To those born before the 1980s, a mouthy north Londoner with a taste for dodgy ethnic headwear and a name that evokes Sue Pollard’s chalet maid in Hi-De-Hi would be an unlikely candidate for superstardom. But the tinny refrains from legions of teenage mobile phones beg to differ. Dappy, aka Dino Contostavlos, the Anglo-Greek rapper and most outspoken member of the grime trio N-Dubz, already has two platinum albums of syrupy urban melodrama under his bum-skimming belt. Simon Cowell is a fan, and talks with Def Jam are preparing the way this year for an assault on the States. Even a recent appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in which the host poked fun at Dappy’s Peruvian hats, has failed to slow their ascent. So how have things changed for Dappy in the past year? “Well, I’m buying myself a bloomin’ house in Canary Wharf,” he says in fluent Camden Town hoody. “And we can’t walk down the streets no more ’cos we’re slowly turning into A-list celebrities. Even though some people might not like that, their kids keep on talking about us.” Unlike Ross, “we’re here to stay”. He may well be right. Gulp.
... idols
Phil Collins I’ve heard this question more than a thousand times but I’ll tell you again: Mr Phil Collins. Since the Eighties, music will never be the same.
His late father Byron, a member of Sixties band Mungo Jerry He was an influence. Not necessarily Mungo Jerry, just my dad and what he used to do.
George Michael Look, he just knows how to write amazing songs. I’m a songwriter as well and I know about good melody direction, I know when a song is going really well. You need to make the record not boring, from 1 minute to 3 minutes. It has to go like a slope, you know? It has to be exciting, going up and up. That’s how you make a hit record. Which are my favourites? That song he wrote on the back of a bus coming back from Watford or something: Careless Whisper. It’s the melody, the way he writ it, the way the verse goes into the chorus. If you was a songwriter, you’d understand what I’m talking about.
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Styles P For rap, ’cos he’s very good, lyrically, vocabulary. And also people like Drake right now. Great vocally, lyrically — and clever.
Michael Bubl? He’s bad: he can sing, he’s unique. If you’re not unique and not willing to bring out a Top 5 record, I don’t care about you as a musician.
Timbaland He’s the person I’d most like to work with, ’cos he’s bad, innit? He’s good, at what he does. Would we mesh? Yeah, of course, 150 per cent.
... Wossie
Nah, man, he weren’t taking the mickey out of me! All he said was: “We’ve lost Santa’s elf,” then I said back to him: “Yeah, bet I get more girls than you Jonathan.” He wasn’t taking the mickey out of me, I was taking the mickey out of him. No one can take the mickey out of us ’cos we’ll get them straight back — we’re too humble and clued up. I shot back more than that but they cut it — I said to him: “You look like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons.” But they don’t keep it ’cos they want him to look good.
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... roots
Camden Without Camden, and seeing the things I grew up with, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I’ve seen everything — the dirt. I don’t even want to go into detail, there’s a lot of harsh stuff involved. As well as good people, there’s a lot of bad people there, too, who find ways to make money in a non-legit way. I was in the rough crowd, you know? If it weren’t for my dad and everyone around me, I’d probably be dead or in jail or something. But we got ourselves out of the badness and here we are today — the voice of the youth!
Greece Everyone has to be humble, make sure family’s always there. Food’s important to us. I like Greek salad that my mum and my gran make. Which Greeks do I admire? That’s getting too much, man. Great Alexandra, that’s about it. We can stop talking about all this Greek stuff. Of course I’m proud of it, to a certain extent.
Egypt My dad was born in Egypt so he had a lot of crazy African bush tricks he used to teach me — about the wilderness and survival, eating with your hands. We’ve got a whole crazy way of life in our family.
... hats
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I used to wear my Peruvian hat when I was a bum on the streets back in the day. Obviously I’ve got hair, I can take my hat off and be a gentleman, a nice young man. I’ve never seen that hat get sold so much before this year. Everywhere you go, people are going, can I have a Dappy hat? I’m getting my own line of hats. I’m going to do a deal with the company that make them, we’re going to get 1,000 done and see how they sell. I know they’re gonna go like hotcakes.
N-Dubz’ single Playing with Fire is out on Monday