AJ TRACEY

I'm the least animated person I know. Even on stage, I just walk across it.

I'm a very vengeful person - if someone didn't wanna get on board with me and I'm doing it well I'm gonna rub it in their face.

People ask me, how was university; I say it was boring and it wasn't for me. But if you wanna go, that's cool. I'm not out to lead people astray, but everyone has their vices.

I have a personal relationship with Dizzee Rascal - I know him, he's cool - so this is no disrespect to him or any other British rappers who tried to make it in America, like Wiley and Tinie Tempah, but the type of music they were making to be accepted over there - it doesn't translate.

When I was in secondary school, I cared about nothing but music.

The first thing I ever wanted to be was a lawyer, because I love arguing. But I'm very lazy. I'm intelligent, but I'm very lazy, so it seemed like a bit too much.

I thought, if a man has a girl's name and he's still scaring people, then maybe I should try doing it so I can be that guy.

I like wearing the things from Japan, because they usually get a different collection than we do.

My dad used to be a rapper, he had a rap group. They did proper old school, boom-bap music. He had a high top and everything.

I play 'Fortnite', I play 'FIFA', I'm trying to get into 'NBA' a little bit.

I did the Labour thing because I wanted my community to be better off. I'm pretty sure people are aware of the kind of money I make. I'm not telling people to vote Labour to benefit me.

I wasn't super emo when I was younger but I'm very neurotic, my mood swings really heavily so when I'm upset I go away from everyone.

At the end of the day, the only way that I was able to thrive was by people giving me a chance, not being close-minded.

Parklife is one of the festivals I most look forward to. The crowds are wild; I love seeing that energy, those sweaty moshpits.

As long as everyone around me is comfortable and we have a roof over our heads and we're eating, then it's fine and I can go off and do whatever I want.

At school, when everyone would sell sweets and chocolate, I'd always take it that step further. I'd hustle as hard as I could to get the new Air Forces, to go and chill with the posh kids and the white girls who were around my area.

When it comes to politics, unless it's an issue that's really close to home and you feel strongly about, I just don't think you should really talk about it.

Everyone around me does music, so I just kind of knew. It wasn't some magical moment. There were loads of other things I wanted to do. I wanted to be a lawyer, for example, because I just love arguing, but it wasn't on the cards.

I'm not afraid to use my platform. I don't want to preach to people; I just want to put my opinions across about things I feel strongly about.

I want to showcase my talent, I'm not just a grime MC, I'm an artist.

I never really do anything show-off-y, I keep it humble.

I like to draw from experiences in my past, but that alone is quite hard and complicated, because I don't want to say anything incriminating or too offensive, but I want to give people an insight into my life and how it was.

Even if it's a song I know isn't gonna do that well, I'm dropping it as a piece of art, so I always want sick visuals to go with it.

But just because I hate the Conservatives doesn't mean I'm gonna tell people to vote for the party I want. Inform yourself on what the parties stand for and make your own decision.

I never felt like I was in the grime scene. I was the outsider. So when I veered away from it, I didn't feel like I was leaving the circle - I felt like I was never in it.