Sway told Soccer AM that his success in the US proves that British talent is no longer taken for granted stateside.
British rapper cracks US market
Sway told
Soccer AM that his success in the US proves that British talent is no longer taken for granted stateside.
The north London rapper joined his cousin Quincy Owusu-Abeyie on the orange sofa ahead of the release of his new single, Silver and Gold, which is released on Monday.
The single features hip-hop star Akon, whose record label recently signed Sway, and he revealed that he was ecstatic by the prospect of working with some of the biggest names in the music industry.
"It's really exciting, the fact that a British-born rapper from North London can collaborate with these stars," said Sway.
"It's a big deal for me to be able to sit down with Pharrell and talk about doing tracks when he has had so many hits over the years that I've listened to and grown up on.
"And working with people like Akon and Chamillionaire and Lupe Fiasco is an honour for me and goes to show that British talent is not taken for granted anymore.
"They really want to get into the British market and they want to use British artists to do that."
Awards
Sway has been one of the biggest stars on the British hip-hop scene in recent years and in 2005 he beat US heavyweights 50 Cent and The Game to win the Best hip-hop act award at the Mobos.
A year later he collected another award, this time at the BET Awards in the US where he was named best UK hip-hop act - unsurprisingly music moguls across the Atlantic started to take notice.
His growing success has meant Sway spends an increasing amount of time stateside, but despite the glamorous lifestyle he admitted there were some drawbacks.
"The difference, I'd say, between America and the UK is that America is a lot more glamorous in a lot of ways. But being more glamorous comes with its cons as well.
"Over here when you meet somebody and they tell you that they do something, they often do it. Whereas in America everybody is a superstar, everybody's dad owns a yacht and there are a lot of liars."
Genres
As well as collaborating with American hip-hop stars, Sway has proved he is more than capable of moving across genres.
A chance meeting with the indie rock band, Kaiser Chiefs, saw him rap on their song Half The Truth, and he explained how it all came about.
"Well basically I had been talking to Mark Ronson for about two years about collaborating, but his schedule got so busy after the success of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse.
"But every time I saw him he would say, 'call me, call me', but every time I tried it would ring-out.
"So I was recording my newest album, The Signature LP, and I heard that Mark Ronson was in a studio across the road. So I was like, 'this guy doesn't answer his flipping phone, let me just go and see him and get this track done'.
"So I've gone over there and I've seen this band in there. But you know how some of the rock bands think all rappers look the same, well I think all the rock bands look the same! I wasn't sure what band it was, but I knew it was a good one!
"I went in there and said, 'is Mark Ronson in here' and they said, 'no' so I left, but then they called the person I was with and asked, 'was that Sway the rapper, we could use a rapper on one of our tracks'."
"So I went back into the studio and within the space of an hour, from me meeting them, I ended up finishing a track for their album with them."
