But even when Coca-Cola doubled its offer to seven figures, the band declined to let the multinational use their music in a worldwide advert. This was principled stuff, certainly, but couldn't they have taken the cash and put it to a number of philanthropic uses?"Possibly," says Rhys, "but ultimately you've got to hear your own voice on telly selling a product that you hate, you know? Obviously it would make a big difference financially, but we get to make a living making music, and that's amazing in itself We're holding out for that Red Stripe advert in Jamaica. Six months ago he got his own flat but, what with promoting his album and performing, he hasn't had a chance to move in yet The PR machine cogs are beginning to turn, too. He's been deluged with free clothes by Adidas and Puma, and there are whispers of a modelling job for Hugo Boss."It's all good," he says "This job's got some nice perks. I definitely don't need to buy trainers anymore, which is lucky as there's no time to shop."His mother, meanwhile, has become one of Channel U's most devoted viewers, keen to catch a glimpse of her son in full flow "She's well into it," he smiles "She always knows when I've got things coming out. I'm lucky because a lot more people know about this music than when Dizzee or Mike was coming through so it's easier for me."Kano has started writing songs for his second album, though demands on his time are making it difficult. And Dizzee? "After Dizzee done his thing and got big we didn't see him.
But with all of them lot coming out before me I could see what they were doing and learn from them. We used to make tapes with other MCs and they would circle around the scene. They would travel too - we would go to raves in Ipswich and find people selling our tapes." Meanwhile Channel U, the Sky-sponsored music channel for homegrown urban acts, started playing his home-made videos.As word got around about his skills and inspired by the success of Rascal, Skinner and the MC/producer Wiley, Kano got a manager and began scouting for a record deal "I was impatient," he recalls. "I was going: 'Why is this taking so long?' But I knew from Wiley's experiences that I had to wait for the right label. I wanted a label which would understand where I was coming from and not try to dilute the music."Mike Skinner was full of advice - crucially, advising Kano to be true to himself and not to read his press. "We would cram into these flats where they ran the stations and do our thing.
The engineer took ages, smoking weed, eating food and wasting my time. But I'd rather spend my money on that than go out drinking."Laying waste to the notion of MC's as tearaways, Kano continued his education, passing all his GCSEs before doing an A-level in graphic design. "I would go to college and people would know me from the rave they went to at the weekend," he smiles "So I would get a bit of respect But I would always go to class and do my work. My mother made sure of that."It was Kano's brother, a DJ, who got him on the radio, now one of the quickest routes to success for aspiring MCs. But his enthusiasm for sport soon dwindled and music won out.From rhyming in the playground, Kano graduated to composing tracks via the music programme Cubase on his computer. By the age of 15 he was renting space in an east London studio "You pay by the hour - it was 15 pounds a go. On "Sometimes" he confesses "When I see the fans go mad/ I think 'Why do they like me?'/ There's about a thousand other boys like me?/ Spitting lyrics on the mic, dressed in Nike." "I'm just being me" Kano shrugs "I'm a thinker as much as I'm a talker.