'No fear' is a mindset that I stand for. It's the reason why I've got to where I am today.
Skepta
Even with the 'Top Boy' series with Ashley Walters... I've been talking like on the creative direction wave with Drake about the series. Making greatness with it. The whole style of what's going on in London, the sound, is real. It's an actual thing that actually happened. So it deserves to be on the telly.
The star, the person who's on the mic, always gets seen.
For a long time, men weren't respecting women. They weren't understanding Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the Motherland, all the motherly stuff. And now we are.
When I was a youth, to be called 'African' was a diss. At school, the African kids used to lie and say they were Jamaican. So when I first came in the game, and I'm saying lyrics like, 'I make Nigerians proud of their tribal scars/ My bars make you push up your chest like bras,' that was a big deal for me.
I'm winning even if I have zero pence in my bank account, because my mind's free.
In school, I wasn't like the cool guy who had all the new clothes and had all the girls. I felt like the world saw me as an idiot.
When I got 'forever' tattooed on my throat, it meant that my legacy was going to live forever. So anything that I create, I do it because I believe it will live on, forever.
I feel like I'm the chosen one, but I chose myself.
I've been into clothes since I was a kid, going to garage raves and seeing all the Tottenham gangsters wearing Moschino and Versace; I just always had a passion for it.
If you don't put your crew on your album, you're a snake.
England is so black and white, so plain, like a burger with nothing on it. No salad, nothing. That's why it's so real.
I've realised that there's art in everything we do in London. Suddenly, a photo of two boys sitting on a wall in tracksuits with a dog can go online and be considered a sick photo. That's what we've done to London.
Boy Better Know, when we die, people are going to realise that we are just seven guys who just, like, try to have fun.
All the other rappers around me aren't saying anything worthwhile. They're lost in rap: all they do is tell you they're a sick MC and they're better than you. I don't want to look like all these other little punk, dress-up, fake, manufactured artists. I'm not a rapper. I'm an activist.
There's a lot of oppressed people in Tottenham, but people in Tottenham also know how to turn pain into triumph.
I know that I'm in grime, but I had to separate myself and do things myself.
I go to award ceremonies, but I always like to be in my world. That's the only place I can control where I won't get upset.
Songs like 'One Love' by Bob Marley - they stand the test of time - it doesn't matter - so anytime I write music, I try to write in tune with an emotion, and I hope there are more times like that for everyone.
After touring so much, I was looking for some peace. I found Morocco, and it was perfect. Everything I wanted to feel about peace, I found it there.
There would be weeks when I'd just go to Paris on a cheap ticket, sleep on my friend's floor, and just do a show because I knew I was going to do a show. Do it, get home, see it on my timeline, and be happy that I was just working.
I suppose when I was growing up, it was all about fitting into a box or fitting into a category. You know, looking like I listened to hip-hop, or looking like I listened to grime. You'd see someone and go, 'Oh, look at that person. He's wearing that or that; he listens to punk rock.'
With the music that I've put out, I realized that putting pressure on an album isn't always the right thing to do for yourself.
I'm paranoid of people hating on me.
'Konnichiwa' was made because I don't like the industry. I really had to remove myself from it to understand myself.
I'm not gonna ever announce that I'm going to do an album again. Waking up with that on your head almost doesn't allow you to make the best album you can.
Don't compare me to Stormzy. Me and Stormzy are both legends in our own right.
Every year, I always go abroad with dark music, and I'm going to these places, and I feel like I want a party rep - I want something that everyone is going to go crazy to and enjoy and have a good feeling.
It's important for anybody who finds success to show other people where to find it.
I hear all the big department stores like Macy's and Bloomingdale's in the U.S. playing hard hip-hop records to the shoppers, like Rick Ross at his gnarliest. That's amazing. It makes me think grime can do a similar thing.
Britain is just a melting pot for every culture. Like a pot for every culture around the world mixed into one. Artists over here understand that more.
Beyonce's 'Bow Down,' to me, that could be a grime tune. If it's electronic and 140-ish bpm, and people go crazy to it, to me, that's grime.
There are people who take on different objectives and missions in life. When you grow older, there's a a void - and right now, I'm filling a space where a lot of old rock, grime, hip-hop, punk artists left a vacant space.
When I do music videos, I like to do a take, then see how it looks, so I can correct it.
You have to understand, that's all I've ever wanted: for London to have a credible musical voice. I will honestly, honestly die happy knowing that I saw it happen.
Basically, a lot of people have asked to jump on 'Shutdown' remix, I'm not gonna front. But 'cause of quality control, we wanted to make it really big: it's all about spreading the British sound and culture.
I put three productions of my youngest brother Jason on my album, on 'Konnichiwa,' and that made me happy, to be able to do that for him.
When I was younger, I was very wild, and I didn't really have my head screwed on properly.
I am blessed to have been able to travel the world doing what I do.
Everyone knows their wrong from right, so when people are being racist, they know they're being ignorant.
I think about this every day. I wonder, 'Is today the day where everybody stops lying to themselves and realises that the government is the enemy?'
Pirate radio is like street art.
Adele texts me all the time and keeps me in check.
They respect rappers in the U.S., but in England, it's the Queen's country. She'll forever be putting out the message on these BBC networks that there's no hood: it's tea and red phoneboxes.
I am for feminism. I stand up for women standing up for themselves in the same way I stand up for being black.
I've been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long... I was like, 'Let's do it for ourselves.' All these songs, we've travelled the world - no record label, nothing. We just did this for us, but the love is very appreciated.
I was like, 'I can't do grime. That's for kids.' - I was 20 at the time, and I thought I was a gangsta, a proper rude boy.
I'm happy that grime remains underground. A lot of people talk like it's some underrated or ignored genre, but to me, that's the beauty of it.
To be able to come back to Nigeria and get so much love for my work is my biggest life blessing. I've always hoped to never get lost in translation with me being British-born.
I used to think my accent was blocking me, and I hated it. Then I went to America, and every time someone said, 'What? Can you say that again?' I started liking it.
