Tinie Tempah reveals surprising hobby that changed his life

Tinie Tempah says taking up Brazilian jiu-jitsu has changed his life.

The 37-year-old rapper began learning the martial art six years ago and he has moved through the grades and is now close to getting his black belt.

The Written in the Stars hitmaker says practicing jiu-jitsu has had a positive effect on his physical wellbeing and improved his mental health and taking up the discipline has been one of the best decisions he has ever made.

Speaking to BANG Showbiz at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard, he said: “I love Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I’ve been doing it for maybe six years now.

“I’m on purple belt and I absolutely love it. think any martial arts discipline is great for the mind, the body, the soul, your mental health, and for your nervous system, it is just incredible. This is something that I do three to four times a week and it’s changed my life.”

Tinie – who performed on Sunday night (07.12.25) at the pop extravaganza held at The O2 Arena in London – also spoke about his musical legacy and he admits it “feels like the biggest blessing” to have people still love his music.

He said: “It honestly feels like the biggest blessing to be able to perform records, such as Pass Out. People know it word for word. I even hear some people maybe do their like work party and do a karaoke and it might be Pass Out.

“The reason why I say that is because if you go even just a bit before 15 years like rap in the UK, rap music wasn’t even really a big thing like that. So now that we have, I don’t know, seminal songs that are primarily rap.

“For me it’s such a huge deal because I grew up in a lot of American culture and I saw it with the likes of Jay-Z and Eminem. You know, at the beginning it was almost like a pipe dream to ever believe that like it would happen here in the UK. And so whenever I perform these records that’s kind of what’s going through my mind, like, we’re now sort of a rap nation, you know. It’s kind of in our mainstream cache of music, isn’t that cool.”

Other performers at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard on Sunday included Kylie Minogue, Jessie J, Alex Warren and Cat Burns, while reunited boy band Five made a surprise appearance performing several hits such as Everybody Get Up, Slam Dunk (Da Funk), If Ya Gettin’ Down and Keep On Movin’.