Despite legal troubles and personal tragedy, the north-west London rapper has topped the album charts and has a huge date at the O2 lined up for the autumn. So why is he giving it all up?

After 12 years, five albums and four mixtapes, the curtain closes. Nines’ final project, Quit While You’re Ahead, will be his last. And though many are often sceptical about the idea of a rapper retiring, believing that any such promise will eventually be walked back on, the 34-year-old, real name Courtney Leon Freckleton, is serious about his sixth album being his ultimate.

“I ain’t coming back. I don’t care how much money they offer me,” he says, “If I made decisions based off money, I deffo wouldn’t have had the career I have. No money can make me come back.”