“At some of my earliest shows, we used to roll up 20 deep - if my mates...” — Kano Quote

At some of my earliest shows, we used to roll up 20 deep - if my mates can't come in, I can't come in. My record label couldn't understand it: plus-19 on the guestlist?! But that was how it was. Over the years - as it is with everyone, but amplified from being in the public - it's got smaller and smaller.

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

I'm not into releasing throwaway music for the sake of it.

There were eras of English music where people tried to rap in American accents and we lost our way.

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.

Having watched television, I would kind of play the role or picture myself on a television show or something like that. That's maybe always been true of a certain type of kid, even before television maybe, but I think it's been amplified to an insane level.

Americans have always welcomed people of all backgrounds, religions, and races. It's a spirit of tolerance, now energized and amplified by the cult of multiculturalism.

Usually bands with violins - it's this little, poorly amplified looking kind of futile on stage, and that's not the way that my music is put together.

I have spent more time thinking about European issues than even I can imagine - so many years thinking about Britain and the way our influence around the world was amplified through the European Union.