It all started on a shopping trip, I'd been out to buy some Nikes for my brother's Christmas present, but was struck by what little choice there was for wrapping paper.

I remember thinking 'Why would I want to wrap these amazing trainers in such bad gift wrap?!' I continued the search online but there was no hope, all the paper was terrible.

With the search unsuccesful I decided to make my own wrapping paper. I thought that if I were to drop the 'w' you'd have Rapping Paper featuring rap lyrics. So with my brother being a fan of NWA I thought it'd be kinda cool to wrap his present in ‘Straight Outta Compton’. A lot of A3 sheets and a few gallons of printer ink later from my inkjet printer I finally had my first version of Rapping Paper!

Christmas came and went, the present went down well but the Rapping Paper was an even bigger hit. Friends and family said I should get it out there, and after sending it to boing boing (thanks barney!) the interest grew and grew.

So I figured there was only one thing for it, I had to launch this idea! I then spent a month talking with record companies accquiring licenses for the tracks I wanted to use. This was a massive learning curve but I managed to land a couple of big ones. Eminem's 'My Name Is' and The Sugar Hill Gangs 'Rapper's Delight'.

Once the licenses were agreed the designs needed to be printed and in-between all this i was designing an online store.. suddenly I was running my own business!

The paper was sold throughout the world online and from the initial samples I had sent out the product was stocked and sold out Europe-wide in Urban Outfitters.

Although it was a great success it also led to my first job, I really hated the idea of leaving my business behind at this point but it was an oppurtunity I couldn't pass up as i knew I had a lot to learn. Hence I took a few years out from selling Rapping Paper to hone my design skills in London.

Fast-forward to 2010 and I was starting to get the itch to bring Rapping Paper back (it never really left). I spent the first few months starting from the bottom and looking at the brand afresh.. a brand which didn't exactly exist, it was very basic and was designed by me as a graduate. I needed a brand that had character, which showed humour, a slight heritage and paid homage to hip hop and the street culture that the product hailed from.

Once the brand logo was designed the rest fell into place. Based on the brand principles; new designs for the paper were created including original illustrations from myself that relate to the song on the paper. I also found out through consumer testing that people were crying out for the whole song lyrics on the paper and not just a few lines like the original designs.

Although it hurt me to leave my dream of running my own business behind in 2007 I feel that the decision to learn my craft has been vindicated and I am a far better and confident designer for it.

I decided to enter Rapping Paper into the entrepreneur show 'Jo Malone's High Street Dreams' and ended up landing myself a place in the final 15 where I had to pitch to Jo. Unfortunately I wasn't picked to be mentored by her but it really spurred me on to get the product out there once again. I guess any publicity is good publicity.

And well.. that's it, we're all up to date but.. what's next?

There’s so much more in the pipeline, stay tuned for more tunes and more surprises!