Tinie Tempah on acting debut and why new drill-based show Jungle is ‘overdue’

Having already branched out into fashion, TV presenting and property among other things, later this month he makes his acting debut in new UK Amazon Original series Jungle, a rap and drill-based musical set in a neon-soaked, near-future London.

The 34-year-old, who knew the show’s creators, Junior Okoli and Chas Appeti – aka Nothing Lost – says it was the perfect way to flex his creative muscle in a different direction, joining other breakout successes like Big Narstie and Dizzee Rascal in supporting a cast of young and upcoming artists and actors.

The crime drama follows two young men trying to better themselves in an unforgiving city, where they are forced to face the consequences of their actions, and the cast includes RA, K Koke, Poundz, M24, IAMDDB and Ezra Elliott.

Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Tinie revealed: ‘A lot was going into it, a lot of talent was a part of it, and I’d never done any acting before but it felt like a great opportunity to kind of dip my toe in the water, and so I went for it and I had a great time doing it.

‘It was such an easy pitch to say yes to. I resonated [with it] when they approached me, I liked the whole thing. You know when you go into an amusement park, I went into Thorpe Park the other day and they’ve got this new ride and it’s a mystery. I can’t remember the name of the ride, but you go in and it’s a complete mystery and then you have to walk around with your friends, and you get to one wall and it’s blocked, and you have to follow the clues to find your way back out. This is what Jungle was like.’

Expanding on his theme park analogy, he then shared how much secrecy the project was shrouded in – to the extent that he had to write his lyrics with the barest of hints and work solo in the studio, without any idea of where the overall story was heading (he’s still only been able to see episode one, in which he appears).

‘They approached me and they were like, “We want you to be a part of it, but we can’t tell you the whole story.” So immediately when they said that I was like, “Hang on, this is interesting.” And then they were like, “Okay, we need to make music around this, but we can’t tell you what the scene is, all we can do is describe to you.”

‘I’d never really worked on anything like that before, so the intrigue and the mystery around it before actually getting to the days of filming, it was just so exciting and enticing.’

Describing that process as ‘difficult but fun’, Tinie didn’t even know who he would be sharing his scene or rap with until filming started.

‘Even way before Jungle, wasn’t there a play that came out, that was a hip-hop play? Even before Hamilton, which was a musical, so why is Jungle so surprising? And Hamilton is one of the most successful musicals ever, and even before then there was another one, I forget what it was called – Into the Wild, or Into the Hood or something like that [Into the Hoods, Katie Prince’s show for ZooNation which made it to the West End in 2008] – and I went to watch it in the theatre. It was amazing and had all these dancers, but it was a hip-hop musical and I remember it was mind-blowing – and that was at least 15 years ago.

‘So there’s nothing surprising about it. In fact, this is kind of overdue really, if you think about it. If Hamilton is one of the biggest musicals of all time, then this is overdue surely?’