Growing up with my brothers, I was like an accompanying mascot to them. The whole heritage and culture of soundsystems is all in my blood y'know? Then obviously from DJing, I just went onto building my own sound and producing my own music.

I listen to music every day and that is a fact. My son pointed out the other day that there's not a day that goes by without him listening to music in our house. I'm still an avid punter when it comes to either checking out bands or buying new music.

We, black British, were searching - as the first generation that was born and raised here - for our own identity. We already knew what the Caribbean thing was about. We grew up with the racial tension and unrest. They were either touching your head for good luck or kicking you down the stairs for being too dark. But that was part and parcel of how we grew up in London. But in terms of our identity, it was more about us claiming it y'know?

I think the production thing was a stroke of luck really. But for me, I had to do it, as it was always part of the plan. But my biggest claim to fame was to recognize those who were at the time unrecognised. Soul II Soul was like a festival to all these artists who wanted to be a part of it. We travel to all these different destinations and everyone gets off where they need to.

No matter where I went, there was someone rejecting my ideology. What was interesting was these reactions made me want to do it even more because we had smoothed over that void, smoothed over what was missing. After all, our motto was, "A happy face, a thumping bass, for a loving race."

Growing up with my brothers, I was like an accompanying mascot to them. The whole heritage and culture of soundsystems is all in my blood y'know? Then obviously from DJing, I just went onto building my own sound and producing my own music.

Music and fashion really do go hand in hand. This is even going back to the reggae days.