He was Born to Do It and he’s Slicker Than Your Average – Yep, I’m talking about, Craig David. Britain’s hottest R’n B star talked to me exclusively after returning to the U.K from a break in sun drenched Miami........ oh nooooooooooo!

Interestingly enough he was full of praise for the student crowd, saying, “The student people become like a collective in themselves and if an artist is really hot he does the rounds in the universities.” He recalled that back when he was DJ’ing in Southampton he used to trawl round the halls of residences distributing flyers, “the hard graft” as he called it. It is evident when talking to him that he feels that the student population has an influence in setting trends and providing artists with a following. Also, he is a man who practices what he preaches because after 12 million sold, international fame, he stills found the time to chat to me when there was nothing in it for him. He is on the butt of a lot of jokes right now but when it comes down to it, the man is gifted turning his hand to different genres and being successful in fact he should probably be nicknamed Midas.

Craig then gave me some pearls of wisdom to pass on to you regarding life at uni which were if you have ten quid left out of your student loan, then hit a boozer, “Buy a few large beers, actually buy a round.” If you’re faced with the dilemma between getting an assignment done for a deadline tomorrow morning or heading out to catch a hot new singer performing on the same night, sod the assignment because, “as much as it does need to go in, the hot local singer you need to catch that otherwise you aint part of the whole thing.” He also gave a special piece of advice to you guys out there with an untidy messy beard on your kisser which was, “ don’t spend too long in front of the mirror cause I cant be arsed, if your really the man find one of those cool hot girls who is studying beauty therapy or hairdressing, and get her to do it for you in the morning.”

A perfectionist is how he describes himself who pours over every second of his material and eternally searches for ways in which to improve it. “I am such a perfectionist I could scrutinise all two of my albums and say you know what, I could have done all things better. I listen to things and go I could have done that on that and it would have sounded pretty cool.” He feels if he didn’t have the right people around him, who say to him “Craig you know what, don’t worry that sounds really good”, then he would be working on an album for years and years, his self confessed weakness is giving things closure.” With his second multi platinum selling album, Slicker Than Your Average, he has shown himself to be much more than a garage MC who can sing a bit. For real, he has matured into an individual who can write quality songs and sing them with a soothing voice that appeals to everyone from rebellious teenagers to middle-aged housewives.

However it is not just his style that has matured, his outlook and approach to his music has also developed. Craig now feels he is something of a role model and has to take this into account when he produces material, he is no longer the new kid on the block with a garage hit on the radio with people asking Craig Who? He is now an instantly recognisable superstar and wants to use his music to say something on a personal level, which was not present on the first album. As he says “when you have been in the music industry for a certain amount of time instead of being naïve to things you are consciously thinking of the things your saying and what will people say if I say that so on the second album I was reactive instead of being proactive.”

To my surprise Craig showed some level of respect for the glut of reality TV pop stars that we are exposed to right now. “ It’s important that the people aren’t so manufactured that they are allowed to have some unique quality or else people will say we seen this all before.” When I saw David Sneddon on the show singing that song I thought he was talented as he wrote his own song, was playing the piano and if he hasn’t been on Fame Academy would it have been a number one song? No one knows, but it still would have been a great song. Hands down I take nothing away from people who have had success on these shows.”

Southampton’s own Willy Wonka passed on some record buying advice saying that they Audiobullys are “really doing their thing” and the Streets, saying that “it’s going to be interesting where he goes with the second album”. So there you go, take some advice from a man who certainly knows his onions.

So far he still can’t quite believe how steep his ascent was and how quickly the music public have embraced him. ‘Fill Me In’ remains his all time favourite track because “ it was the first song that was this hybrid between garage and R’n B and I don’t think people were ready for it at the time, and it was nice to be innovative and cutting edge” but as a standard song for heavy radio rotation he favours ‘Walking Away’. It is blatantly evident by talking to him that he is a purist and music is part of his soul, coming from musical parents that’s natural, but it’s like he values music above anything else. He is against artists using fancy effects to spice up their live performances and prefers people to enjoy his shows for his music and nothing else. . “ I don’t want people to be saying did you see the pyrotechnics that went off or did you see the costume change, I want it to just be about that if you bought the first, second or both albums that the songs you really like are ones I perform. When artists try to do renditions of their own songs because their fed up of playing it again and again, so they do some different version that someone at home who wants to hear the song or the certain inflection in your voice that you do at a certain point and you don’t do it, then they go away feeling disappointed.” The man wants to entertain but only wants to entertain via his music, not via the aid of gimmicks. In this day and age he is a rarity not in this intentions, but in his ability to make those intentions a reality.

If CD was at uni right now he would hopefully be doing a course on studio engineering, he prefers texting to calling someone, prefers a lady with a big I.Q instead of one with a big chest (is he mad?), would rather visit Burger King than the home of the Big Mac, would choose J-Lo for a bit of romance over Beyonce, and would rather see some silverware end up at Ibrox than Parkhead. Yes, all that and much more makes up Craig David. Be in no doubt the man is blessed like a dying man who just got the last rights. He has more strings to his bow than you got fingers. A statement that sums him up is “for me it’s all about the songs, songs are the international currency.”