Stormzy

“My mum's always had big aspirations because I'm an academic. I always got good grades at school. GCSEs were just a breeze for me.”

“On the microphone, I'm not scared to step up and say, 'This is my ability, this is how good I am.' In other areas of life, I'm not so confident; I'm still adjusting to the photo shoots, all...”

“You read a book, write a detailed review as proof you've read it, and they give you a badge. That's where my competitive nature came out. Give me the badges! I would sit in the library all d...”

“I was doing without for so long, not knowing the things that are normal for musicians. I was getting bookings regardless, people phoning or emailing me direct, and journalists were writing a...”

“My approach is just fearless. I'm not afraid to try anything.”

“I went to pick up my nephew from primary school, and one of the teachers there stopped me and said, 'My son listens to you.' That's quite an awkward thing.”

“My core is grime. But I make all kinds of music. Take Picasso. He could paint whatever way he liked. He could do a little ting with a felt tip if he wanted to - it's still going to be a bad...”

“I need to just make as much noise and bang on as many doors as possible 'til men are, like, giving you the recognition.”

“Britain is not just One Direction, Little Mix, and James Bay. There's Skepta killing it, there's Krept and Konan killing it.”

“I grew up as a British kid - I went to school in London, roamed the streets of London - but having these interactions with my roots and going back to Ghana, I'm like, 'Yeah this is sick.' I...”

“I don't care if it's a white millionaire kid from Oxfordshire who comes to my show, buys my record, supports me and rates me. It's cool.”

“In school, all my teachers and my mum were super routing for me to study at Oxford. I picked music as a career choice, and this didn't sit too well with them!”

“Every single thing that I was told that I couldn't do without a label - get in the charts, get on to the Radio 1 playlist - I've done.”

“If I'm not working on music, I'm usually with my friends playing FIFA. We just kick back - I'm proper chilled.”

“I'm not mad into raving, to be honest. If it's not music, I'm chilling. But most of the time, it's music.”

“Engineering was the safe and sensible choice, but music was what I loved and wanted to do.”

“When I'm good at something, I always try to be the best at it and claim that throne. Even in school, I never let anyone say anything to me; I would always be the smartest.”

“I like flipping Coldplay. And I like Jessie Ware. But I'm sure how we grew up was totally different.”

“It's not always about convincing your parents of what you want to do, but just saying, 'This is what I'm doing; this is what I love.'”

“People always meet me and go, 'You're so much cooler than I thought you'd be,' and I'm like, 'What did you expect me to be like?'”