Tinie Tempah's My London

Tinie Tempah

10 April 2012

Musician Tinie Tempah hangs out with magicians, eats Nigerian on the Old Kent Road and has a secret place in Greenwich

Home is
I live alone in Canary Wharf. I'd wanted to live there ever since I used to rehearse in Creekside Studios in Deptford and gaze out longingly at the apartments.

What was the last play you saw in London?
Been So Long at the Young Vic, with Omar Lyefook. A lot of plays are just escapism, but this was a very real play, you can see it happening to a friend. It was so good I went to see it twice.

What advice would you give to a tourist coming to London?
Don't just focus on the West End. Shoreditch is cool to explore and so are the theatres in Waterloo, The Young Vic and The Old Vic.

Which London shops do you rely on?
Liberty and Selfridges for clothes. My favourite labels are A.P.C., Acne and Junya Watanabe. Sainsbury's, as it's open really late, is great for last-minute supermarket shopping. I love Present on Shoreditch High Street for trendy jackets and trainers.

What's the best meal you've had in London?
My favourite food is Nigerian so my best meal would be at Presidential Suya on the Old Kent Road. The cooking's almost as good as my mum's. I love the jollof rice, black-eyed beans, stewed beef and plantain.

What's your earliest London memory?
Council estates. I was born in Wendover House on the Aylesbury Estate near Elephant & Castle and my favourite auntie lived in a tower block in Camberwell. I remember grey, high-rise blocks for as far as I could see.

What would be on your tombstone?
Love, live, life.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Magic. I hang around with Dynamo a lot, he's the best magician ever. And comedy. I love Frankie Boyle.

What are you most afraid of?
Not fulfilling my potential.

What would you do as Mayor for the day?
I'd visit lots of school, as I don't think that's done enough. I'd use my authority to go and chat to some young people.

What animal would you most like to be?
A bird. They get to see the world from a perspective that noone else gets to.

What was the last album you bought?
Darwin Deez by American band Darwin Deez

What would you save from a fire?
My MacBook laptop, because it's got all my important stuff on it, including material for my second album.

What makes you cry?
Seeing my family cry.

What are you up to at the moment?
I'm supporting Usher on his OMG European tour.

Which is your favourite London street for shopping?
Carnaby Street.

Who's your hero?
My mum.

What do you most like wearing?
Denim shirts, vintage Nike blazers in different colours, chinos, corduroys and my Cutler and Gross specs.

Where's the most romantic place in London?
Someone once showed me their secret place. You have to go in between houses, up stairs and over streets to find it. It's right next to the Old Greenwich Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park. You can see all of London

Which is your favourite London pub?
The Gun in Cold Harbour, Docklands.

Tell me something I don't know about London...
If London was a country, it would be the eighth biggest, population-wise, in Europe.

Where were the last places you went on holiday?
Marseilles, although that's wasn't strictly a holiday as I was working. Before that, I went to the Gold Coast in Australia, which was really cool and exciting. And Portugal, which was a proper relaxing holiday.

What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you?
I was in a club, about to perform and the stage was a steep box which I had to haul myself up on to. When I did, I ripped an entire area of my jeans.

Have you ever stolen anything?
My dad used to have a barber shop and next door was a newsagent that I used to nick a few sweets from once in a while.

Pandora Sykes

Tinie Tempah's new single, 'Wonderman' featuring Ellie Goulding, is out on now

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