Tinie Tempah or Patrick Okogwu as his mum knows him has risen through the ranks of London Mc’s to become arguably the biggest rap star to come out of the UK, we are going to look at just how he managed to do this.

Early Career

Fans of the Grime scene would of heard of Tinie Tempah a long time before he became the household name that he is today. He had a few underground hits with the songs Tears and also had songs that featured on the soundtrack for for the PSP game Wipeout Pure.
The song that most people really remember Tinie Tempah for was his track Wifey Riddim that received a lot of airplay on the underground music channels and stations and really helped to get his name out there.

Breakthrough
After going on Tour with Dizzee Rascal, performing shows over the UK, setting up his own label Disturbing London and writing new music Tinie’s big break came at the wireless festival when a scout spotted him performing and informed record label Parlophone records. They came to visit Tinie Tempah in his studio and were so impressed with Tinie’s ability that buy October 2009 he was signed to their label.

Mainstream

Tinie Tempah really got mainstream recognition when he released he massive debut single Pass Out from his album Disc-Overy. The single went straight to number 1 where it remained for two consecutive weeks and is still a very popular song on dance floors worldwide.

Tinie Tempah followed up this success by performing at Glastonbury that year and then releasing his second single Frisky which also was another hit. Frisky entered the charts at number 2 and again still remains popular in clubs around the world.
Following his chart success with both his singles and his album Tinie Tempah went on tour with Rhianna, performed at a lot of universities and summer festivals including V Festival and Wireless Festival.
In between all of this Tinie Tempah teamed up with DJ Whoo Kid to release the free mixtape Foreign Object., which you can listen to or download below.