The Rap Game UK's Saidu on talking about sex and love - as a young Muslim rapper

Saidu, from BBC Three's The Rap Game UK, discusses his faith and his music.

This article contains spoilers for the second episode of The Rap Game UK series three.

This summer, The Rap Game UK returned for its third series and with it a whole new cast of aspiring rappers and MCs.

Hosted by DJ Target and UK rap duo Krept & Konan, the series sees the six new artists - Oakzy B, Pocaa, Kaydizzy, BrynBP, Kay Rico and Saidu - test their talents as lyricists and performers in a series of challenges including cyphers, freestyles, battles and live performances.

For the most part, competing on the show is a question of versatility and quick-thinking, the ability to immediately adapt and pull it off with style, but as episode two shows us, some challenges can throw up unexpected difficulties that call for a little more lateral thinking.

The first part of the episode saw the six aspiring rhymers go head-to-head in a series of battles or "clashes", judged by the Lord Of The Mics himself, Jammer of legendary grime crew Boy Better Know. So far so good.

However, the second challenge in the episode called for each rapper to write and perform an a capella rap on the topics of love and sex.

That might also seem pretty standard for the hip-hop world, but for 19-year-old Saidu, a practising Muslim, that was going to prove a little trickier.

When Konan sent the task through to the artists, Saidu explains, "I was like, this cannot be real! What am I actually going to do? Obviously, in my religion, sex and stuff like that shouldn't be done until after marriage."

To make matters worse, filming took place during Ramadan, one of the holiest Islamic months when Muslims fast in order to feel closer to God.

"If it wasn't Ramadan, I wouldn't have minded talking about that stuff," he adds, "but because it was a month where I should be reflecting on myself as a person, trying to get to know myself better, trying to get closer to God, it just felt very inappropriate for me to be talking about sex and love."

Off-screen, Saidu - who lives at home with his mum and younger siblings in Bermondsey, south east London - was able to reach out to some of his friends to see if they had any advice. Also practising Muslims, it turns out they were just as stumped as he was. "They were just like 'Oh no! What are you going to do?'" he laughs.

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"I didn't know what to do either! I didn't have the slightest clue, but at the same time, I know why I came on the show. I knew that I was going to be brought out of my comfort zone one way or another, but I just didn't know it was going to be like that! It still happened, though. I still managed to stay on topic and stuff. So I feel like I'm alright."

It wasn't just that specific task that posed a problem for Saidu. Performing and making music, even listening to music, during Ramadan was something that weighed on his mind.

"[Throughout filming] everyone around the house is listening to music and jamming," he says. "I just wanted to join in, but I couldn't. That sounds very mad, because I'm writing raps and I'm listening to music, and I'm performing every day, but I was only doing that when I had to be doing it. I didn't want to be doing that in my free time because in my free time I should have been trying to get closer to God."

As a young Muslim balancing his faith with other aspects of his life is a constant struggle and one he's become accustomed to juggling. "Obviously, being in this generation, in the age that we live in, things are just different. Everyone's open with whatever they do. It's very open."

But he's quick to add that both the artists and everyone working on the show were supportive and accommodating and that he found a way to strike that balance without undermining his faith and his values. "Everyone was respectful and no one violated me in any way, shape or form," he jokes.

"I might be at a disadvantage because I've had to dim down on this topic due to the fact that it's Ramadan," Saidu said on the show before the challenge.

Saidu's lateral thinking served him well in the task and Krept gave him a knowing nod of respect for rising to the challenge without going against his faith.

Ultimately, Saidu avoided explicit references to sex during his performance and wrote lines including, "Excuse me Miss, let me get a kiss kiss" and "One too many times, you had your heart broken."

"It's Ramadan so I wasn't trying to go too deep into certain topics,” he said after the performance was done.

However, an earlier misstep in the clash challenge and some dance moves that rubbed Konan up the wrong way bumped him from first place at the end of episode one down to fifth place.

After riding high with a clean sweep of universally positive feedback, it was a sobering reminder that anything can happen on The Rap Game UK.

"I was mad!" he says. "Fifth place? No! I was not happy at all. Obviously, I was overthinking my lyrics. My lyrics are sick, but sometimes it's not just about that. It's about your delivery, your performance. Even though I gave a performance, it wasn't the best I could've given."

That wake-up call isn't going to slow him down, though. Quite the opposite. "When you're number one it's all good and that, but everyone else is hungry. So when I got put to fifth, being put near to the bottom, that is so dead! I just felt comfortable in number one. So it's only right I do a sick performance and get myself back to number one."

The Rap Game UK is available on BBC iPlayer now.