After taking up jiu-jitsu six years ago, martial arts have changed Tinie Tempah‘s life, and moving through the practice levels, the 37-year-old rapper is now close to securing black belt status.
One of the best decisions of this life, the British-born musician admits that the Brazilian discipline has had a positive effect on his physical wellbeing and improved his mental health.
During his BANG Showbiz interview at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard, Tempah said:
“I love Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I’ve been doing it for maybe six years now.” “I’m on purple belt and I absolutely love it. think any martial arts discipline is great for the mind, the body, the soul, your mental health, and for your nervous system, it is just incredible. This is something that I do three to four times a week and it’s changed my life.”
Having performed on Sunday night (12.07) at the pop extravaganza at London’s O2 Arena, Tinie addressed his musical legacy, admitting that it “feels like the biggest blessing” to have people still love his music, adding”
“It honestly feels like the biggest blessing to be able to perform records, such as Pass Out. People know it word for word. I even hear some people maybe do their like work party and do a karaoke and it might be Pass Out.” “The reason why I say that is because if you go even just a bit before 15 years like rap in the UK, rap music wasn’t even really a big thing like that. So now that we have, I don’t know, seminal songs that are primarily rap.” “For me it’s such a huge deal because I grew up in a lot of American culture and I saw it with the likes of Jay-Z and Eminem. You know, at the beginning it was almost like a pipe dream to ever believe that like it would happen here in the UK. And so whenever I perform these records that’s kind of what’s going through my mind, like, we’re now sort of a rap nation, you know. It’s kind of in our mainstream cache of music, isn’t that cool.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Sean Reynolds from Liverpool, United Kingdom