Not unknown to a bit of audience apprehension when it comes to him getting on stage, people instantly assume Tiggs Da Author is about to drop some hard-hitting rhymes accompanied by equally blunt beats. But when the music starts, jaws drop. Far from being a rap artist, his music is a blend of old school jazz and soul, which causes even the most wooden spectator to nod their head in appreciation.

“When I first go on stage, people don’t really know what to expect. I can tell that people think I look like a rapper, but by the end of the set they’re loving it. That’s the general reaction anyway,” he says. His sound can be traced back to his childhood in Tanzania, where Tiggs spent eight years soaking up the culture before moving to south London with his mother and sisters. “It was impossible not to be influenced by the culture and music over there. I took it all on board and added it to my sound. It’s mainly jazz music and melody driven tunes,” he observes.

But that’s not to say that MCing and rap haven’t been an integral part of his upbringing. Tiggs saw himself as “just another a MC from south London” in the not so distant past. “I started off with grime and rap because that’s what my friends did,” he explains. “You’re just a bunch
of kids who want to express themselves and writing rhymes was a way to do that. It was simply the environment I was in.” As he grew older, Tiggs sought to further explore his African roots, musically. But it took some time for him to move away from his original sound.

“I brought it in bit by bit. If I would have done it as a straight switch, all of my mates would have thought I was crazy,” Tiggs laughs. “I knew I had it in me, but I just wasn’t confident enough to use it and didn’t think it was cool in the first place. So I decided to stick with MCing until I finished school and hoped that one day I’d get the courage to do it.”