Quotes from Dizzee Rascal

I actually really like DJ Assault - a Detroit a ghetto tech DJ, who's produced good music that's influenced me a bit.

I don't really class myself as a musician, I can make music but I'm not the greatest technically. There were other people who were technically better than me in school but I knew how I wanted to sound and all I needed was to work out how to do it.

Some people will never let the grime thing go, but my fifth album is not meant to sound like my first album.

There's a lot going on music-wise in L.A. It's a wicked place to wake up, there's sunshine, you go to the studio, see all these really talented producers.

I think a black man, purple man, Martian man can run the country... as long as he does right by the people.

Music's something that I really wasn't pushed into, it was something I just kinda chose, I just kept pushing myself, and it was all down to me.

My first school is gone - turned into flats.

If you are going to work, you might as well follow your heart, because nothing in life is easy and if it's going to be hard, it might as well be what you really want.

I quite like thai boxing. But then I'm not surprised because I did taekwondo and karate and judo and all of that when I was a kid, and then just stopped when I got a bit older.

I grew up on the pirate radio scene which started out as drum 'n' bass music. U.K. garage picked up and got bigger on the back end of that.

Politicians... say what they say - you might get every now and again a genuine one, innit? But I think people, like, as a whole make the difference.

You can never have enough winter jackets.

I like to work with the best artists, full stop, around the world, and just make things happen man.

Rappers and MCs have always had an alias. Building your character, it helps you to get things out.

There's a real gun culture in the U.K., for those who don't know. It's very real.

People used to shoot their guns while I was MCing.

When you're actually boxing, unless it's a proper grudge match, it's less about beating the person up and more about being better within yourself. Being patient, timing things, like chess, so really, it's as much down to you as what the other person does - and that's life.

Every summer in my old area, Bow, these kids from across the road used to bring out quad bikes in the park. They let me have a go, and I don't know what was wrong with me, but I drove straight into a gate and fractured my big toe. I had this mad limp for ages.

When you're doing things like Glastonbury main stage, and there's 80,000 people and your hits are going off, it's at those moments you sit back and breathe and take it in, man, cos it might never happen again.

I liked going to the Caribbean, just having nice holidays, do you know what I mean?

Hip hop is the way it is because of America.

In each genre, I've been around the biggest. In pop I toured with Justin Timberlake, with reggae it was Sean Paul; I toured with Jay-Z and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's all an education for me, to see how they do it.

There's just something about being English. When you travel the world you feel more grateful.

Seeing different sides of life, seeing different sides of society, that's what London's all about. When I was young my mum always tried to make me do that.