"There was definitely a lot of fire in my belly," says Aitch confidently as he talks about his storming comeback with his second album '4'. "I had a point to prove again." Never short of conviction and bursting with personality, Manchester's finest rapper, pop star, local hero and fashion icon is as cocksure and undeniable as ever as he embarks on his mission to bring back the classic art form of rap at its most aggressive, inventive and entertaining while losing none of the pop sensibilities that have given him such a broad audience.

Life is good right now for Aitch. He's already released a string of striking and typically genre-mashing singles in 2025, safe in the knowledge he has a knockout punch of an album in his back pocket, ready to go. Energy and vitality are the order of the day. "Right now, I'm loving being active. Just getting to the gym, playing football. Staying fit is my passion at the moment," he says as he describes his daily routine. "Trying not to eat the food I want is burning my head right now. I just want a smash burger and a pizza. I want everything. I'm trying to eat no carbs. It's going well, but it's absolutely killing me." Actually, maybe not quite everything is going well for Aitch right now. "I'm going to have to order more food because my dishwasher's broke." If only a broken dishwasher is on course to derail Aitch's ride then he's doing not too bad at all.

The last decade has seen a continuous rise for an artist constantly representing their roots while unafraid to experiment and move across different lanes. From freestyling on street corners to chart hits aplenty with a BRIT award along the way, it's been quite the journey. "It's been amazing," he smiles. "It's been a big, massive dream, really. Don't get me wrong, a couple of speed bumps along the way, but it's nothing we can't handle. As long as I'm making progress personally, then I don't really have any complaints. For the past ten years, I've just been trying to make better and better music." One of the keys to Aitch's success has been the loyal and diverse fanbase he's cultivated. "It's about knowing your fans and having a good relationship with them and knowing what they want," he continues. That being said, also knowing what you want as well. It's about finding that balance. You always have your core fanbase who no matter what you do, they're going to support it.

"Music has changed, in general. The UK rap fanbase is a bit broader, so I still feel like I'm out there gaining new fans. It's all over the place, really. We always say you can judge a man's fanbase from when you walk through the airport. When I go through the airport, it might be a ten-year-old girl, and the next minute, it might be a 40-year-old man. It's all different. Even now, ten years in, I'm still figuring out my fanbase. It's all over the place. You also know that you're never going to satisfy 100% of the fanbase all the time. I might drop a tune one week that I know covers 60% of them, and I'll have to worry about the other 40% in the next track."

While music and the avenues open to artists and the audience's willingness to embrace different sounds and styles may have changed, it's harder for Aitch to work out how much he has actually changed over the years. "I think it's a weird one. Half of me wants to say nothing's changed, and half of me wants to say everything has changed," he says, questioning himself. "You've kind of just got to go with the flow and see how it all unfolds because, at the same time, without sounding daunting to any other artist, the people decide whether you stick around or not. Sometimes, it's more than just the music; you've just got to be a nice person. These days, as well for artists that are coming up, I feel like people think they need to get the image straight first before they even think about the music, which is a funny one. I would do it the opposite way. That goes to show that things are always changing, and you just have to adapt to things."

'4' is an album that highlights a distinct change in its hard-edged and in-your-face relentlessness in contrast to the more vulnerable and softer moments that illuminated his 2022 debut 'Close To Home'. "On my previous album, the vision was to give people a different side to me that they hadn't seen before," he explains. "The previous album shows a bit more vulnerability and my deeper personality. I've gone slightly the opposite on '4'. Every time I was in the studio all I was thinking about was live performances. What can I do to make sure the next time I go on stage, I blow the whole place up? I feel like I've found that balance. There's a song for everyone on there. No matter who you are, whether you're a 14-year-old boy or 45-year-old woman, there's going to be a song for you."

In an example of his confidence and belief in his own stature as an artist, Aitch sees himself in the lineage of iconic rap masters who combined commercial instincts with immaculate word craft, energy and aggression; think Nas, 50 Cent, and Eminem. A throwback approach aligned to a new generation. "I want to bring rap back," he proclaims. "It's a breath of fresh air. When I watch certain performances or shows these days, it's not as lively as it was before, and I want to bring that back."

