Top 70 Kano Quotes

If my way of connecting with the younger generation was to do what they do, they would see through it straight away. I have to keep it real to be who I am, and I think they see that.

The first time I ever played Glastonbury I would have never have thought that a grime artist would have ever headlined it.

Music changes every year, but some people are great at riding waves and then they’re doing something different next year.

The key to acting well is to allow yourself to be vulnerable.

I think Mighty Moe really got me into a whole different style of MCing. There were a lot of people with simple lyrics and simple word play- he really pushed out the boat.

I don’t get nervous.

Visible success is important. It’s important to be able to look on the TV and see yourself, turn on the radio and hear yourself. To see people from where you’re from actually becoming successful.

I don’t want to be a preachy person.

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.

The first song I did was when I was 15 it was called ‘Party Mode.’

I feel a lot of hip-hop videos are all about portraying a lifestyle that the artist doesn’t even live.

Jermaine Defoe was from my area. Rio Ferdinand used to come into my barbershop.

I would continue to try to make songs how I did at the start. Wherever that be, like in your bedroom or coming up with ideas on the bus, as you grow that’s gonna change. Sometimes it can get forced.

If I looked back on 2019, in ten years’ time, and I’d only made club tune after club tune, what’s the purpose?

People used to say if you really want to crack it you have really got to go to America. But with the Internet and the scene how it is… Americans are coming here more and more. They are looking at what we are doing. I think it’s important that we all remain here, that we stay here and keep this scene thriving.

I don’t think groundbreaking shows such as ‘Top Boy’ are made every day.

I do feel that it’s very important to see positive imagery.

Me and Skepta, we’re kind of from the same world but have totally different-sounding albums. That’s why I get funny sometimes when people say I’m a grime artist. Not in a negative way, but I don’t feel it’s a true representation of the music I’m making.

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

We’re always going for it and trying to raise the bar and achieve more and more and just be as creative as we can.

Starting out, when I was on pirate radio, or even around 2005 when I was supporting Mike Skinner at Brixton Academy, I never really saw myself being able to play my own show there.

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 probably pay more attention to politics than what I used to.

The Wire’ was from a police perspective – in terms of the streets and that, it was probably like, thirty per cent. ‘Top Boy’ is really from the perspective of the quote-unquote criminal. It’s getting into the mind of these people and why they do what they do. It’s bigger than just ‘Woke up and wanted to be bad one day.’

Hip-hop is the art of story-telling.

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

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

Nah I’m not religious.

Ultimately, I want people to be inspired.

I’m just trying to humanise situations and represent voices that aren’t being represented.

I’m a big fan of D Double E who always used MCing styles that other people weren’t.

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.

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

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.

There’s an energy in people coming together and singing.

Drake can do that well, he can have the hottest tune every summer for the next 20 years, and that’s how he does his things. But naaaaah, I might go away for three years, you know what I mean?

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.

I would be extremely surprised if David Cameron watched ‘Top Boy.’ But maybe he should. Maybe he should.

There were eras of English music where people tried to rap in American accents and we lost our way.

New Banger’ is a statement, but it is more about giving the DJs something for the clubs. I think it should have a lot of club longevity as a tune.

I’m definitely not a nerd… but maybe I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to music and lyrics and things like that. Other than that, I’m definitley not a nerd. I wish I was, though.

Grime don’t mean nothing, we never called it grime. It’s just a word someone associated with us. I wouldn’t say all my music’s grimy.

David Cameron? He’s not my guy.

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.

Probably as young as 10 I would take songs and just change the lyrics.

It’s fine to keep releasing tune after tune if you can keep up with that pace but I can’t. I’m not the guy that will have the hot tune every month. That’s not me!

If you’re going to do something, it should be fresh and it shouldn’t have been done before.

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.

American racism seems to be a lot more in the open. The U.K. is different but it obviously still exists.

When you come out, and if you’re saying something worth taking note of, then people will give you their ears. If you’re not, it’s whatever.

I would love young girls to look up and see my string section or my brass section or the steel band and be like, ‘Wow! I never thought I could do that, that’s wicked! I want to be up there doing that.’

I think great art poses questions and doesn’t necessarily give answers and solutions – that’s not what I’m trying to do.

That is part of the problem, that lack of belief in yourself because you don’t see success around you. I guess that breeds defeatism, so yes there does need to be resources out there and support that will nurture talent that I believe is there, and passion that I know is there.

I hate PCs, and I hate using the mouse.

I need to make the album that deserves attention. Everyone’s busy. I need to really be saying something.

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

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 think, generally, it is always good to be aware of what is going on.

Sometimes I feel like distance helps observation.

It’s really important to me to still spend time in the ends – I’m there all the time. I do my videos there, I still talk about it. It’s important for me to be an inspiration to the youth of the area and not just leave now I’ve blown up.

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

Reggae was always playing at home in East Ham when I was growing up. Loud music would be coming from the bedroom, and downstairs all you’d hear was the bass. My uncles had sound systems and we used to go to Jamaica a lot as a family.

I would go to college and people would know me from the rave they went to at the weekend. So I would get a bit of respect. But I would always go to class and do my work. My mother made sure of that.

I don’t see myself as a political artist, but certain issues mean a lot to me.

For me, writing and creating music can be quite a solitary thing.

My favourite lessons in college were when we would have a professional teach us, or when we went out of the classroom for the day. You take in so much more when someone who’s been there and done it is telling you.

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

I’m not into releasing throwaway music for the sake of it.

My first bars were about wrestling! That was basically all I knew back then.

I like table-tennis and I’m good at it.