Tinie Tempah

Tinie Tempah rose swiftly and organically from intimate club settings to expansive arenas, emerging as one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent breakout talents during the early 2010s. As a rapper, singer, and songwriter, he achieved explosive success with the 2010 multi-platinum debut Disc-Overy, which fused hip-hop, reggae, drum’n’bass, EDM, and mainstream pop across seven Top 40 singles that opened with the chart-topping, award-winning “Pass Out” and later featured “Written in the Stars,” a Top 20 success in the United States. His follow-up efforts Demonstration (2013) and Youth (2017) nearly doubled his count of headlining Top 40 singles while his lively guest contributions grew highly sought after on major releases from close collaborator Labrinth, Rita Ora, Cheryl Cole, and KDA. Three years after Youth, Tinie signaled his fourth album through several singles fronted by “Top Winners.”

Born Patrick Chukwuem Okogwu, Jr., the South London native began taping music as a teenager alongside Aftershock Hooligans before issuing his first solo mixtape, the freely distributed 2005 Chapter 1, 1-Verse 22: Buss Dat Cap. In 2007 he released Hood Economics, Room 147: The 80 Minute Course on Disturbing London, the imprint he launched with his manager; that project served as his initial commercial outing and included the singles “Wifey,” “Hood Economics,” and “Tears” plus a guest spot from Chipmunk, who had already appeared with Tinie on the earlier 2007 track “Connections,” setting the stage for many subsequent supporting appearances.

After signing with Parlophone in 2009, Tinie delivered his major-label introduction in February with the Labrinth-produced “Pass Out,” which reached number one in the U.K., propelled Disc-Overy to the top of the album chart, and earned a Brit Award for Best Single along with an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song. Even without that lead track the album would have thrived, generating five more charting singles such as the number-two “Frisky,” the number-one Eric Turner collaboration “Written in the Stars” (which also hit number 12 on the U.S. pop chart), and the Swedish House Mafia–produced “Miami 2 Ibiza,” which peaked at number four. Amid this run of hits Tinie joined Tinchy Stryder on the number-22 track “Game Over.”

Although three years separated his first two albums, Tinie issued mixtapes including Birthday and appeared on several Top Ten hits such as JLS’ “Eyes Wide Shut,” Labrinth’s “Earthquake,” Rita Ora’s chart-topping “R.I.P.,” and Calvin Harris’ “Drinking from the Bottle.” He unveiled the number-three-charting Demonstration in November 2013, adding further Top Ten entries with “Trampoline” featuring 2 Chainz and “Children of the Sun” featuring John Martin. Between 2014 and 2015 he contributed to three additional number-one singles: DVBBS and Borgeous’ “Tsunami (Jump),” Cheryl Cole’s “Crazy Stupid Love,” and KDA’s “Turn the Music Louder (Rumble).” Another mixtape, Junk Food, arrived late in 2015. Youth surfaced in April 2017, sustaining his sequence of Top Ten placements and spotlighting his third number-one single as lead artist, “Not Letting Go” with Jess Glynne, plus the number-five “Girls Like” with Zara Larsson.

Ahead of his fourth album in 2020, Tinie issued multiple singles, most prominently the Not3s collaboration “Top Winners.”