There's a good deal of looking back on '4', if not directly, but in songs that are informed and inspired by the spirit of Aitch's upbringing. The number four represents his postcode of M40, and every song is informed by the passions and tribulations of growing up in Manchester - a step removed from the traditional scene-centric hub of London. What was life like for the young Aitch growing up in New Moston in the early noughties? "Young Aitch was never inside," he laughs. "If you were from north Manchester, you would have seen me on my pedal bike at some point every day. A couple of bikes got robbed. I fell off a couple. My bike was like my baby. I woke up one morning, and my bike wasn't in the garden anymore, and it broke my heart. I did everything in my power to go and get a bike again."

The work ethic that has powered his music career was born in these days of reckless hijinks in Manchester. "I never settled for nothing," he continues. "I've never been able to just do nothing. When I was younger, I never really thought of that as a process towards work because I didn't have a job. I was always active, going, 'I need to do something'. As I've gotten older, it's turned into, 'I need to work'. I've always been the same, to be honest. I don't think anything has changed. The only thing now is that bills need paying. Back then I was spending my money on things that I definitely didn't need to be spending on."

The same supremely engaging personality that defines him as a brilliant music character was always on show, even when he was a kid. "I had one of those childhoods where you didn't even need to bring your phone out. You could just walk to certain areas and know there'd be 50 people there. I grew up in the best place in the world," he exclaims.

Aitch has always been a firmly community-focused and collaborative artist. He's never been insulated or creatively tortured in any way. Rap was just a means of expression to his already rapt community. "I already felt like I had a lot of people behind me," he says as he remembers his early days freestyling on street corners. "I had an audience. If I can impress these 50 people, then surely we can keep doubling that number."

What about that point he said he had to prove, though? On '4', he drives it home with precise clarity and white-hot visceral energy on a record that doesn't let up for a minute. The intensity of the album was a function of a year of rest and recuperation following a supernova start to the decade. "When I released my last album in 2022, I spent the whole of 22 and 23 touring, and then it got to 2024, and I realised I've not actually had a day off," he says. "I purposely slowed down in 2024 and tried to do some real life and other bits and bobs, finding out what I like and whatnot. Then people came with certain opinions like, 'Aitch has fell off, Aitch ain't the same no more. We want the old Aitch back'. I was fine with that because I made the decision to step back a little minute, but when it came time to go back into the studio, what was on my mind was 'You motherfuckers don't ever say that I fell off'."

"Off the back of the last album, I left it on a kind of commercial note," he continues, reflecting on the pop success last time around. "It was a very successful album. I had a song with Ed Sheeran, songs in the charts, a song with Ashanti that was killing it in the charts, and then I went missing. As far as the people were concerned, in a bit of a narrow-minded thought process, it was like Aitch went pop then went missing. I came and made '4' and said, no, I'm about to absolutely smack you in the face with these solid rap beats, and when you watch my next show, you're going to be amazed."

Diversity and the ability to go down different musical paths but with the same powerful voice is what defines Aitch's work, and the contrast between his two studio albums highlights this versatility. "The thing with me which I'm totally grateful for is that my fanbase is all over the place," he says. "It all depends on me. One week, I might want to go and meet Ed Sheeran or Ashanti, Anne-Marie and Tom Grennan and make 50 pop songs and think, 'Ok, I'm going to be on the radio for the next six months', or sometimes I want to get in the studio and show every other rapper why I'm better than them. There's going to be a big percentage of my fan base who doesn't stop playing these pop records, and there's going to be a big percentage who say, 'Yes, Aitch, show them what time it is'. It's on me to cater to whoever I want to cater to. I've never changed what I do. I've just sat there and rapped my arse off no matter what song it is. I just happen to do it a bit smoother."

