Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (; born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah (pronounced "tiny temper"; formerly Tinie), is an English rapper, singer and television presenter. Born and raised in London, he created his own entertainment company Disturbing London in 2006, alongside Dumi Oburota. After signing with Parlophone in 2009 and releasing several mixtapes, he rose to fame with the UK number-one singles "Pass Out" and "Written in the Stars" in 2010.
He subsequently released his debut album Disc-Overy in October 2010, which also charted at number one and was certified platinum in 2011. He won two Brit Awards in 2011 for Best British Breakthrough Act and Best British Single. In November 2013, he released his second album, entitled Demonstration. Preceded by top ten singles "Trampoline" and "Children of the Sun", the album charted at number three and was certified gold by the BPI the next year.
In June 2015, he released "Not Letting Go", the first single from his third album Youth. This gave Tinie his sixth UK number one, surpassing Dizzee Rascal as the most by any UK rap artist.
Early life Tinie was born as Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu on 7 November 1988 in London, the son of Igbo parents from Nigeria, Patrick Okogwu Sr. and Rosemary Opiah. His middle name, Chukwuemeka, means "God has done more" in the Igbo language.
Until he was twelve years old, Tinie lived on the Aylesbury Estate in south-east London with his parents and three younger siblings: Kelly, Kelvin, and Marian. The family later moved to Plumstead, with Tinie attending St. Paul's Catholic School in nearby Abbey Wood. After earning 10 GCSEs, he sat A-Levels in Media Studies, Psychology, and Religious Studies at Saint Francis Xavier Sixth Form College. At twelve years old, Tinie conceived his stage name after viewing the music video for So Solid Crew's "21 Seconds". He used a thesaurus in class, juxtaposing "tempah" (temper), which he saw under "angry", with "tinie" (tiny), to ameliorate the aggressive sound of "tempah".
Regarding his London upbringing, Tinie states, "London is one of the only places in the world where you can live in a council block and see a beautiful semi-detached house across the street. Growing up around that was inspirational, it kept me motivated."
Career history 2005–2008: Early career Tinie, then known as Tinie Tempah, began his music career in 2005 when he joined the Aftershock Hooligans, recording hundreds of songs amongst the fellow Hooligans. His first mixtape, "Chapter 1: Verse 22", was released via Aftershock Records in 2005, as a free mixtape. In 2006, Tinie gained a great deal of airplay on British music TV channel Channel U for his song "Tears", and later on gained more recognition for "Wifey". Later in the year, he collaborated on a track with grime artist Ultra and producers and songwriters Agent X. Many of his songs recorded with Aftershock between 2005 and 2006 were featured on the group's debut album Shock to the System (2007), which received support from BBC Radio 1Xtra DJs. He also released the mixtape Hood Economics Room 147: The 80 Minute Course in 2007 and left the group later that year, stating that he felt Aftershock didn't respect him as an artist and that it was time to move on.
Tinie, together with his former manager Dumi Oburota founded the independent label Disturbing London primarily as an outlet for Tinie's music, but with the idea of also signing other young artists. According to Dumi: "We wanted to have a platform to put out our music and there wasn't any Def Jam or Roc-A-Fella label equivalent in England. [Also] I wanted to create a major independent label with quality artists. I felt like the major labels had lost the passion for music." The activities of the label were initially largely funded by student loans and the proceeds from buying and selling cars. Disturbing London also produce a clothing range that Tinie wears and promotes.
When scout and music consultant Jade Richardson saw Tinie performing at the 2009 Wireless Festival she called Parlophone Records president Miles Leonard saying: "You've got to check out this guy Tinie Tempah. He came on at lunchtime and there's about 1,000 kids screaming for him. He's only put out one independent release and he's got this huge audience." Leonard and A&R Nathan Thompson visited Tinie and his former manager Dumi at their studio a few weeks later and were hugely impressed to hear about the work they had already done in developing Tinie's career and by the ambitious plans they had for his future. Leonard told HitQuarters: "I thought it was incredible that an artist and former manager were doing so much so soon with so little... That impressed as much as the music." Tinie announced his signing to Parlophone in October 2009 by running a competition on his blog, with the winner invited to high tea at Claridges to celebrate the deal.
A major break came when Sony launched its PlayStation Portable and used a track featuring Yasmin and DJ Ironik, and "Atlantic/Warner" for the futuristic Wipeout Pure. This resulted in a promotional European tour alongside the likes of Sway and Dizzee Rascal.
2009–2011: Success and Disc-Overy Tinie released his debut single "Pass Out" through Parlophone on 28 February 2010. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number 1, having sold just over 92,000 copies in its first week, and sold sufficiently well to stay at the top spot for a second week. Tinie toured with Chipmunk in February 2010, going on to support Rihanna for four dates in May on her 10-date UK tour with Tinchy Stryder and Pixie Lott. Tinie performed at Radio 1 Big Weekend in Bangor on 22 May 2010 on the in New Music We Trust stage. He also toured with Mr Hudson in May 2010, as well as performing at many summer balls at various universities around the United Kingdom.
