GRIME star Devlin’s home town of Dagenham’s Wikipedia page doesn’t include the 23-year-old as one of its "most notable people".
But it can only be a matter of time.
With a talent for rapping about the kind of ills our society would rather hide under the carpet, Devlin learned his supercharged spitting skills as part of the underground OT Crew.
In a way, he has been living the dream since he was signed to Island Records/Universal and his first album Bud Sweat And Beers – named from a line in his boys’ night out anthem London City. That first album – including two guest slots from Emeli Sande – appeared in 2010 just outside the top 20, went gold (100,000 copies sold) and underlined his presence as a new mainstream grime prince in waiting.
Three years on, second album A Moving Picture cements the deal, but comes from where he is now.
There may not be that cool eye and motormouth trained on filleting out the wrongs of the wider world and thrusting them into the spotlight in the same way as in the first album’s Community Outcast: "I represent for the homeless/Let down by a nation/More interested in war and invasion/When children are sleeping at railway stations".
He’s now sharing what it’s like to be Devlin now with fans and friends, the pressures to be the best wordsmith and still tell it like it is.
But earlier this week, he sounded OK with that as he got ready to return to Inverness, following up his visit at the end of last year.
He’s got a great sense of humour, is serious about his career and his responsibility to talk about the world he knows as he sees it – and likes to emphasise that his family and friends are kept close.
The recent release of his second album – delayed from last year’s original date – is an early topic and he feels it debuted a fortnight ago in a good place.
He uses the "we" of a man with a good team around him.
"We came in at 19 and have had two top 10 singles from it, so we’re in a really good position.
"We work hard, take what we get and try and work off that platform. We got a nice start anyway."
It must be nice to have some guest appearances on the album – including Labrinth, Wretch 32 and Katy B, among them.
Devlin revealed there had been personal invitations.
"I know a lot of them – to be fair I’ve known Ed Sheeran, Labrinth, most of them really, through friendships.
"So it was organic that way, it’s natural."
And for anyone who might have expected Devlin to give in to the danger of going all RnB or party boy for his second album, there was never going to be any chance of that.
He laughed: "I find it easier to write about serious subjects rather than parties, big cars, or watches – all I can do is stick to what I’m doing."
And it seems you probably can’t take the boy out of Dagenham, nor Dagenham out of the boy who agreed that he wouldn’t have become Devlin the rapper if he hadn’t come from the area.
"Definitely.
"There’s some dark stuff going on around there, you know, but there is in any city in the UK.
"My eyes were opened fairly young, I grew up very quick.
"But obviously there’s worse places, there’s better places.
"I was in the underground from about 2005 when I was 16 and I think that was one of the best things I’ve done.
"I was still a young man then.
"And as we progressed, my fanbase grew and it was my first video London City that got me attention from the record labels – and obviously signing my deal was a massive thing.
"Since then it has flown, the last three years."
We talk about his acting – which pressured him in a way, but he enjoyed – in the video for (All Along The) Watchtower with Ed Sheeran and Devlin joked: "I did enjoy it! If the role was right in future, I would never say never.
"I might be the new Bond or something!"
But with the album just out, it’s the start of yet another year of hard work for Devlin.
He doesn’t seem worried about that, though when quizzed about precise details, he laughs.
"I’m a scatterbrain! My manager – managers know. I ’ve got two, two heads are better than one!
"We’d like to do a couple more singles from the album, do some visuals and crack on, perform at a few festivals – that’s what I’m looking forward to – playing and having a chance for people to learn the album.
"Then you can feed off their energy and it’s less like work and obviously the more enjoyable it is for me, the better."
Devlin, born from the underground, is aware that the grime world is changing, has changed even since his early days.
"When I was young, we had the whole pirate radio scene and you’d see everyone from East London, South London around. You just bumped into people and they turned up at everything.
"But now that’s not going on, so it’s not so good for the young MCs. It was a nice place to practise.
"But at the same time now you’ve got YouTube which is like your own advertisement and people are making songs and popping up. You’re more like free agents with people putting up freestyles and that."
And Devlin is keeping his eye on rising new talents too.
"I’ve got a lot of work with this album and I’m going to push that.
"But later on in the year I’m going to try and get a mixtape together and work with a couple of artists especially a guy called Proverbz who is really good.
From Rewind:
‘... but this pain is not a passing phase/now I’m curious, how many years a heart can ache/feel like a minotaur, meandering this darkened place/trying to find a way, to maybe find the light of day...’
"I’ve been watching him coming up and doing his thing and I’d really like to work with him and a couple of others."
One thing that won’t happen is Devlin letting himself get separated from his roots.
"I’m very close to my friends still and like to have beer in a quieter club – though we’ve done crazy things through the years. But to chill out, I’d go and see mum and dad, drink beer, like normal young men do I suppose.
"You could never rip me away from my friends and family.
"Fame does mean nothing to me.
"I’m just happy that people are supporting me in doing what I love and if they keep supporting me, I can keep working.
"But if you don’t have people who care around you, then that’s not good, I think."
On the new album, Devlin pays tribute to them in a couple of tracks, including Letter To My Boys and to his fans in The Cast.
He seems to have forged a special bond with Scotland.
"I just proper love Scotland.
"The first time I played Inverness last year, I thought ‘This is the furthest city away from London’, do you know what I mean?
"But there was proper love and Scottish people are always up for it and they make me feel welcome every time.
"So I’m looking forward to coming back."
But the TV and radio, the festivals, albums, freestyling, studio work – does it get hard to keep up with his own success?
"I’m a very grounded person and have my friends and family," Devlin reminds you.
He laughed: "But sometimes, yeah, you walk past a billboard of yourself on the side of a building and you think ‘Jesus Christ, where has that come from?’.
"It’s all a bit of a shock sometimes, you know?
"It’s mad coming across a picture of yourself that’s 30 foot by 30 foot!"
And you don’t get much bigger than that.
Are you listening Dagenham?
Devlin plays the Ironworks, Inverness, on Saturday (March 2) with Inverness support KRTS on at 7.15pm and Devlin on at 8pm.
