Glass meets Tinie Tempah to find out more about his journey from the charts to the catwalk with his fashion label What We Wear.
“Imagine running and someone is constantly pulling the back of your shirt. Imagine you’re trying to get to the finish line, and when you get there someone says, ‘Well done mate’ – that’s kind of what the past ten years has felt like.”
From his years spent broadcasting pirate radio sessions in tower-block bedrooms as a teenager, to his debut album, Disc-Overy, selling millions of copies and going to triple platinum, Tinie Tempah (real name Patrick Okogwu), his rise to stardom and his handling of the challenges thrown at him, is inspiring. Now with three MOBOs, an Ivor Novello, two BRITs and a nomination for the Mercury Prize in 2011 to his name, 29-year-old Tinie Tempah has had his fair share of successes. Today, Tempah is conquering the fashion world with weapons of world-class production.
On the title track of his latest album Youth, Tempah opens with, “I’ve been coasting but the last few years have been weird,” but in the eye of the beholder they’ve been anything but. Since becoming an ambassador at London Fashion Week Men’s [LFWM] five years ago, Tempah has had his clothing collection Disturbing London sold at Selfridges, walked for Dolce & Gabbana at Milan Fashion Week and, two years ago, established his own brand What We Wear, which now shows at LFWM.
Designers and fellow creatives were instrumental in the whole process, he says. “I started to make friends with some of the designers and then eventually got invited down to some of their workspaces, some of their showrooms … seeing all of that just made me understand it a bit more and it seemed a little bit more possible.”
Tinie Tempah. Photograph: Adam Slama
He is quick to add, “I wanted to challenge myself creatively”, six words that come to sum up all of Tempah’s career ventures. “You want to show people that once you’ve done one idea you can do another, and another. As long as you have brainpower the things you can do are endless. I want to be a reflection of that. That is very important to me.”
Birthed two years ago in his studio space, while he was making his third album Youth, What We Wear’s first capsule collection started with a small team and a sewing machine. Keeping “the modern man” in mind, Whar We Wear’s pieces range from contemporary workwear to tracksuit sets. “I felt like I could design and build a brand that gave a take on British men’s fashion, but from my perspective,” Tempah continues,“[one that] covered all the different areas of a modern man’s lifestyle, from travelling to working – and all the new types of work that the modern man might have to do.”
In conjunction with his rapid and energetic rapping style, when designing for What We Wear, Tempah is focused on how to make a collection “even more exciting” than the last. “To be quite honest with you, I am always looking for ergonomic material, I am always looking for material I believe is going to be relevant to our future. I think one of the big things of What We Wear is that we’re trying to redefine what we perceive as luxury.” For Tempah, this means round the clockwork; whether he is jet setting to Ibiza for a Disturbing Ibiza performance, or passing through east London on his way to his studio in Greenwich, Tempah is always looking for new fabrics and inspiration.
He is always thinking of how he can stay ahead and, “If I can’t do it, I’ll get someone from the team to go and do it”. It’s this mentality and active approach to life that makes Tempah so unique. Juggling fashion, music, and publishing, whilst trying to crowbar in a personal life, too. And as I speak with him, this characteristic is as prevalent as ever. Tempah has three answers to every question, three different ways of looking at things, and is three steps ahead of where I’m leading the interview to next.
Tinie Tempah. Photograph: Adam Slama
Born into a Nigerian family in south London, Tempah grew up with his parents and three younger siblings. At the age of 12, Tempah decided he wanted a career in music after viewing the music video for So Solid Crew’s 21 Seconds. Shortly after, his stage name, Tinie Tempah, was conceived by sheer chance when flicking through a thesaurus. It was in 2005 when his music career started to take off, however, when he joined Aftershock Hooligans. Pinnacle stardom was found when Tempah and his older cousin (and now manager) Dumi Oburota set up an independent label, Disturbing London, leading to Tempah being scouted at the 2009 Wireless Festival and signed to Parlophone Records.
Tempah speaks of his years growing up in London with pride, especially because of its multicultural offering. “It is a place that has a staple of British culture but I feel like it’s a cultural hub as well, full of diversity.” He adds, “Firstly, the kind of school I went to, I was surrounded by people from all different walks of life. I think that it definitely made me more of a free thinker. I feel like I have a little bit more of a vast and broader understanding of people. After all,” Tempah laughs, “in my older records ‘They say hello, they say hola and they say bonjour’”. When I ask about his musical roots that lay in grime, Tempah is incredibly enthusiastic about the place it now holds in British music, particularly for its ability to rise “through adversity and struggle to now become a multimillion-pound genre of music … When I think of all the different artists and how their lives have changed, I am so proud to be associated and involved with something as powerful as that in my lifetime.”
Originating in London in the early noughties, grime, a mix of powerful, hard-hitting lyrics, and hip-hop and garage influences has steadily grown to be one of the biggest genres listened to in the world. “There are Australians trying to copy it, there are Japanese people trying to copy it … There was a time in music when our music was selling but our manager was still living in his mum and dad’s house,” Tempah continues. “We would be at a record label, and our music would be selling, and people would be telling us that rap doesn’t work in England or that this kind of music doesn’t really work. And now look ten years later, it is one of the biggest genres of music in the country.”