Tinie's second single "Frisky" was released on 6 June 2010, entering the UK Singles Chart at number 2. "Frisky" would later be used for a 2013 Bacardi commercial advertising their new pineapple flavor. Tinie played a host of festival dates throughout the summer, including the Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium on 6 June 2010, at Wakestock in Abersoch on 3 July 2010, both T4 on the Beach and the Wireless Festival in London's Hyde Park on 4 July, and V Festival on 21 and 22 August 2010. He also had the honour of performing his first single "Pass Out" on 25 June 2010 at Glastonbury on the Pyramid stage with Snoop Dogg.
Tinie released his third single "Written in the Stars" on 19 September 2010. This again charted at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart, selling over 115,000 copies in its first week (his biggest-selling single to date), and charting in a number of other countries. "Written in the Stars" would go on to be used for a WrestleMania XXVII countdown promo during the WWE PPV Royal Rumble on 30 January 2011, and was later confirmed by WWE that it would be the official theme for Wrestlemania XXVII. It is also the theme song for the 2011 MLB Post Season, and was used as the entrance song for the New York Giants before Super Bowl XLVI.Tinie teamed up with Swedish House Mafia for his fourth single "Miami 2 Ibiza", which was released on 1 October 2010. This reached a peak of number 4 in the UK Singles Chart and gave him his first number 1 in the Netherlands Mega Single Top 100 chart. Tinie's long-awaited debut album Disc-Overy was then released on 4 October 2010, featuring all his previous charted singles. On 11 October 2010, he kicked off his first UK tour which was supported by Chiddy Bang. In the same month, he was awarded his first 2 MOBO Awards. Tinie also featured on the Tinchy Stryder single "Game Over", which was released on 15 November 2010 and reached number 22 on the UK Singles Chart.
On 25 December, Tinie released his fifth single "Invincible" featuring Kelly Rowland, which peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. "Wonderman", featuring Ellie Goulding, was released and was the sixth official single. Tinie joined Usher on the European leg of his OMG Tour in January 2011.
Tinie was nominated for 4 Brit Awards making him the most nominated artist at the awards, and on 15 February 2011 he won his first ever Brit Award, for Best British Breakthrough Act, as well as a Brit for Best British Single.
On 7 March 2011, Tinie expressed his desire for his next album to go triple platinum. "I reckon in 2011, towards the end of it, I'm going to do an arena tour – and sell it out – then I reckon I'm going to release another album, and fingers crossed it can go platinum again, and double platinum, and triple. Let's just sell a million." In early 2011, Tinie announced a UK Arena tour, featuring support acts Nero, Labrinth and Chase & Status (After Party DJ Set).
In 2011, Labrinth revealed that Tinie would be releasing "Pass Out" in the United States, featuring a well recognised artist in the American rap game. He also served as a front act with Big Sean among others on Lupe Fiasco's Generation Lasers Tour. On 28 November 2011, Tinie hosted an episode of the TV show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In the same month, Tinie would release two tracks, "Like It or Love It" which featured both Wretch 32 and J. Cole, and "Lucky Cunt" which featured Big Sean. On 16 December, Tinie released a 9-track mixtape/EP titled Happy Birthday, which went on to win best EP of 2011 at the Official Mixtape Awards 2012. In early 2012, Tinie featured with Eric Turner and Lupe Fiasco on a track called "Angels and Stars".
2012–2014: Demonstration
By December 2010, Tinie was writing a second album,Friday News Roundup – 4 Music (17 December 2010) saying there would be a more electronic and live feel to it. It was originally intended for a late 2011 release. During an interview, Tinie said of his second album: "I always like to work with different people on each project I do, just so you get a different sound and angle. I will be working with some of the same people I did for the first album, you know what they say 'if it ain't broke then don't try and fix it'." Tinie had hoped to collaborate with other artists such as Toronto's Drake, and Adele. At the Brit Awards in 2012, he announced that his second album would be called Demonstration. On 24 June 2012, Tinie performed at Radio 1's Hackney Weekend on the main stage, playing two of his newest songs: "Mosh Pit", and "Drinking from the Bottle", on which he features alongside Calvin Harris as lead artist and which also appears on Harris' new album 18 Months. On 12 August, Tinie performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
The lead single from Demonstration, "Trampoline", was premiered on MistaJam's BBC Radio 1Xtra show on 2 July 2013, and the lyric video was premiered shortly afterwards. It features 2 Chainz and was produced by Diplo, and was released on 4 August 2013 in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. In the interview with MistaJam, Tinie cites Dizzee Rascal and So Solid Crew as influences for the album, who've influenced him since his childhood. In interviews, Tinie and other artists have announced that they were working together on his album such as Labrinth, Dizzee Rascal, Ellie Goulding, Big Sean and Emeli Sandé.
The next single from the album, "Children of the Sun", featuring John Martin, was produced by iSHi and was premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 12 September. It was released on 28 October in the United Kingdom and charted at number 6 in the UK. On 16 September, to promote his forthcoming UK arena tour, the album track "Don't Sell Out" live at the O2 Arena was uploaded to O2's YouTube channel. Tinie performed at Keele University on 8 October in a surprise event. On 19 October 2013, Tinie was awarded "Best UK Hip Hop/Grime Act" at the MOBO Awards' 18th Anniversary.