To look at him, with his long blond hair and meticulously styled moustache, you would never guess that this young man is the leading light in British hip hop music. He’s a far cry from the image of a blinged out rapper with his pants hung low that most are used to seeing. But then again, Akira The Don is anything but the norm.

Since entering the rap world in 2000, former journalist Adam Narkiewicz has quickly established himself as the cream of the underground hip hop scene, and with the release of his debut album ‘When We Were Young’ late last year, he has been thrust into the limelight, even being hailed by some as the saviour of British rap music.

The fierce passion Akira possesses for his craft has brought him far, far away from the Welsh valleys where he spent his youth. After winning the backing of label giants Interscope, he has been able to take his music further than ever before, breaking boundaries with his lyrics - which cover everything from relationships to politics to the daily shop – keeping it real, all with a comical edge.

The Situation caught up with the rising star to talk music, money and conquering the world…

Your debut album has been out for a few months now. For those who’ve yet to hear it, how does this release differ from your numerous mixtapes?

It’s got a string section on it for a start. The mixtapes are basically the results of what I’ve come up with in my front room, or my Dad’s room, depending on where my laptop is at the time, but the album was all done in the studio, so it’s more polished and sounds a lot more professional, I hope!

I co-produced it with three guys: James Brown, as in the white James Brown, who has previously worked with Nine Inch Nails, Björk, and Placebo; a guy called Danny Saber, who does music for U2 and Black Grape; and a guy called Emile, whose on Eminem’s team, and who’s done Obie Trice’s latest album as well as doing tracks for Ghostface, things like that.

So what kind of topics do you cover?

All of them. It kind of goes from autobiographical when I was little type things, to what the streets are doing for the people in rap at the moment, to abortion and er, church, and… I’m trying to think! It’s kinda got a bit of everything on it; bits from all areas of the human experience, I guess.

For a lot of mainstream hip hop fans, your name might not sound too familiar – can you give us a quick rundown about how you got into the game having previously worked as a journalist?

I was just always messing around with music, I guess what would now be called bootlegs, copying tapes from a tape and then back to another tape, and cutting the tape to Sellotape it to another tape! And I think the first rap I ever wrote was ripped off Run DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’ when I was about eight! So I didn’t start properly, properly making noises until around 2000, when me and my mate decided we would teach ourselves to rap, and then we started making beats and stuff like that to use later. And basically that’s how got started. Obviously, had I started earlier I would be amazingly successful by now!

Your music’s very varied and incorporates a lot of different genres of music – what kind of stuff did you grow up listening to? Are there any rappers today which you’re impressed by?

My old man had a big record collection which just had a lot of stuff, so it was like Motown, and rock and a lot of punk stuff, and then I started getting my own [records], but it was mainly Nirvana and Public Enemy and Ice Cube and [artists] like that. I listened to a lot of stuff, the only thing I didn’t really like was jazz, which I later realised was actually great, but I didn’t like jazz at all!

At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Bruza and Billy Bragg, and Pet Shop Boys and The Game… and the new Ice Cube stuff and some Bob Dylan. Chris De Burgh too – always gotta have a bit of Chris de Burgh!

You’re signed to Interscope Records – were you ever weary of how such a major label would promote and distribute your music, considering the artists they’ve got at present (eg. 50 Cent, Eminem)?

Yeah, the whole thing was a bit of a gamble. I figured ‘cos I was already doing stuff, and I had my website and was writing my own sh*t and what have you, that they wouldn’t be able to do that, seeing that they do work with people where they say, ‘Right, you’re gonna be like this and you’re gonna look like this, and you’re gonna say that you got shot eight times in the back of the face and do the DVD…!

A lot of artists have come out of major label deals complaining that they didn’t have much control over how their music sounded, and how they were marketed. Do you have full creative control over everything you do?

Yeah, well this is it. The issues I’m having with them at the moment I think stem from the fact that I refuse to you know, change lyrics and concepts and things. I think the alarm bells went off with that lot when I came in with this record. Initially they were like, ‘Woo, this is amazing, this is another great pop record’, but then one of the marketing directors went, (in American accent) ‘But, what is he saying?’ And then they started freaking out, so it’s good!

Is everything sorted out now that they’ve seen the response to your album?

I would say about 80% of it – there’s a hardcore of evil marketing people who don’t quite know what to do with it and would much rather handle the Pussycat Dolls, I think!

Artists always hate labels, but if you had to put yourself in one particular section at a record store, where would you put your CD and why?

At the front so people notice it! ’Cos otherwise they might not know of it and so won’t buy it! But that genre thing I’m not a big fan of, but it probably would be pop music, ’cos it’s all pop music at the end of the day, really. The whole thing kinda reminds me of hip hop and people saying it’s not this and it’s not that. All hip hop ever was, was the ultimate form of musical expression. You could create a piece of music and just chop it up and you could express any idea on top of it. MTV jacked hip hop and started saying it should be this, that and the other and it was only ever one thing.

You’ve got a loyal fanbase – what has their reaction been to your album and your major label signing?

They like it; everyone’s been cool. I’ve literally been getting loads of emails off people as the album trickles through, so everyone’s happy, except from one dude who reckons I sold out. But I don’t mind, there’s always one. The problem is now, the moment you actually sell any copies, you’ve sold out! So I can do that, and live down on the Wharf, and be pure and artistic, or you can sort of exist in the real world, ’cos you do have to exist in the real world, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to sell myself to Coca-Cola or anything.

Would you, if they offered you £1 million?

I was having this argument with my guitarist the other day, it’s weird…! No, f**k ’em! Two million dollars though, you could do something useful with it, so we came to the conclusion that alright, fine. You get places in Africa where you can’t get f**king water, so you do the thing, you take the money and you put the money into say, a scheme that puts water into that area. ’Cos otherwise those idiots will just give the money to some d**khead like, erm… the Kaiserchiefs! They’ll just blow it on loads of rubbish like their own f**king springboards or lots of chocolate or something ridiculous like that!

You’ve come a long way from your Welsh roots – did you ever think it would get so big so quickly?

Er, I was kinda convinced when I was seven years old that I would be bigger than Michael Jackson by the time I was 10, so I was always like five years further along than I was in my head, so by the time I got there in real life, I kind of already knew it would happen, and I was onto the next step, type thing. So right now, I’m kinda planning my school for gifted youngsters in Arizona, ‘X-Men’ style! I’m not really thinking about my album, but yes, it is true that I have come a relatively long way from the valleys that I used to fall down holes in.

Your fans contact you mostly through your website – do you answer all your emails from them?

You know what? I always thought I answered a lot of my mail, and then the last couple of weeks I realised I don’t answer a great deal of them! But I did a big load on Saturday, and then there were more people saying, ‘Oh wow, you’re amazing, amazing! I sent you an email before and you never replied!’

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Somewhere warm… and er, with air that’s breathable! Nah, by that point, I imagine I would have made a musical. I imagine there would have been a number of Akira The Don albums and there would have been a number of other side project things, and hopefully I would have written a ballad that’s better than that song… I can’t remember the guy that wrote it… “I can’t live/ If living is without you…” that one! A better ballad than that, and I would’ve written a song for Whitney Houston, I would have done a collaboration with Snoop Dogg, and sang a piece with Lionel [Richie] and had [American rocker] Tom Petty singing the chorus! And, er, Chris de Burgh would have probably sued me about 17 times and I would have won, each time, I reckon!

Akira The Don’s album ‘When We Were Young’, is out now on Something In Construction/Interscope Records. For more information, please visit http://www.akirathedon.com.