UK rapper Tinie Tempah's debut album, "Disc-Overy," wasreleased last October in his home country. In just three months, it foundenough success to become the top-selling album of the year thanks to such explosive,drum and bass tracks "Pass Out" and "Frisky" as well as the reverberating dancerecord "Miami 2 Ibiza."
Tinie Tempah is striving toachieve similar results with the US version of the album out Tuesday.His touring, marketing, and promotion here are so intense that he has not beento his South Londonapartment in five months.
But he has no regrets.Instead of giving his USfans the same album he released last fall, he insisted on changing up thetracklisting. He expands his European sound with a few new songs, including hislatest single, "Till I'm Gone," a collab with Wiz Khalifa.
Tinie says he and the "BlackAnd Yellow" rapper have something cool in common. Both of their careers tookoff in their respective countries at the same time, an achievement that affordsthem opportunities to take their music abroad. On "Till I'm Gone," Tinie letshis home base know that he appreciates the support and is thankful for theopportunity to grow.
"Since I've been out here (inthe US), and since I've releasedan album in the UKso many things have happened," he says. "My musical outlook has definitely evolveda little bit. I definitely felt if I was going to release an album here, Ithought it would definitely be great for the America audience to feel that."
America has indeed embraced Tinie. The lead US single"Written On The Stars" was an immediate hit, and superstar rappers Diddy andSnoop Dogg and former Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland were already amonghis supporters. Last year, Snoop appeared on a remix to Tinie's "Pass Out,"Diddy enlisted Tinie for the Diddy -Dirty Money remix for "Hello Good Morning,"and Kelly recorded with Tinie the "Disc-Overy" album track "Invincible."
"Those are people that definitelyinspired me to do what I'm doing now," Tinie said about Diddy and Snoop. Tiniewas so excited to appear on the Diddy - Dirty Money song that when he got theinvite, the news was literally his cure-all for a long, hard night of partying.
"When I got the call to do 'HelloGood Morning,' I was literally hung over in a hotel room, and I was like, 'Look,we got to do this.'" Determined not to miss out on the opportunity, Tinie'ssound engineer had to bring the recording studio to Tinie's hotel room, andthey made it work.
Tinie's hard work and dedicationare paying off big time, placing him among the ranks of his fellow UK music peersJay Sean, Taio Cruz, Adele, and Ellie Goulding, who have also been well-receivedby US audiences.
During a stop in Los Angeles last week, thehumble and comical Tinie Tempah visited the Yahoo! Music offices for anexclusive on-camera interview. In addition to discussing his music, he alsotalked about his parents, and shared a surprise airplane encounter that wouldmake any music fan jealous.
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