There's no grand plan or formula to Aitch's music. He lives on being instinctive and impulsive. "The way I started was someone coming up with a camera in my face saying 'yo spit some bars', and I had to do it there and then, so that ain't nothing new," he says. This time around he had a studio installed at home to really make the process as natural as possible. "I literally just got out of bed and walked into my studio, probably still in my boxers, and just got cracking," he laughs.

There's an argument that slightly dialling down on some of the easygoing, frivolous, but sensitive pop flavours and the overarching story of the last record is a risk, but Aitch doesn't see it that way. "I want people to get to the end of this album, and it be undeniable that I'm in the position that I'm in," he responds. "There's not a certain storyline that I want people to follow like on my last album. My main point is, don't fuck with me. I want it to be fresh. People don't make music like that anymore. Everything is all same old, same old. I want it to be a bit of an eye opener for other artists. I want other artists to hear it and go, 'Ok, I'm going to do what I want to do then, instead of what they think they should do'."

An air of looking back permeates the album as Aitch references those old past masters like Nas, most explicitly on stunning album highlight 'M40' that samples his track 'Life's A Bitch’ from his 1994 masterpiece 'Illmatic'. "It just spoke to me," he explains. "The line is 'Life's a bitch, and then you die, that's why we get high, because you never know when you're gonna go'. It's like, yeah. It's universal, and it resonates with a lot of people. That song is good because you can see it in different ways, but if you're from a certain background, that song makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up because it's just so true. It's the thought process of someone from M40, which is my postcode. I'm looking at certain people and just trying to be like you: I want the BMW like you, I want the chain like you. The end point is, but we're on a council estate, and everything is up for rent, even loyalty. You spend a lot of your time looking up to people, and then you realise the 6-month rent is up."

"In the simplest way there's a reason these songs are so big and live for so long," he continues as he talks about the importance of taking influence from some of the legends of the game. "It's only right that you take a leaf out of their book. That's what music is. Music is a big recycled game. There are only so many words in a dictionary; surely, every word has been said at this point. You've just got to remix it and put it in your own world because everyone is their own person and individual and see things in certain ways. It brings out certain things you wouldn't think of. There might be people who listen to 'M40' and get a completely different point of view." Conversely, it might not always be that deep. "Some people might just see it as a weed song, and that's fine," he laughs.

It's a beautiful thought for Aitch that there could be a kid listening to his music right now inspired in the same way he was by 50 Cent and Nas. "That's what I'm trying to do," he says. "Music's always amazing, but I feel like there's not a lot of people right now that you can look up to. In my game, certain people are cool, and you might want to dress like them, but in terms of looking at an artist and going, 'Oh yeah, I want to be like that', I don't see many role models right now. If I have to be that guy, then I will be. That's not to say I'm a perfect person either, but, hopefully, my inspiration with this record is to be yourself, don't take no shit from no one, and if you're going to do something and there's a wall, you'll go through it."

That drive meant Aitch always knew he was destined for success. Back when he first started scrappily dropping bars at the drop of a hat for anyone who asked, the young Aitch could foresee the future. "I think that 15-year-old Harrison would say to Aitch, now you knew you were going to do this, didn't you," he says, imagining a conversation between his past and current self. "You can't not be yourself. At this point, I've seen so many people come and go, and it's because they've tried to be something they're not, and eventually, it will catch up with you. No one can say that about me, no one can say that I'm not being me, and that's a lot of the reason why I am where I am."

There are a few constants that link the albums together despite them being sonically different. Producers LiTek and Mojam have been present throughout his career, and collaborators, both old and new, provide a thread to the past and a nod to the future. "The features are really important on this album, me and AJ Tracey have just so much music together," he says. "Every project that I'm ever going to release you're probably going to see both of our names on it because we have so much music, and we can't let it go to waste. The song that's on my album, 'Test', I really love. I think we made that tune while I was making my old album, but it didn't get on because I had another song with AJ. I was hoping that AJ would release it. He never did, and I was fuming. AJ has been working on his album, and he recently put a song on there with me and Headie One, and I was fuming again. I was like, 'No way, you have to put 'Test' on the album!' I said to AJ, 'Alright, I'll fucking have to put it out'," he laughs.