Born Ian Koromah in Lewisham back in 1992, his parents came to England to escape the horror of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, raising their son in Peckham before relocating to East Ham. A precocious musical talent from day one, Maxsta started rapping at the age of 14, inspired by the intricate cerebral flows of his heroes Eminem, Big L, Dizzee, and Roll Deep. He attended the same school as Kano, but by his own admission wasn’t exactly a model pupil, preferring to daydream about performing on TV rather than brushing up on algebra.

Never one to bite his tongue, Maxsta’s reputation as the grime scene’s most visceral young firebrand was firmly cemented in 2010 with “East London Is Back”. A braggadocios battle rap anthem about “representing the thugs in the flats” Maxsta called out anyone who dared to think that they were better than him. A critical smash, it made his mixtape – The Maxtape – one of the scene’s biggest sellers of the year.