He felt lost and outclassed in the chart-topping Roll Deep crew alongside Wiley. But now the Londoner is making grime’s most honest, soul-searching tracks
Manga Saint Hilare should be out touring his new album Make It Out Alive but, like the rest of us, he’s at home using his time to learn new things. “I’ve been learning how to make beats, improving my Photoshop skills and designing
Instagram filters for promotion,” he says. “Things that can help my ting, really.”
He even jokes about jumping on TikTok and starting a career there – funny because at 34, the
London Rapper is now a lot older than the platform’s fresh-faced dancers and meme-slingers. While drill and Afro-swing are the current dominant sounds of
UK rap, Manga belongs to a previous generation: the grime MCs who built their credibility earning reloads in raves, the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Kano who paved the way for Stormzy.