The talented Tinie Tempah

Tinie Tempah has friends in high places. Jay-Z loves how the South Londoner is starting to reinvigorate the American rap scene with a vivacious UK pop twist.

Chris Martin is on speed dial - the Coldplay frontman regularly calls with advice on crafting the follow-up to Tinie's Brit Award-winning debut album, Disc-Overy, which has sold 1.3 million copies since its release a year ago. He has even entertained royalty. Prince William and Kate Middleton went backstage after Tinie played Radio 1's Big Weekend, signalling that the performer has most definitely left the UK underground for the international pop A-list, parlaying grime club culture into a multi-platform brand whirlwind with a Nike footwear collaboration in the works and (already) an autobiography, My Story So Far.

Not that A-lister approval is Tinie's priority. Respect closer to home matters more. 'I've definitely done something that's made my mum and dad forever proud,' says the 22-year-old, whose God-fearing Nigerian parents named him Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu Jr. His father, formerly a barber, now a social worker, and his mother told their four children that they had a '20-year start' on their immigrant parents' generation, so they best not squander the opportunities afforded them. They are justifiably thrilled by the triumphs of their fiercely ambitious eldest. With a middle name that translates loosely as 'God is Great', and educated in a succession of Catholic schools (Tinie has nothing but good things to say about his time in academia), he is the well-tailored, well-mannered, well-brought-up exemplar of modern British music.

'I don't want to achieve less than my mum and dad,' says Tinie, who marked signing his EMI record deal in October 2009 by presenting his parents with an outsized, lottery winner-style cheque. His sister Kelly has just completed a sociology degree at Brunel, Marian is in her final year studying law at Leicester's De Montfort University, and Kelvin, six years younger than Tinie, has started college. 'Every generation that comes from this family has to do better than the last,' says Tinie.

He is polite and eloquent. He answers questions in fluid but sharp, thought-out sentences and cultivates a stoutly English manner: his blog is called Milk And 2 Sugars, he favours a gent- classics-with-a-twist style and no, he doesn't need those reading glasses, he just likes the bespectacled look.

Little wonder that nice Chris Martin of Coldplay approves. 'Chris has been a good mentor,' says Tinie. 'He rings me once in a while - "How's it going, how's the album going? Don't rush it, make sure you play it to me before you've finished it. And when you feel like you've finished it, just make one more song" He's given me loads of advice. Damon [Albarn] has done that as well, and Kylie'

When he was a teenage wannabe, Dizzee Rascal and So Solid Crew were the trailblazing acts that the young Patrick sought to emulate. 'Dizzee's just my childhood hero,' he smiles. 'He's definitely the inspiration. He's got himself to a very good place. He's defied the expectations of what British black urban music was like. He was the first person who made the rest of Britain realise it wasn't just a one-album-type situation. You've got to take your hat off to somebody like that.'

His early musical training took place on the regional club circuit. Adopting an obligatory hip-hop name, albeit a safe, cute-sounding one, Patrick became Tinie Tempah. 'Doing a couple of gigs here and there in Hatfield or Hitchin or Milton Keynes... I was like, "I've made it, man, f***ing hell, I'm a star!" I was happy with my £400 a week,' he remembers. But then when his peers started signing record deals and getting Top 20s, he realised, 'S**t, there's a whole different tier of success that I have not yet reached...'

He'd released a mixtape, Sexy Beast, but its impact was minimal. His manager, cousin Dumi, 'laid it straight': if Tinie Tempah wanted to be more than a storm in a tiny teacup, he had to work harder. He knuckled down and, after creating a YouTube and club buzz, released Disc-Overy in October 2010. Working with hot producers and writers including Labrinth and Emeli Sandé, and collaborating with guest vocalists Kelly Rowland and Ellie Goulding, Tinie Tempah crafted a hit-stuffed album - the singles 'Pass Out' and 'Written In The Stars' both reached number one.

A year on, Tinie Tempah has come a long way. He's just back from a long-overdue holiday in Jamaica with a new friend. 'I haven't got a bird just now, but I met this really nice girl. She's the most exciting girl that I've seen thus far. She's from Sweden, she's a model, and she's 28.' A 28-year-old Swedish model - what did he see in her? 'I know, f***ing hell,' he grins.