Kano would like the world to know he’s not a sweet boy, a ladies man, a pin-up or in any way trying to make the females of the species melt. "I’m not a sweet boy, I’m not, I’m not," he protests through guilty laughter.

"People think that, but it’s just because of my lyrics and I want to write about what I’ve experienced. I’ve never been to jail, but I have been in love."

His first single, made at the age of 16, was titled Boys Love Girls and now, still only 20, he confesses on his latest release Brown Eyes that he "don’t wanna fall in love, but your brown eyes have got me hypnotised."

"I’m not a thug," he says. "Besides, when I’ve made a track about a subject it opens the gates and then everyone starts talking about that thing." Kano is something of an innovator in UK music. He’s blended the hard-edged sounds of grime with a commercially viable hip hop element, becoming one of the only post-Dizzee Rascal artists to rise from East London’s underground scene and keep hold of his record deal. "But I’m lazy, man," he says. "I never had no ambition. I didn’t want to be anything when I grew up. Most people would say they wanted to be a business man or whatever, but, me? Nothing."

The young Kano, real name Kane Robinson, excelled at football and played in the junior teams for both Chelsea and Norwich. He then moved onto graphic design, which he studied at college (although he doesn’t do his own artwork, "because I’d never get it finished on time."). At this stage, his music was "just a hobby, messing about." He remembers the first time he heard a record of his played in a club. He was 17, waiting for his turn to MC at the Palace Pavilion in Hackney, London, when the DJ dropped Boys Love Girls and the place went off.

"It was just a little white label release," he says. "But it was this feeling, that music finally paying off, not financially then, but that I was getting somewhere. Everyone was going mad to it." And people kept on going mad. He moved through the grime ranks, becoming a member of the Nasty Crew and guesting on a couple of Streets remixes and The Mitchell Brothers’ Routine Check. Now he’s gathered critical acclaim and record sales on both sides of the Atlantic.

"People say I’m famous now," he says. "And I suppose it’s getting that way, but I’d still prefer it if I was famous onstage and forgotten about in Tesco." He sighs slightly. "But it’s what everyone wants isn’t it? That, and falling in love."

BBC Northampton interviews Kano