Through music, he says he has effectively found ways of expressing himself that would otherwise remain unreachable.”See, I’m not a very open person, face-to-face I’m no good at sharing my feelings with others, good or bad I kind of close up. You know, he’s been through some of the shit I’m going through now, and he gives me pointers on things – like how to deal with fame, success, money, haters. He told me never to read anything that was written about me as it would only piss me off I tried it once; he was right. Do I take it all on board? I listen to what he says, sure, but I also go my own way.” Musically, he likes to think of himself as a one-off, and comparisons with Dizzee Rascal, the first grime artist to reach the mainstream via his Mercury-winning 2003 album Boy In Da Corner, aren’t taken as flattery. Not so.”People think we’re friends,” he says, shaking his head, “but it’s not like that We only ever speak when it’s work related He has given me advice, though.

Skinner, taking Kano under his wing, asked him to collaborate on a track, then took his signing on a national tour. A year later, he’d signed to Skinner’s label 679 Recordings, suggesting to many that the latter was Obi Wan to Kano’s Luke Skywalker. No, we’d get money from – well, from whatever we were doing, basically. Like what? Well, from, you know, the street, from selling stuff: clothes, DVDs, drugs, anything.” Two years later, and with quite a reputation on the underground club scene, he came to the attention of Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, whose own eloquent urban poetry was rapidly making him a star. This proved a costly pursuit, and something he, his DJ brother (older by two years) and a group of friends only managed by doing whatever had to be done.”Bank accounts?” Kano laughs incredulously “We never had no bank accounts.

I’ve since seen a couple of my cousins go on and pursue it, and now they are playing for Bristol City, Charlton Athletic. They’ve made it, the big time.” He must be gutted? “No, actually, I’m not. I would be, if I was sitting at home wasting my life away, but fortunately I found another passion, and that was my music, innit?”While English may have held little interest for him at school (on poetry he says: “What’s that all about?”), he nevertheless clearly had a way with words himself and, by 16, was writing his own songs, pressing up his own CDs, touting them to record stores up and down the country and paying pirate radio stations to add them to their playlist. He had trials for Norwich and Chelsea but became, he says, “lazy and bored,” and so ultimately lost interest.”I really irritated a lot of the people around me who couldn’t believe my attitude,” he chuckles, “because the way they saw it, I had this incredible opportunity But, you know, that’s just how I felt. It’s just I had a bit of a talent for it, I suppose.” He appears to be understating things somewhat. Word has it he was very good, his habit of scoring goals potentially paving the way towards future millionaire status and a taste for garish sports cars. But his most natural instinct in his mid-teens was sport, specifically football.”I was never much interested in watching it or following it as a fan.