Mans Not Hot: The man behind Big Shaq

Since his Fire in the Booth went viral, comedian Michael Dapaah has racked up more than 51 million YouTube views and 20 million streams.

From Kurupt FM to Roll Safe - and now Big Shaq - acts combining mockumentaries and music have had huge success in recent years.

Newsbeat's been speaking to the 26-year-old behind Big Shaq about why he feels the genre is making waves.

For Michael, it's the thin line between what's fact and what's fiction.

"People don't know whether it's real or it's staged and that's the thing that makes it so interesting to them," he tells Newsbeat.

Michael's appearance on Fire in the Booth as Roadman Shaq went viral back in September.

"Some people see you and they think that's actually how you are and then it's like, 'Oh, he said hello to me,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, of course'.

"They think I'm Shaq because when I play his character, I embody him so much. I make sure that I'm totally left out of it."

Mans Not Hot might be sitting at number 11 in the singles chart, but there's still a lot of confusion about where Michael Dapaah stops, and Big Shaq begins.

"I'm a creative comedic entertainer who enjoys bringing good content to the world. I'm not Big Shaq - Shaq is his own person," he says.

Warning: The following video may contain third party ads and strong language.

Big Shaq performed his single Man's Not Hot at BBC 1Xtra Live.

"Big Shaq stems from my YouTube series Somewhere in London," he explains. "I just wanted to create something that was multi-character and multi-dimensional.

"Kind of how I saw London in my own little way."

He also told us why he's decided to introduce the world to himself as Big Shaq and Michael Dapaah at the same time.

"I'm a multifaceted entertainer," he says.

"If I go back to when Borat and Ali G were doing it, they were more just TV, cinema, TV, cinema.

"Whereas I live in more of the internet age where people like to feel like they can still touch you, and so it's important for me not to almost box myself off."

And Michael says it's this that's drawn people to him - including a number of famous faces like Drake and DJ Khalid.

Michael Dapaah met DJ Khalid while in the States for the BET Hip Hop Awards.

"When I met him [DJ Khalid] at the BETs, [he] straight away knew who I was," he tells us.

"Drizzy's been showing love for [a] long time, he's like one of my favourite rappers ever, so you've got to understand when he's in your DMs it's mad."

And despite parodying grime and UK rap culture through Big Shaq, some of his biggest supporters are in the UK.

"Giggs, Stormz, Yungen, Santan Dave - all the rappers that are really doing their thing, it's all been crazy love," he says.

"Giggs text me the other day just to congratulate me.

"It's only been some people that haven't had their big break that have been negative, but even then - that's like 0.5%."

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