The council estate I grew up on wasn't too bad.

My grandmother and my mother raised me, but my dad made a conscious effort to be in my life - every weekend he would take me out.

That whole 'Bo' Selecta!' thing was damaging. I played along with it; I said it was cool, I can take a joke, roll with it, so I went on the show. But it was killing me.

I grew up on dancehall music, and it holds a strong place in my heart.

What I dislike about going to the club is if you're not behind that red rope, you feel you're missing something special going on.

I always felt like I had stability, doing things with my dad and living with my mum.

I let the music do the talking, and people are still getting feelings from my songs.

My songs are a time stamp for a lot of people's lives.

I was devastated by Gene Wilder's death.

My mum made the best roasts.

I wanna have a positive impact and bring in artists on the come-up. It gets me hyped!

I recognise life is like a magnet. Positive and negative are on the opposite sides of the magnet. You can try to cut the negative part off, but it's still there. When you accept both of them, it's like, 'You know what? Don't get too identified with success or too identified with failure - just be cool with them.'

I could never have dreamed of picking up an Ivor Novello for anything... but for Songwriter Of The Year, it's just amazing.

Writing for others is great cos you can tailor it for them.

We need to stop thinking the grass is greener on the other side and be happy with the love we have.

By fusing R&B with a U.K. garage sound, you can create energy. 'Fill Me In' showed me that.

I just keep it real, and I have written songs from my heart and performed them how they should be performed.

I'm an only child, so I got spoilt a lot. Which was a good thing.

I am only as good as my last song. Hits are a pension, but I don't want to rest on those songs. I want to have a future.

'Fill Me In' went to number one at the same time Destiny's Child released 'Say My Name.' Having a number one over Destiny's Child at their peak was just madness to me.

Life is all about how things rough up against you and how you see them and the vantage point you have from them.

Before my first album 'Born To Do It,' I used to DJ.

I grew up in Southampton. My mum was a shop assistant; my dad was a carpenter. They broke up when I was eight.

We can all accept criticism of creative work, but to be publicly ridiculed for it is incredibly difficult to deal with.