For those who don’t know of you, please introduce yourself:

Hi, my name is Emre, and I record as Opium. I’m 18 years old, from East London originally, but I’m up North London most of the time for studio.

Where did the name come from?

A Secondary school year 11 English lesson. I had a tag before Opium that my boys gave me, but that was just air. I just wanted something unique, and I wasn’t going to call myself heroin or crack!

The reason I chose Opium was that in year 11 we were studying Sherlock Holmes. In a specific part of the book, he goes to an opium den. I thought ‘mmm… Opium.’ It sounded heavy, so I Googled it when I got home and learnt all about it. I could imagine it on TV, on the front of a mixtape.

It has nothing to do with drugs – I’m fully against all of that.

Your catchphrase is ‘broken syringes.’ What’s that about?

Opium. It was going to be the title of my promo, which I’m still going to do. Look out for that! Basically, going back to what we were saying about whether Grime was positive or not, Broken Syringes symbolises a positive switch. I didn’t want to express the poison, I wanted to break it.

How did you first get into MC’ing?

Well, I moved to Bow E3 and that was where the scene was. I was influenced by MC’s such as Godsgift and Wiley and gradually, over time, I started to write lyrics and develop my own style. One day my mates and I were just hanging around on the street, MC’ing, and Godsgift actually came over. He liked the way I was MC’ing and said ‘You should hang about with me’

So I started hanging about, and we were tight. We wrote a song together (E3 Shank) and then, through him, I met Wiley. Wiley heard me and took me to studio, (where) I recorded four tunes in a day. From then I realised that having (Wiley’s) backing, having him take me to studio to make music that he liked, I should start on my own path.

So I started at a young age, writing dubs, doing sets. But performance-wise, my first ones were in my own ethnic background, Turkish performances. More recently I’ve been on 1xtra, BBC Asian Network – big up limelight my brother. He plays my songs and I get great, positive feedback. With Activity – I put that up last week and I’ve been getting phone call after phone call.

What do you make of the Grime scene at present?

Artists use Grime to express themselves. Some use it to go after girls, some use it to vent aggression, some are out for the clubs. Grime is changing, but you can’t say it’s dead, ‘cos let’s face it, I’m still doing it! I don’t know what this ‘Grime is dead’ business is all about.

What do you think about people saying that the Grime scene is dead?

I don’t know what Logan Sama is on! He’s a good guy, but it is not dead! If I get a 140 BPM tune, I’m all over it. I can’t say it’s dead!

(Now) it has more perspectives and different approaches (than before). If artists are living negative, they write negative lyrics. If they are living the good life, then they write for enjoyment. Me, I do a bit of both because that’s how I feel.

Do you think that the pull towards making mainstream music is leading artists away from making traditional-sounding Grime?

Yeah. What a lot of MC’s are doing these days is letting the mainstream take over their lives. Obviously there is money. You can still do Grime that’s mainstream that is what people don’t seem to understand! They don’t want to sit down, plan and think – they just want to rip off Kanye West or Estelle so the whole world will like them.

You can still do Grime that mainstream audiences will feel!

Opium – 9 MegaPixel

There are negative connotations associated with Grime though, most of them obvious. Knowing this, are you comfortable being labelled as a Grime MC?

Negative as in guns and knives and that? Whoever labels it as just being that is a toff mate! Yes, most of the first Grime tunes were pretty dark. They had supernatural elements to them almost, really dark elements. People label it as being about guns, knives and crime and all that, but it’s really just youths writing songs. People don’t realise that this music keeps them off the street.

So many kids message me saying ‘yeah, I got a new tune up’ or ‘my album is on its way’ If you think about it, that is a positive thing. If they didn’t have that, what would they do? Some don’t work; some don’t go to school or college, so they keep occupied with music. No one can really say it promotes knife or gun crime. That’s for certain individuals that want to do that.

You call yourself a positive MC. Why?

It’s because I grew up. I’m not going to lie, when I was 14 -15 I wrote dubs, songs and when I listen to them today I’m like ‘wow was that me when I was young?!’ I’ve written everything you can think of that’s negative. Dark stuff. But I’m smarter now – this is a business so I can’t talk like that.

Now and then I’ll write a song, that will be (negative), but I don’t want to be fake and talk about knives and guns like I use them everyday. I could add those lines in and it would sound heavy but nah, I’ve grown up and have more responsibilities.

Opium – Realisation

Your song ‘Realisation’ features the line ‘If any one sounds like I’ which is run through Autotune before switching back to normal. Is this a comment on how willing MC’s are to copy each other?

Yes! You’re smart, you actually listen! I write for a reason. If I feel happy, sad or depressed, I’ll find a beat to match. For Realisation, the name says it all – be real. MC’s release music, but I’ll listen to tracks of theirs from two years ago and they sound different. I listen to a lot of MC’s but I focus on my music.

I sit down and think. I don’t sit there and go ‘Oh Tinchy said this in his bar’ or ‘Wretch said this’ I write differently so that one day if us boys collide, and I spit my bars, they won’t go ‘rah this guy is nang he sounds like me.’ Everything I come up with is me. I don’t switch to what other people spit.

So you would rather go against trends as opposed to following them?

Yeah I just stick to my stuff. I’ve been around the people that started this and I’m still around them. At the end of the day, I’ve never received a bad comment or had someone say ‘you sound like so-and-so.’ That is the thing I’m most proud of. If anyone sounds like me they’ll get kicked out the scene!

Opium – Turkish Activity

Your bio states that you worked with Wiley on four songs, and you are closely affiliated with other Roll Deep members target and Danny Weed. What is it like to be working with these guys so early in your career?

It’s great. I’m not a tag a long or anything; I don’t live off their names. Working with Wiley was great. I’m still in contact with him, and we are still going to work together. Danny Weed, Target, we’ve been in studio a couple of times. They are both very respectful, hard working people.

Danny gave me the Activity tune. I’m just cracking on really. I need to find my own path (knowing) all the features are ready. I’m grateful I’ve got these people around me that want me to do well. It was great working with Wiley, he’s a very, very clever man and I’ve never met anybody like him in my life. He’s very smart and upfront.

I was the first kid/youngster he ever brought to his studio. Now you got Ice Kid and Chipmunk who he took to Westwood. Wiley knew me two years before all of that stuff. I feel privileged by that. Talking to me, he’s always suggesting things, spreading his wisdom, and that is the reason why I respect the guy. I’ll ring him now and then to see how he is.

If there is anybody you would really want to collaborate with?

You know who I would love to work with right now? Justin Timberlake. Justin, 50, Kanye and…I know this sounds mad, but Britney Spears. She sounds powerful. Erm…Wiley as usual, just because we are so alike it is unbelievable. We are exactly the same – he is just older than me. I wish they had Grime lessons in college mate!

Any plans for a mixtape?

Definitely. People keep asking me that but the only reason I haven’t done a mixtape is because I don’t want to do crap. I don’t want to bring out just anything. People say to me ‘bring it out, even if it’s bad, it will assure your place in the grime scene’ but really…?!

Anyone can make a mixtape – I can take you studio tomorrow and for three weeks and continuously make tracks, put them in a mixtape, cool. But why would I want to do something like that if it’s not powerful music that people are going to enjoy? I’m trying to exercise quality control. I got like 80 odd dubs on my computer, and I can make four if I wanted. But I don’t want to do saturate it. I don’t want to Spongebob it!

What are your plans for 2009?

More money, more paper. Swear down. I’m going on holiday in a couple of weeks, but I’m still going to find a studio and do music. This ain’t a hobby for me no more. For 2009 I’m going to get more connections, more links and more people hearing my tunes.