When Craig David first came to the United States, his first stop was a New York record store. Then he came into the VH1.com studios to talk about "Fill Me In," being big in Britain, and keeping cool. Watch Craig explain himself by clicking the linked phrases.

All is very cool in Craig David's world. And why not? The soul star and DJ has enjoyed three No. 1 singles in his native U.K., sold nearly 4 million copies of his debut, Born to Do It, and not a day goes by when a gold record from some far-flung territory doesn't land on his doorstep. But America, he realizes, is different. For starters, the shopping is better.

"Being a DJ, you're always going into record stores trying to find either deleted tracks or DJ breakbeat songs," he told VH1.com. "I've come to the U.S. and went to Rock & Soul in New York and Beat Street in Brooklyn. There's things I've been looking for for years. Like you'll find six, seven copies of that record in shrink-wrapped, pristine condition, saying, 'Hi, buy me.' It's like I'm in the haven of records."

David admits that if he weren't the hottest British R&B package to arrive in America for ... um, forever actually, he would probably own a record store himself ("For all those guys who are trying to find those deleted records that you can't find, come to Craig David's store and you'll find it"). Instead, he went from teenage DJ in his Southampton hometown to the singing figurehead of Britain's two-step scene.

"Being from Southampton, which hasn't got a major musical scene, I was influenced by music that was around me, from radio to U.S. imports on vinyl," he said. "I was able to sit down and think about what I wanted to do and incorporate styles and not be really influenced by what was going on at the time.

"I really worked on that level of just taking my time, chilling out, getting on with my education, making sure that was on point, left school, went to college, did electronics, at the same time I was in the studio, recording and writing songs. And then here I am now, so it's kind of cool."

In his isolation, David married concise stories to smooth R&B, which was given a modern edge by his collaborator, the Artful Dodger's Mark Hill. The two first worked together on "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)," a two-step club anthem that became a surprise No. 2 hit in 1999 and transformed the small-town boy into an arena-conquering singing heartthrob.

Born to Do It, however, displays David's own lyrical flair and a winking attitude toward the lost art of getting some. His debut single, "Fill Me In," for instance, is based on the suspicions of a girlfriend's parents, and the saucy fantasy "7 Days" crams more sex into a week than even Prince could handle.

"My stuff, it's really just talking about real day issues and things that people go through," said David, who turned 20 in May. "I can relate with teenagers with a lot of things. But I can also relate to a lot of things that they may not have gone through."

Hence, more sober fare like the heart-wrenching "Walking Away," in which David remembers how the clubbing crowd tore him away from his girlfriend back when he was Southampton's hottest record spinner. Will even greater fame in America wreak similar havoc?

"Coming to the States is a massive task to take on board," he warns. "No matter what kind of artist you are and how much success you have outside of the U.S., you drop that and say, 'Hey, I'm starting here as if I'm a U.S. artist and [I want to] be embraced as an artist in my own right.' I look at it as I've got a lot of work to do here and am willing to give what I need to do it."

In fact, with a conquered Britain behind him, David sees his American campaign as an excellent opportunity to start over and find success on his own terms.

"It's cool because you can look at everything you wanted to do slightly better or slightly different and come here with a whole new approach and go, 'I'm going to do everything bang on, how I really wanted to do it the first time.'"

"Which," he adds, "is cool."