Tempah Trap

2010’s most rapidly rising star might already have a number one under his belt, but Tinie Tempah tells Camilla Pia how he’s fuelled by “excitement and anxiety”…

It’s rush hour on a Friday and The Fly is zipping up and down a central London street trying to locate our interview meeting point. “Do you know Soho House?” we ask a waiter from a nearby cafe. Nope. Great. Now drop us in Camden and we’d have no problem sniffing out the nearest scuzzy venue in our sleep, or whack us slap bang in the centre of Shoreditch with the wrong prescription ‘nerd specs’ and we’d be front row for the latest hyped noiseniks in a jiffy. But a swanky private members’ club/celeb magnet? Well, it’s just not the type of place we’re used to frequenting. And it’s reassuring to hear that The Fly is not alone in feeling like a fish out of water this evening. When we finally pinpoint the place, navigate our way up the stone steps and past the snooty clientele to enter the ‘library room’ (there’s not a book in sight, by the way), Tinie Tempah – aka Patrick Chukwuem Okogwu Jr. – is sitting quietly nursing a large glass of red wine. He’s been here all day doing promo and despite looking like he fits right in (he’s dressed dapperly complete with diamond stud earring and boxfresh white trainers), the young MC makes no secret of the fact that he’s totally in awe of just how far his music has taken him. From South London to Soho House in a mere matter of months. “It’s the most unreal feeling ever,” he grins. “I mean, I’m 21 and a lot of these things were virtually unknown to me before I did this; like the people I’m meeting, the places I’ve seen, being somewhere like this…that…” he points to a lavish mirrored bar at the side of the room presumably for whipping up cosmos. “It’s like I rubbed the lamp and met the genie and whatever I asked for, he made it happen.” The genie done good, 2010 has been a remarkable year for Tinie.

Debut single ‘Pass Out’ went to number one in March, winning him a whole host of famous fans in P.Diddy, Paris Hilton, Damon Albarn, Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan (who he tells us won’t stop messaging him on Twitter) and Prince William, as well as tours with Jay-Z and Rihanna. And most recently Tinie visited a brand new studio that has been opened in his name at his old school – which he describes as the most humbling experience of all. “I feel like every move I make is related back to my community,” he says. “I remember reading Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth Of Nations’ and it made so much sense to me. I believe that if you set a good example for people it can really change things. When I visited my old school all I could think about was me as a 12-year-old kid being obsessed with So Solid and Dizzee. They instilled a lot of belief in me that I could make it too. Now I’m such a firm believer in good music,” he adds. “It speaks volumes regardless of who you are or where you come from.” Music is one of Tempah’s favourite talking points, though. He visibly lights up while waxing lyrical about some of his current favourites: Sleigh Bells (“SICK”), The xx, Rick Ross, Erick Morillo and, erm, Michael Buble. “I think anybody who doesn’t like a mix of genres is weird,” he laughs. And unsurprisingly the MC’s debut album ‘Disc-Overy’ is just as eclectic as his taste. The collaborations (with Ellie Goulding, Labrinth, Empire Of The Sun’s Luke Steele, Kelly Rowland and Swedish House Mafia) are definitely one of the record’s biggest strengths, but it’s Tinie’s witty flow that thrills the most – with nods to everything from British institutions like Wine Gums, Trisha, choccy biscuits and Dyson hoovers to QVC, Mrs Doubtfire, Malorie Blackman and The Chronicles Of Narnia. “Halfway through making it I had a number one single,” Tinie explains. “So it was all performances and trips abroad while I was trying to complete the album. We recorded it where we could,” he adds. “I’d wake up in a hotel, drink a lemon and honey and have to nail a track in the bedroom, and you can definitely hear my excitement and anxiety in the music. All that ‘oh shit, what the hell is happening to me’ is on there. Sometimes I do feel overwhelmed by it all,” he admits, “but I just breathe deeply and think this is everything I ever wanted, and then run with it.”

‘Disc-Overy’ is out now on Parlophone.