"You don't even want to see the mess in here, to be honest."
Manchester rapper Aitch is on Zoom from his tour bus in Leeds, diligently angling the camera away from the floor, the night after a launch party for his debut album, Close To Home.
The 22-year-old has grown used to life on the road, ever since he broke out with his tongue-twisting freestyle Straight Rhymez in 2018.
That track, intended as a throwaway placeholder for his YouTube channel, racked up millions of streams and brought him to the attention of Stormzy, AJ Tracey and Ed Sheeran - who all invited the baby-faced rapper to guest on their tracks.
In the last three years, he's scored seven UK top 10 singles, from the cocksure boasts of Taste (Make It Shake) to this year's Ashanti-sampling Baby.
With a best new artist nomination at the Brit Awards, and a brief but high-profile relationship with Amelia Dimoldenberg, he's installed himself as one of UK rap's most colourful and recognisable stars. So why did it take him four years to release his debut?
"Not for any particular reason," he shrugs. "It was all going so well without an album that I just didn't feel like I had to rush it."
Later in our conversation, though, he suggests he simply wasn't ready.
"I feel like my music in the past - especially, like, early days - it's never really had any meaning to it.
"Back then it would just be, 'Let's let's just say loads of rhyming words and make it sound good.' Whereas I tried to make a difference with this. In the studio, I'd be trying to think of something that genuinely means something and sends a message."
The innuendoes and goofy wordplay haven't vanished completely, but tracks like Belgrave Road and Sunshine deliver more honest reflections on life, fortune and fame; while My G is a heartfelt letter to his younger sister, Gracie, who has Down's Syndrome.
"That's just a little personal one," says Aitch, shyly. "I don't care whether that gets one stream or one billion streams. I just wanted her to hear it and know where I stand."
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