"I was a little shocked by this when it came out; a ferocious, spikey talent spitting out songs about fucking, TV, boys and girls. It was so abrupt and yet also so ‘every day’. I’m always impressed by writers who can bring a language into their lyrics that we aren’t used to hearing. The album is having a conversation with you. It is a self-contained world that you can walk into. Outside of the lyrics, the sound of this record was an education to me. At the time, I was listening to the most lo-fi, scratchy recordings, but this was something different. It was bone dry and brittle but also very well recorded; it made me realise I didn't have to think black and white in those terms of fidelity. It’s a record that I often think about when recording myself and it has given me a distrust of reverbs and echoes."

"When I heard this I was just completely floored. I was like 'What the fuck is this?' [Laughs]. Radio was amazing, it was so good. Similarly to Public Enemy, I heard this album and I wanted to know how he did it – I just had no idea how. He was talking my language and speaking to me but in styles I had never heard or experienced before. I wanted to know how he did this. The whole album is fire; the beats were hard and the rhymes were hard. It banged and undoubtedly became the sound of a generation. It was almost like punk rock in sentiment, urban punk rock which is effectively what hip hop is. It didn't matter which part of the world you were from either when you listened to this. The people that got this record were all going through the same shit. The worlds might have been somewhat different, but it was the same oppressive shit and it united people."