By
AndyR
on
Jan 31 2010, 02:12PM
Barely a week passes without a young MC being hailed as the "new Dizzee" but it's getting increasingly hard to ignore the buzz surrounding South London's Tinie Tempah whose latest single "Pass Out" has notched up three weeks as BBC Radio 1's Record of the Week and over half a million views on Youtube.
The 21 year old, real name Patrick Okogwu, has certainly put the hard graft in; setting up his own indie label with his brother, touring with Dizzee, Chipmunk and Sway, putting out an anti-streetcrime charity single, releasing two acclaimed mixtapes (featuring the likes of ex bus driver Bashy, Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder and M.I.A.). All that before eventually being signed by Parlophone UK ahead of the release of his debut album The Disc-Overy, due in July.
So the ambition is there, and support from the UK's mainstream press, and a nomination for MTV's '10 [artists to watch] for 2010'. Now he just needs that Dizzee-style cross-over pop hit to take him international.
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