The best No 1 records: Tinie Tempah – Pass Out

Hip hop is about self-actualisation. If you say what you want to be loudly and eloquently enough then, with luck, that's what you'll become. Tinie Tempah wasn't remotely famous when he recorded his first single but he regarded success as a done deal. The trick is how charmingly he balances standard VIP-room triumphalism with comically mundane detail. You can't imagine an American MC bragging: "I got so many clothes I keep some at my aunt's house." Pass Out was the first big hit of the UK's rap renaissance not to rely on a corny sample or a Day-Glo blast of Ibiza trance. Indeed, Labrinth's meaty production spanned four generations of black British music, from reggae to hip hop to drum'n'bass to dubstep. A debut single that did exactly what it promised it would.

See every No 1 hit from 2010