by Gary Graff, Detroit | May 24, 2011 2:30 EDT
After a chart-topping debut and six Top 15 hits in his native U.K., rapper Tinie Tempah says he was confident his debut set "Disc-Overy" would be well received on the other side of the pond.
"The world is just a lot more of a smaller place 'cause of the Internet and everything," Tempah, who put out "Disc-Overy" on May 17 in the U.S. after its British release in October, tells Billboard.com. "People know what they want. They know what they're into. They know what they want to hear, and it doesn't matter where it's from or who made it. For me over here, everything is still so new and so fresh. The singles have to do the talking for people to understand who I am as an artist and what I'm all about, to compel them to go out and buy the album. 'Written in the Stars' is doing so good; I couldn't have asked for a better start."
"Written in the Stars," "Disc-Overy's" first single, peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100 after topping the U.K. charts. Next up is "Till I'm Gone," a collaboration with Wiz Khalifa, who's "returning the favor" for Tempah's U.K. remix of "Black and Yellow." It's also one of three new songs, two produced by Stargate, that were added to "Disc-Overy" for its U.S. release.
"Because my music is as close to real-time as possible, and since so much has happened since ('Disc-Overy') came out in the U.K., I thought it as only right," Tempah, who was born Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu, Jr. in London, explains. "I'm going through a pretty interesting time in my life. I've just made that transition from being a teenager to becoming an adult... and at the same time just signed a record deal and I'm all over the world. I've met so many more people, done so many more shows, visited so many more countries and some amazing cities, so I thought people kind of need to know about that and hear a bit more of that in my music."
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Other than supporting Usher in June at Los Angeles' Staples Center and an appearance at Chicago's Lollapalooza in August, North American fans will have to wait a bit to see Tempah live. He'll be playing Europe throughout the summer but is plotting "a little intimate tour in September, hopefully, in some of my favorite cities and states" -- a list that includes Seattle, Portland, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles. He's also developing a fashion line he's dubbed Disturbing London.
"It's as far away from the whole hip-hop mogul stereotype as possible," Tempa says. "I like to express myself with what I wear, and I always find I have to go to loads of different brands to achieve a specific look. So I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if I created a lifestyle clothing brand that created everything I want out of a brand.' It's currently a work in progress."
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