I met up with Kanye West recently and I have to say he’s always good to talk to. Unlike some rappers, he really says what he feels. I have to big him up too for shouting me out at last year’s BRIT Awards. That was a good look for me, and it’s good to hear US artists taking time out to appreciate the UK market. As ever, I got a killer interview from Kanye. To hear it in full, go to bbc.co.uk/1xtra/semtex but for now here are some of the best moments.

Kanye on his return
It’s been a hard year for me. I felt that struggle that I felt coming into the first album. People were saying ‘I don’t know if I like that guy any more.’ But I appreciated that pressure, the pressure to overcome the naysayers and the haters. You know, I talked a lot of mess, so I had to go in and I had to back it up. All I’m concentrating on now is the album Graduation and what I’m wearing in the morning.

The Lupe/ Pharrell/ Kanye ’supergroup’ CRS
Ah, I can’t talk about that or I’ll instantly die afterwards (laughs). It’s something that’s been in the works…hang on, can’t talk about it, I’m instantly dying! But the Can’t Tell Me Nothing mixtape, it’s almost like an album. I was in the club and they were playing it last night. That’s crazy.
On Porn…
Real talk. They have this thing New York called Page 6 and they said ‘Kanye West caught with porn.’ Let me explain something; I’m 30 years old, I can’t be ‘caught’ with it. I just have it. If I was 6 years-old, then I could be caught. But at my age, it’s legal, except in Japan where I actually was caught and they held me at the airport for two hours, but lets not talk about that! I want to say, I’m a grown man and I partake. I feel like it was cool [my mum writing about it in her book] cos I don’t have nothing to hide. That’s one thing about my whole style; it’s not a gimmick so every extra piece of truth that comes out is even better for me cos people can relate to me even more.

On The Press…
I probably said everything they quote me as saying, they just have the beginning or the end of it. Like this one magazine said I said ‘I’m nearly perfect.’ But the actual quote was ‘People say if I wouldn’t talk about myself so much, I’d be nearly perfect.’ But they cut that bit out. I give people a lot to play with because a lot of people won’t come out and say how they feel, but I give them all these words that they blow up. Which is good, blow my words out of proportion, thank you very much.

On Bloggers…
It was crazy, I had a year where everyone was talking about me, no one seemed to like me. It got to ‘Look at his shoelaces, he’s a bitch.’ So I would read the blogs and I would seriously plot on how I was going to find the people and really go and mess them up. But now I use them as inspiration; what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. I was writing raps like ‘I know in my heart I can glow in the dark.’ It’s a statement, like I’m trying to have a conversation with them? But nah, like f*ck that – ‘bow in the presence of greatness, you should be honoured by my lateness!’ I’m trying to put the world on my shoulders. This time next year I will be the No. 1 artist in the world. It’s complete world domination. And the key to that isn’t by appraising myself but by appraising other people; giving them theme songs. Everyone’s lives are like a movie, so if I can be the soundtrack to everyone’s movies, that’s the No.1 album in the world right there.

On Being Unappreciated…
They do the Top 10 Best MCs and I don’t even make it in the top three?! And I don’t know how that is when I say: ‘The devil wears Prada, Adam and Eve wear nada/ I’m in-between, but way more fresher.’ I say rhymes that connect with people. It’s not just about having cute punchlines. Once Graduation is out, I really want to get my credit as one of the top MCs. My swagger is up crazy, I’ll rip any MC out there. Wayne close your ears - I’ll rip anyone out there, discluding Wayne!
On Lil Weezy…
We already started working together - if you can’t beat, ‘em join ‘em. When I hear someone so good they scare me, I got to get them next to ‘em. That’s the reason I worked with Lupe! He’s too good, I had to be a part of that.

On 50…
I’ve been in the studio with 50. Certain people have that aura about themselves. Like Jay, Wayne, 50. I feel like there should be a respect and honour for the modern-day kings - I think rappers are the modern-day kings and so I feel when 50 walks in a room, people should be quiet. He has a lot to say. Jay, 50, Justin - they’re all superheroes. (The 50 and Game beef) was crazy. I’ll do a show with Game and he’ll diss 50 right before I go onstage. I’ll be like ‘Ok, lets just do our song!’ I don’t have beef with anybody. It’s impossible for anyone to have beef with me cos I’ll call them and say ‘Lets go to DisneyWorld or the movies.’ I’m just not into that. You notice I never say anything to bring a person down? I never down a black man trying to get his money. I never down people to big myself up - I just big myself up!

On Graduation…
There’s a lot on this album that’s going to touch people in different ways. It’s about saying something that might make a difference. I now realise how big my voice is in the world, especially now as a pop artist - which I take as a compliment. That used to be taboo in hip hop but that’s stupid. Hip hop has a lot of stupid, taboo things like the gay-bashing and the not wanting to be pop. For me, I want to be pop; I want to be as big as possible. I want to go as big as I can go.

