Everything about south London’s new king of rap Giggs offers up a veritable field day for politicians, Daily Mail readers and their ASBO-championing cronies the country over. And it’s not just that lines like “…feds tried nick me for a murder but it coulda been the man that had the weapon before me…” rest near song titles such as “Suck Your Mums”. Here is a man with a thirst for Petrone tequila, head honcho of the SN1 (Spare No 1) collective, and who’s known to Trident (the Met’s black-on-black gun crime unit), thanks to an 18-month spell at HMP for a firearms offence. He also raps some genuinely gangsta shit and doesn’t give a fuck what you, your parents, the media, the industry or the law have to say about it. 

However, what we have in 29-year-old Giggs isn’t just another rap try-hard, juxtaposing hard examples of street life with bravado over the fur coats he’s now buying. While London Posse and So Solid introduced homegrown hip hop and bad boys to these here shores, Giggs is the closest that England has ever come to celebrating an apparent descendant of gangsta rap forefathers NWA. 

“The first NWA album is the first rap album I heard with swearing,” says Giggs, who’s getting equally excited at seeing his favourite dessert, sticky toffee pudding, on the menu at The Breakfast Club in Shoreditch, where – frankly – the most gangsta it gets is the leopard-print throw adorning the sofa he’s leaning on. Oblivious to the diners admiring the spliff tucked behind his ear, he puts the menu down and continues. “I used to watch MTV Raps every day after school, but they’d play the edited version. Then at my uncle’s, hearing the real shit, I’d be like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’”

Like NWA, Giggs, whose first album on independent label XL is due this month, has already suffered at the hands of the powers that be. But when MTV and the BBC wouldn’t play his tracks, he didn’t change up his lyrics or direction. Instead, he made a now-infamous diss tune about both (although he has subsequently repaired both relationships). 

“See, when I got banned from Radio 1, everyone was looking at it like, ‘Argh he’s a madman, why did he diss them?’ But I wasn’t saying that. I wasn’t saying, ‘Fuck Radio 1!’ All I was saying is that you don’t play my music, but I’m still gonna do what I’m doing. That’s it. And that I’ve got my clothing line, and my album’s doing alright,” he explains. “To diss the industry was a big deal. Everyone thought I was crazy, but to me that’s nothing – for me to open my mouth, that’s nothing...” 

And it seems that reassessing Giggs’s music as “acceptable” hasn’t been limited to television and radio stations. Having met him before, it’s true that appropriate descriptions of him include words like punctual, reliable, considered, observant and humble... in fact, he’s like the majority of the UK’s street stars – pretty damn normal when it comes down to it. But reading through some of his recent press cuttings, at times it’s little short of cringe-worthy. Think, ‘Newsflash! He’s actually a nice bloke!’, followed by relief as said writer switches his stance to supporting an artist who instead of sticking coke up his nose, used to sell it. 

Born and raised Nathan Thompson of Sumner Road, Peckham, Giggs shared a home with his mum and two brothers and doesn’t feel the need to discuss his childhood or where he lives much (“It was just normal”). NWA aside, ragga artists like Bounty Killer and Segal were favourites, along with heavy metal (“It’s hard”). His education began at a strict Catholic school, from which he was later expelled, before discovering that a good education was hard to find elsewhere. 

“No one gave a shit in normal school. Teachers were swearing and shit, no one went to class, no uniforms,” he says. “I would go to class and there would be three people there. I started bunking school ‘cause no one else went and no one cared. Do you know how many people I know who can’t read, or spell or add, but you give them half a kilo and they’ll break that down? Drugs are their fractions.” 

“There’s no way I’m supposed to be where I am now,” he continues. “I haven’t played the game, I’ve just done what I wanted to do… But I use my business mind and my common sense, and I just get to where I want to get to. And a lot of people think, ‘He’s dumb,’ but that’s not important. And that’s how most guys in the hood are, they just don’t know how smart they are ‘cause they don’t get a chance to practise it.” 

It would be all too easy to assume Giggs’s talk is just that, but a guided tour of Peckham earlier on in the day shows such business acumen in action. Inside one of the many local arcades, you’ll find the SN1 shop, stocked with various in-house mixtapes and items of SN1 wear, including cardigans, t-shirts and jeggings. Fellow shopkeepers trade banter, oblivious to the thumping hip hop bass that’s clashing with their reggae. After chatting with Wiley, who happened to be in the area, a trip down the high street is an eye-opener, where anyone under the age of 25 either nods, smiles, gets excited or goes to spud Giggs, despite the fact his presence here is a regular occurrence. A short walk through the Yellow Brick Estate (notorious for violence and shootings), and a discreet barbers’ shop (where Giggs gets a fresh trim), offer a contrast to the hardman image – there’s more community spirit than a night at a Mecca Bingo hall. Fellow rappers bust jokes while Giggs observes quietly – rather ironically, given that his moniker came from giggling a lot.

“My biggest fear is coming out there, doing my thing, and everyone’s just staring. I hate that…” – Giggs

“The maddest thing about my life now is bank accounts and shit – the only time you get one here is when you’re a kid and your parents make you,” he says. “The other day, I went to get money out and the woman said, ‘Where did this money come from?’ And I’m like, ‘What the fuck do you mean where did it come from?’ That’s when I start getting ignorant thinking, ‘When I used to get my own money, this shit never used to happen…’ It’s crazy. I used to be gassed about taking my card out and paying for stuff. I used to be gasssssssed, putting in the PIN – it’s normal for you, but for us, nah.” 

