The best rappers I know are, like, air-conditioner men.
Our talent and skill as rappers is clearly the first thing you notice. I don't know what we were thinking. We just really love rap and wanted to be rappers. Is that weird?
I love the playfulness and braggadocio that accompanies a ton of rap music - that's basically what makes up the foundation for most rappers. But there is nothing 'weirder' to me than someone who has never doubted themselves.
I had written rap songs in the early '90s and even did a couple homemade rap songs with my brother in like '88 or '89, but it was just like... I don't even know how to say it. Just plain rap. I was just rapping about whatever, there was no real style or direction, it was just semi-braggadocious rhymes that probably imitated 100 other rappers.
A lot of times, when people say hip-hop, they don't know what they're talking about. They just think of the rappers. When you talk about hip-hop, you're talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.
I have a personal relationship with Dizzee Rascal - I know him, he's cool - so this is no disrespect to him or any other British rappers who tried to make it in America, like Wiley and Tinie Tempah, but the type of music they were making to be accepted over there - it doesn't translate.
In America, they don't need to look outside their country for anything, so they definitely don't need to look elsewhere for rappers with weird accents that they have to get accustomed to, which is like homework to them.