Tinie Tempah. Photograph: Adam Slama
The impact London has had, not only on his creative choices but on his approach to life in general, is immeasurable. Tempah says, “I was raised in a way where my mum and dad told me mainly to never complain, so I think that kind of thing was instilled in me and it was kind of hard to shake off. In hindsight, when I look at things, as you can imagine, for a south London British kid with Nigerian heritage, a young black boy, trying to navigate through this world has been very difficult … Sometimes when you hear of other people’s situations or other people’s privileges that other people get, sometimes it is very difficult to not lose my cool.” Remembering his roots and how far he has progressed, however, grounds him, he says. “When the journey is difficult, sometimes it can be hard to see the achievements”.
In 2015, Imhotep, which operates as a music publisher, management company and creative agency, was formed as a product of Tempah’s frustration at the lack of creative opportunities for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. When we speak about the creation of Imhotep, Tempah says, “I wanted to create an infrastructure that empowered the creative and was fairer.” The success of Imhotep has been overwhelmingly positive and Tempah accounts the success on “the fact it is not led by a third-party infrastructure that has no understanding for the creative process”.
When we speak about the concept behind Imhotep before its birth, Tempah recalls thinking, “If I were to create something like this, I would be a lot more empathetic, I would be a lot more understanding and a lot more encouraging of creativity.” And that he was; Imhotep has now signed great acts such as Nana Rogues, who now has writing credits for the new Drake and Michael Jackson record; Not3s, who has over 100 million streams on Spotify; and has had massive chart positions with Mabel and AJ Tracey. “We just want to keep on empowering talent,” Tempah says, “and hopefully create a family, where we can all trust each other and empower a few future CEOs and entrepreneurs.”
Tinie Tempah. Photograph: Adam Slama
Tempah’s hopes for the future are ambitious, but not unrealistic. Since starting What We Wear, with no external investors, his clothes have been seen on the likes of Tiwa Savage, Yxng Bane, Anthony Joshua, Stormzy and Wizkid. Since starting Imhotep, he has signed five promising artists. And since starting his musical career, he has performed at the 2012 Olympics, had a number one album in the UK, and a top ten multimillion-selling record in the US.
Tempah remains humble and family orientated in his approach to success: “The fact that I have younger siblings looking at me, taking inspiration from me – that keeps me driven. The fact that my mum and dad have got to a certain stage in their life – of course, I know that I could do it purely all for music – but I want to look after them and so I want to do more.”
Alongside Imhotep, Tempah’s desire to provide a creative platform for those from challenged backgrounds is reflected in his support for the Shadow to Shine initiative, which provides youth training for disadvantaged Londoners. When I ask him if there is a key piece of advice he would give to a young adult trying to make it in a creative industry, Tempah’s response is lengthy and weighted with experience: “If you’re scared to fail, if you’re scared to achieve, if you’re scared to approach someone who may give you an opportunity, you’re not going to get anywhere. I’ve even seen it within my infrastructure.”
He is firm and honest when he says, “Make sure that your product is good, and that you firmly believe in it. You have to be a good salesman for your own product – I think that is another element that creatives lack and that’s what I am always trying to encourage.”
Tinie Tempah. Photograph: Adam Slama
Yet when I enquire into Tempah’s greatest challenges in his career, I find he downplays his own significant achievements in comparison to others. “I am just a 29-year-old guy from London, I am not anywhere near Bill Gates or Richard Branson by a long, long shot.” I don’t believe this is contradictory to his previous answers, however. I can see that his advice to the young adult is, in a way, his own self-talk. This is the difficulty of wearing both the hat of the artist and of the manager. It is interesting when Tempah says one of his drives in life is “the fear of what will happen if I stop” because in saying so he has fallen victim to his own words, “the most fearless people are those who get the furthest”.
When Tempah tells me he doesn’t allow himself to “bask in the achievement”, initially I thought that was a shame. But I realise that for him, the road to success is a constant race. To refer back to the opening quote from Tempah, his biggest tension is his own desire to fulfil his “true potential”. When Tempah finishes with, “I want to make sure I’ve done as much as possible. I want to have kids one day and they say, ‘Daddy you’re the man’,” I can’t help but want to correct him: his kids will think that regardless.
by Lily Rimmer
From Glass Man magazine issue 35. To make sure you never miss out on a copy of Glass, please visit here
to subscribe.
Photographer: ADAM SLAMA
Styling: KUSI KUBI
Grooming: MISHA SHAHZADA
Photographic Assistant: ST KRISTÓF
Styling Assistant: ANIA EGAN
Look 1
All clothing: PRADA
Jewellery: PETTERI HEMMILÄ
Look 2
All clothing: WHAT WE WEAR
Jewellery: PETTERI HEMMILÄ
Look 3
All clothing: DIOR HOMME
Look 4
All clothing: WHAT WE WEAR
Watch: TINIE TEMPAH’S OWN
Jewellery: PETTERI HEMMILÄ
Look 5
All clothing: BOTTEGA VENETA
Watch: TINIE TEMPAH’S OWN
Jewellery: PETTERI HEMMILÄ