Graduation is out Sept 10. Hit me up on MySpace.com/djsemtex and check me out on air blazing the hottest new joints, every Friday & Saturday 7pm to 10pm on 1xtra. Check the interview at bbc.co.uk/1xtra/semtex

This has probably been the biggest week for hip hop in a long time. 50 Cent was live on stage in London and Kanye was at the Manchester Apollo and Wembley Stadium performing at the Prince Diana memorial along with Pharrell and Diddy. Talib Kweli performed three sellout shows at the Jazz Café, the Wu-Tang Clan tore up the Hammersmith Apollo, and I’ve been hosting all of Timbaland’s after parties at the o2 Dome.
  According to some DJs or journalists, Timbaland is arrogant; he gives one word answers, he won’t take pictures, he thinks he’s better than every other producer. I interviewed him a couple months ago, and he kind of threw me off a bit, he was saying he was the best, no other producer can mess with him, etc. I didn’t expect it from him, purely because in the past, he had never been as vocal as someone like Kanye or Pharrell.
  Like some of the best artists in the world, Timbaland has that audacity. He’s just very real and tells it how it is. The media calls it arrogance, I would call it confidence, Timbo would probably call it pride. His track record is undeniable; he has launched careers (Missy Elliott, Ginuwine, Aaliyah) and resurrected careers for a lot of artists (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake). He’s created some of the biggest club bangers and radio records.
  To have this kind of success, you need to live in the studio, you need to be constantly in the creative zone. Playing the media circus is probably the last thing on your mind. Having done the after parties with Timbaland at the o2 over the last few weeks, I’ve seen a very different side to Timbaland. On one of the shows he did a two-hour set, and most of that set was spent talking to the crowd of 2000+ fans.
  He talked about how he was depressed and wanted to quit the game. He said he looked like Fat Bastard out Austin Powers, and it was LL Cool J that changed his outlook on life. He bought on stage a UK artist that he was about to sign, and constantly told the crowd about how much he valued his fans.
  Despite what you may have heard, Timbaland is humble, charismatic, fun, and is the man to have at your party. He got everybody involved, he stopped a girl in the crowd from beating up her boyfriend, he dragged 10 couples on stage purely to dance and have fun. It was a heavy night. It’s not what you would expect from one of the greatest producers of our time.

Hit me up on MySpace.com/djsemtex and check me out on air blazing the hottest new joints, every Friday & Saturday 7pm to 10pm on 1xtra

Is grime dead? Ask the people of Falmouth, Plymouth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cambridge or Brighton for a start. I’m sure they’ll disagree. We started the Dirtee Stank tour in May, and have been touring across the UK. It has been a massive success. Dizzee Rascal, Newham Generals, Chrome, DJ Tubby, and myself are on the line up, and the length of the show is four hours for a mere £12. Each venue has been sold out, the crowds at each location have been brilliant, with hands in the air all night. Dizzee kills it every night, as you would expect, but the Newham Generals have really come a long way from where they were 18 months ago. They have gone from being MC’s, standing stiff on stage, to having a live, visual presence, interacting with the crowd, and holding down a 45 minute set. Watch out for Newhams in ‘07; they’ve got the hunger and the fire to get to that next level. And big up Chrome, the newest addition to the roster.

Dizzee is in danger of having the UK’s equivalent to Def Jam on his hands. It looks like Dirtee Stank is the only label that can grow and develop artists from road without compromise. Watch out for the power moves they are about to make.

Is grime dead? Ask the 20,000 people that bought Diz’s third album Maths & English within the first week, or ask the 15,000+ people that checked us out at Radio 1’s One Big Weekend in Preston.

Can we dead the negative talk? If you’re a fan of Dizzee, Wiley, Kano, Sway, or Lethal then buy the albums and support your artists. It’s down to you to keep the scene movin’ and vibrant. You’ve got enough dough to cop the latest kicks at Footlocker, but you can’t cop an album for £8 on iTunes? If you are that broke, get your mum to cop them from Tescos!

Check out the tour flicks

Check me out on air blazing the hottest new joints: Every Friday & Saturday 7pm to 10pm on 1xtra

You’re not a real artist if you’ve never performed at a festival. The festivals are the ultimate test as to whether you are hot… or not. Anyone can bus’ up a dance, anyone can do a support slot for a big name artist and get away without getting booed, but the festivals, that’s another story.

Whether it’s Reading, Leeds or Glastonbury, this is the one event where you get normal people in one place to watch a show. Not your friends and family, not your fans, not even people that like the music you represent. This is where the challenge lies. If you can rock a festival and get 20,000 people throwing their hands in the air, you are big in the game. Dizzee Rascal, Mike Skinner and Lethal Bizzle have got some of the tightest stage shows you will ever see when it comes to festivals. It’s all about interacting with the crowd, and getting them involved. It’s all about having the club bangers that make 20,000 people want to put their hands in the air.

I’ve done hundreds of shows with Dizzee and Scope (biggest Hypeman in the game), and we’ve never had a swag show yet, every show gets smashed down. The only thing that I don’t like about festivals is the food, especially in Europe. For some reason, no matter which country you go to, the food backstage consists of: Salami slices. Carrots (straight out of the ground). Pickles. Swine. More Swine. Swag fruit. This is the hardest part of doing festivals, the food is always swag. I don’t know which artists eat raw carrots and swine before they go on stage, but it’s really not a good look, especially for Superstar DJ like myself. When you’re on the road touring, McDonalds actually tastes like Gourmet food. Watch out for the Dirtee Stank invasion at a festival near you soon. This is the line up for 2007:

June 29: Heineken Open-Air Gdynia
July 5: Five Days Off Melkweg, Amsterdam
July 6: Roskilde Denmark
July 7: T In The Park Kinross, Scotland
July 8: Oxygen Dublin
August 18: V2007 Chelmsford
August 19: V2007 Stafford
August 25: Cardiff Calling Wales
August 26: Loaded IN The Park Clapham, London

Check me out every Friday & Saturday, 7 to 10pm on 1Xtra.