Quotes from Kano

I've got a friend who went to jail in 2004 just before my first album came out. I'm on TV, and they're inside, looking at me like I'm 50 Cent. They think I'm killing it, earning mad dough every day. I'm sending him trainers and that, but it's not enough, because he thinks I should be doing more.

London, London, London town, You can toughen up or get thrown around.

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

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.'

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.

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'm laid-back. Sometimes, I think being laid-back will be my downfall; I'm a little too good at sitting on the sofa and doing nothing. But what can I say? It's who I am, how I am, how I've always been.

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

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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

I hate PCs, and I hate using the mouse.

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.

As an MC, I come from a background where the onstage experience is freestyle-based: you never know who's going to join you on stage, or what you're gonna do, or how long you can stay on. You kind of lose that, once you get on to recording albums and going on tour. Doing Africa Express has brought me back to that excitement - for the unexpected.

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 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.

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.

Sometimes I feel like distance helps observation.

See, I'm not a very open person, face-to-face. I'm no good at sharing my feelings with others, good or bad. I kind of close up. Music is the only time I can open up and actually say things.

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