Born in Hackney but raised in County Wexford in Ireland, Michael 'Maverick Sabre' Stafford's rise to prominence came through nothing but sheer hard work. Having spent several years performing live and collaborating with underground locals like rappers Terawrizt and Nu-Centz, before finding himself performing on SBTV with "They Found Him A Gun", his first taste of success came shortly after that with an appearance on Chase & Status' second album, No More Idols, with "Fire In Your Eyes". The rest of the 2000s would be spent making equally renowned appearances with bigger and bigger names before taking his solo work to a much bigger audience.

Then, in 2011, his debut album Lonely Are The Brave dropped, and with it a series of career-making singles——"I Need" (a remix of which included verses from Chip and Benny Banks), "What Have I Done To You" and "No One". Since then, he's found himself performing on Jools Holland, 1Xtra Live Lounge, as well as being the first acoustic performer on SBTV (where he performed "They Found Him A Gun").

Throughout all of this, and despite considerable mainstream attention, Mav has never forgotten his underground roots. To this day, he's still collaborating with the likes of Shy FX, Devlin, Chronixx, Potter Payper, K Koke, George The Poet, Joey Bada$$ and, most recently, Bugzy Malone. If your bars need a soulful interlude to ramp up the emotion, Maverick Sabre is your first choice. Now that he's preparing for the release of his third studio album, we figured there was no better time than now to look back through his catalogue and pull together some of his best tracks that have slipped under the radar.

These are Maverick Sabre's Deep Cuts.

Photography: Kez Coo