Another thing Giggs genuinely seems to be getting to grips with is his popularity. Despite starting his lyrical outings over grime, around the same time Wiley and Dizzee were making their respective forays into the mainstream (both at XL), it was in jail that Giggs honed the art of rapping, and in a bid to express himself more, started using a slower pace. The first SN1 mixtape dropped in 2003, while Giggs was incarcerated, but by 2008, and over 20 SN1 releases and 100,000 mixtapes later, the tipping point came. Giggs’s trademark urrrrr sounds and “Walk In Da Park” freestyle (which will go down in the pantheon of rap classics) could be heard being pumped on car stereos, shop hi-fi’s and used as mobile ringtones from SW9 to N19. Despite never having a full release, Tim Westwood himself described it to Dazed as “one of the biggest records of all time”. No mean feat. 

“I don’t know what it was about that freestyle, I knew it was hard for the hood, but I think it was cause of lines like “Half of the crowd’s all snorting my Charlie” and “Talk to me, darling”, ‘cause that’s the way people talk. I’m not trying to do this American shit and say what everyone else is saying…” he adds. “It didn’t really hit me until I was in Ayia Napa… At first, I thought it was a joke. I saw girls wearing ‘Talking The Hardest’ t-shirts and thought they were a promotions team. There were hot girls wanting pictures outside the club and I thought someone had paid them to do it… After the show, which was insane, I just thought, ‘Rah, all this for music,’ went back to the villa happy, and slept.”

In the same year, the release of Giggs’s debut album, Walk In The Park, sealed his star. But he, like so many others, is still at a loss as to why his female fanbase has grown to match that of the many male fans. And it is something he gets quite animated about (either that or the sugar rush from his dessert has taken effect). 

“I know girls do not like rap! Like, forget UK rap, they don’t even like American rap. But they listen to my raw stuff. I don’t know what the hell it is! Girls don’t really like that shit, do they? Talking about badness and that? Maybe it’s ‘cause I talk about sex the way it is, and women officially love sex more than men! They can hold out longer but, oh my,” he smiles. “I’ve heard the way women talk when they’re together, trust me.” 

Screaming girls, censorship and the media aside, it’s also been near impossible for Giggs to do live shows thanks to Form 696, a risk assessment form that the Met police requests promoters to complete ahead of events, and which has been the subject of much controversy – given it asks for a description of music being performed, the target audience, and at one stage even people’s ethnicity. His recent tour was cancelled at the last minute after police warned promoters over safety fears (rumours persist they also warned XL against signing him). However, Giggs is ready to rock the stage just as soon as the heat dies down. 

“I’m nervous and excited about performing,” he says. “My biggest fear is coming out there, doing my thing, and everyone’s just staring. I hate that… What’s mad as well, is that when I’m performing, I go into some mad zone where I’m just rapping non-stop. I don’t even know what the show was like. I don’t remember none of it. I just go into some different place, I just zone out. I can see everyone in front of me, but it’s like I’m not there. It’s like I’m having some mad out-of-body experience, get me? It’s mad, I can’t even explain it. It happens when I’m writing as well… I just have a lyric there, and I’ll think, ‘Where the fuck did that come from?’”

As for the imminent album Let Em Ave It, the most pressure Giggs seems to be experiencing, expressed regularly via his highly enjoyable Twitter updates, is getting the perfect mix down and warding off bad attitudes. 

“It’s just the way things are, people act negative towards the project, even some artists… You’ve got what Tinchy and Chipmunk are making – and no disrespect to them, but I don’t make that,” he says. “I’m making music ‘cause I love music, not to get in the charts. That’s the way I want things to be. My album is different bits of my life put on a CD. I’ve got a tune about my son that I haven’t even named yet. And my favourites are ‘Hustling’ and ‘Matic’, which will fuck up the clubs...” Anyone expecting an album awash with American production should think again, as it primarily features in-house producers and an array of new talent. As for guests, perhaps surprisingly, given the list of major artists in his fanbase, the names that crop up are an R&B singer called Nathan (“he’s hard, you know”) and “a girl called Shereen”. 

“Don’t get me wrong, though,” says Giggs. “I did try to get a couple people on there but they were fucking about so I just said, ‘Fuck it, I don’t need them on there!’ You see what it is, if I ask for anyone big to be on there it looks like I’m trying to play the game, not that I give a fuck about that. And you see? I just think I’m as talented as everyone else, so I’m not going to beg anyone or wait for anyone to be on my tune, fuck it. You’re going to regret it in the end, get me?” 

However he does what he does, it’s proven a winning formula to date, though it would appear his label didn’t head into a contract with their eyes closed. Despite being enshrouded in urban myth, there does appear to be a fragment of truth surrounding a rumoured clause that relates to consequences of being on the wrong side of law. 

“What it says has more to do with no one around me wanting to get into trouble,” he laughs. “But it’s just a misunderstanding, I think. Maybe the record labels haven’t been around someone coming from where I’m coming from before… I was a gangsta and I rap. But the guys have seen some of what I go through – like in the ‘Don’t Go There’ video, where my brother is actually being arrested. That just happened. The undies (undercovers) were following us all day… I think now (the label) know we’re all human beings…” 

Having stuck to his guns – though not literally – Giggs has ultimately given hope to a new wave of rappers not wanting to take the grime route in order to make a legal pound. 

“People power is way more powerful than anything,” says Giggs, finishing his dessert. “The sooner everyone understands that, the better. You see Simon Cowell, he doesn’t get up and think, ‘Yeah, I gotta get up and do this for radio.’ He thinks, ‘Fuck it, I gotta get up and make it happen!’ There are other people who think they know everything and it goes back to the same formula, but I’m not with them. I’m not the same as everyone else and every single day I’m writing a new page in history.”