrollable. Er. Intense.

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

I was making grime before anyone else.

I think there's loads of undiagnosed depression where I came from. Post-traumatic stress disorder as well. Some of the things you see as a kid are like the things you'd expect to see in a war zone, but there's no one to talk to about it because running to a psychiatrist ain't the thing.

Grime 4 Corbyn? I just don't know what I'm supposed to feel about that - does he even listen to grime?

I don't like to be picked on. Growing up where I did you learn to fight.

I'm not really going to defend anyone's lyrics.

As a kid, I felt I had it bad - and people where I came from did - but if I'd been in a similar position in America, it could've been 10 times worse. We have the NHS. We don't have slums like I've seen in the Deep south, or shocking intolerance.

Some people will never let the grime thing go, but my fifth album is not meant to sound like my first album.

There's a real gun culture in the U.K., for those who don't know. It's very real.

I'm not afraid to embrace different music and different culture and put it in the music.

There's things that I say that people wouldn't say. And just putting across my vulnerability as a person in my music as well. A lot of people wouldn't do that, everyone wants to be hard.

Everything kind of happened like: 'Bam!' for me. One minute I was living on a council estate somewhere, then I won the Mercurys, then all of a sudden press and people were in my face.

I take risks.

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.

I'd done plenty of dark stuff and edgy stuff and hardcore stuff, and I kind of found that stuff easy.

No one can establish what selling out is.

I see all that celebrity stuff now as whatever, man. What's more important is that everyday people are liking my music, it's got to that stage. I've worked really hard for a long time for it to come to this point, where I'm putting smiles on people's faces, and I'm loving it.

My first school is gone - turned into flats.

In Miami, there's a buzz there, everyone out there's partying - it's crazy.

There's a lot going on music-wise in L.A. It's a wicked place to wake up, there's sunshine, you go to the studio, see all these really talented producers.

When I was growing up, it was 'All Eyes On Me' by Tupac and 'Doggy Style' by Snoop Dogg. I've met Snoop and he's the best. They say you shouldn't meet your idol - that definitely doesn't apply to him.

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.

My fans are lunatics. I encourage mosh pits, I encourage lunacy, I make music to let go to.

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.

People who criticise me are just jealous.

London's where I grew up and had most of my experiences.

Seeing different sides of life, seeing different sides of society, that's what London's all about. When I was young my mum always tried to make me do that.

There's so much to London, so many different kinds of people and people are the key to life, but my favourite part? It's got to be Bow, where I come from.

All that really moves me is music.

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