As a young guy from south London, I wanted to be able to make myself stand out.

I was like 14 and decided I wanted to be a rapper, so I needed a hip rapper name. I was with one of my friends in class and literally went through a thesaurus. I saw "temper" and thought, "I like this, but it's too much." My friend was like, "What about Tinie for tiny," and that was that.

I'm into everything. My iPod is very eclectic - if you kept it on shuffle, you'd be amazed. For example, I was forced to grow up on Dolly Parton. My mum was obsessed by her. She bought all this memorabilia for the front room. It's ridiculous.

I watched my parents go from having very basic jobs to educating themselves, to buying a house. They set a really good bar for what they wanted their kids to achieve.

Artists take on an alias that's suitable for their style of music. Everyone had a nickname when they were younger.

If people are not listening to you as individuals, it's always good to get together and make a stand for something.

Gone are the days when you'd have to tune in to a mad illegal radio station late at night to be able to hear the rapper of your choice. That's all changed now. That's all gone out of the window. And I feel like I represent that change. I represent the era of iPods and Shuffle and things like that.