![]() More people that grew up round here, they’ve just been changed into someone that they had to be.” People judge you off the person you’re forced to be and that’s not the guy I’ve ever wanted to be. “Everyone’s just on some survival mode ting. I wouldn’t just snap for no reason.” It was the norm in Edmonton, he says, a deprived part of north London with few opportunities. “But only when I thought me or my people would be at risk. Was he a hothead growing up? “Yeah, I was a bit of a hothead,” he says slowly, toying with his answer. ‘It’s gone from conflict to understanding’. ![]() I was out every day, wasn’t coming home and then I got caught up doing what I was doing.” “Obviously, the vision had for me, I weren’t really following it. “I got kicked out of my house bare times when I was young,” he notes. It’s only now that Odunwo is starting to re-experience live music a legacy of the police banning him from events such as Notting Hill carnival when he was in his early teens. ![]() ![]() But he had his first arrest at 15, and stints in prison culled his musical ambitions. He had been musically gifted and inclined to storytelling as a child, writing and emulating the flows of artists such as 2Pac that he would see on TV his mother would take him to concerts (he vaguely recalls seeing Michael Jackson). That friction is detailed on Green With Envy with tracks such as Homecoming, where he talks of his strict Nigerian household and getting into trouble with the police in his younger years. It’s gone from conflict to understanding.” He summarises his relationship with his parents: “Conflict. Though his parents were music fans, with his mother a lover of gospel, he was pushed towards accounting, banking and business. When I’m in a studio, I can put that vibe into my music.”īeing a bad boy, of course, is still a part of his image he’s having to contend with. Like, when I’m with the mandem and we’re licked, we’re all just dancing around. “I’m not one of them rappers that every second puts on this persona they’re some bad boy. “I was thinking: is this going to trigger anyone? And I thought: the only people this can trigger is racist people,” he laughs. “I don’t think anyone could anticipate that.” “I was expecting it to take off, but not like that, no,” he laughs. Each was further enhanced with posses on remixes, and the latter became the drill genre’s first No 1 in May (and won him two gongs at this week’s Rated awards). He has had a string of Top 10 hits including I Dunno – featuring guest stars Stormzy and Dutchavelli – and two catchy, cheeky tracks with Russ Millions: 2019’s Keisha & Becky and 2021’s Body. ![]() His use of melody marks him out, with punchy staccato rhythms and sing-song delivery meshing perfectly with the hi-hats of drill. Green With Envy is his first album, although the 28-year-old has long been an emergent star in the UK rap scene, first cropping up on YouTube in 2010 and gaining further hype with his Wayne’s World mixtape trilogy. I don’t really like giving away all of myself.” He’s still coming to grips with the vulnerable nature of interviews, he admits. Odunwo’s often menacing delivery on the mic contradicts his in-person demeanour he’s polite and friendly, almost bashful. After a short wild-goose chase from our intended meeting point, we meet at a friend’s house in Lower Edmonton, London, where Odunwo has just finished getting his hair cut, to discuss his debut album, Green With Envy. Dennis Junior Odunwo, AKA Tion Wayne, is a hard man to pin down. ![]()
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