‘I’d listen to 50 Cent rapping about the mean streets of the Bronx and knew I could never do that for Plumstead – so I pretended I was from the East End’
I came from a relatively poor council estate background in
London. By the time I was 12, I was looking for black male role models and wondering how to make real money doing something I loved. I wanted a name I could be known by on the street. I liked the word “temper” but it sounded too aggressive, so I softened it to Tinie Tempah. I’d listen to 50 Cent rapping about the mean streets of the Bronx and wondered how I could ever do that for Plumstead. You had to be from a certain area or with a crew, like Dizzee Rascal or Wiley, so I joined the grime collective Aftershock Hooligans, and for a time pretended I was from the East End, to make
Friends.