SURVIVING SOUTH LONDON | Chapter 5

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:23]In this episode of Surviving [music] South London, we see the consequences of trauma, the weight of decisions made, and the different paths that were forged and navigated on the harshest roads.

[00:00:38]Where choices lead not just to struggle, but to life-changing consequences.

[00:00:44]Serious gags, serious drugs, serious prison time.

[00:00:50]Survival is real.

[00:00:52]Survival is earned.

[00:01:02]And when I mean drugs, I'm not talking about weed. We're talking about class A.

[00:01:06]We're talking about crack, heroin, cocaine.

[00:01:09]I would never be a victim to anyone at any given time. Yeah, I'm afraid of nothing.

[00:01:15]Stammering on my car window. I'm like, "What the hell was that?" What the I'm like, "The glass is smashed."

[00:01:22]Boom. I'm like, "What the heck?"

[00:01:25]Then they just smashed my window as well. Like I'm I'm I'm covering up like I don't know what that I heard them say, "Car." I've got a seatbelt on. I've still got a seatbelt on. I'm like, This is Brixton, 1981.

[00:01:38]Tensions are up between the black community and police.

[00:01:41]The inevitable explosion of steam by a community which feels the police have been picking on them recently. Many here felt over-policed and under-protected. A lot of young black people believed that officers treated them unfairly because of their race.

[00:01:56]Fires burned for 3 days.

[00:01:59]This was one of many significant flash points.

[00:02:07]My dad thought he was getting me away from gangs.

[00:02:10]But little did he know he was throwing me into the lion's den.

[00:02:16]Yeah?

[00:02:16]Because these Bengali boys, right?

[00:02:22]Are more ganged up than anybody else.

[00:02:25]What I found out when I got to got to the school.

[00:02:28]You got Brick Lane, you got Stepney, you've got Cannon Street, you've got Stepney Green, you've got Globe Town, you've got all of these other gangs in East London now.

[00:02:37]So I'm like, what the hell have I walked into?

[00:02:40]I'm I'm trying to get away from this.

[00:02:43]And you're talking now 1994, 1995, yeah? So this is the time of, you know, you've got the Tupac era, the Biggie era. So everyone's now on this East Coast, West Coast kind of thing. And now you've got all of these I don't know. I've come to East London and now they've got all these territories, they've got all of these areas and and then it was just like, right.

[00:03:05]Yo, bro, who are you? Where are you from?

[00:03:09]Who Who What side you taking? I'm like, right.

[00:03:12]But again, this is me as a as an individual. I don't take sides. And I didn't join any new I learned my lesson from my previous experience. So I didn't join a gang. I didn't I was just friends and associate with gangs members in East London.

[00:03:31]However, being still part of South London is where I still um had a lot of connections in South London. So, you know, I've got friends that were from Lewisham.

[00:03:45]Um I had friends that were from Peckham.

[00:03:47]I even had some friends that were from Brixton, you know?

[00:03:50]Um and this is where again now connections started.

[00:03:58]I'm in secondary school. Right? Um while I'm in secondary school, now you know, in in East London is a very drug run area. Yeah, and when I'm in drugs, I'm not talking about weed. We're talking about class A. You're talking about crack, heroin, cocaine. Yeah? And this was run by the South Asians at that particular time. Right? So, South Asians were bringing that in and [music] all the youngers in every single areas, they were the doctors, they were the ones that was hanging around. So, now this is why there was a lot of territory beef. So, I've gone from stupid petty gang crime in South London to now walking into a more drug gang affiliated territory. And these South Asians, or should we say these Bengalis, you know, um had got their operation on a more of a structured level. You know, you've got the hierarchies, you know, you've got the middleman, then you've got the runners, then you've got the watchers.

[00:05:12]It It's It's like something like The Wire.

[00:05:15]An elder approached me from one of the areas in East London.

[00:05:20]And he's like, "Yo, bro, you want to make some money?" I was like, "What?" He said, "Bro, I'll give you 200 pounds, just hold this."

[00:05:25]Yeah?

[00:05:26]I was like, "When you going to get it?"

[00:05:26]He said, "Just go to school. Just go to school, hold it in your bag, yeah? And at 3:30 when you come out, someone's going to be waiting for you at the gate.

[00:05:35]Just Just give it to them. Yeah? And I'll give you two bills." I was like, "Yeah, sweet." Woof. That's it.

[00:05:41]Every day I'm making 200 pounds.

[00:05:45]Every day.

[00:05:46]Every day. yeah?

[00:05:48]And I said to I said to the brother, I said, "Bro, why are why are you coming to me for?" He said, "Bro, no one knows you.

[00:05:56]Yeah? You're not from the ends, yeah?"

[00:05:59]But I can see you can hold yourself. So, all right, cool.

[00:06:02]So, now he's So, now I didn't know what was in the packages or anything. I'm just, you know, doing my thing in school.

[00:06:08]So, from this now I thought, "All right, you know what?

[00:06:14]I can miss some serious peas now.

[00:06:16]Yeah? I've got to connect.

[00:06:18]Yeah?

[00:06:20]So, my thing now started I'm back in South London.

[00:06:25]Yeah? So, now I'm talking to a couple of people in South and I'm like, "All right, you know what?

[00:06:31]Imagine get you the Imagine get you the the food, you know?" They're like, "What are you What are you talking about?" I said, "Bro, crack, heroin, you know, anything you're saying. Like I've got the connect, innit?" So, now I'm the plug in South.

[00:06:46]You know, I'm 16 years old.

[00:06:48]You know, and now I'm a plug. You know, I've got grown-ups coming to me for heroin because South London at this time, no one could really get the pure heroin.

[00:07:00]I was still had a dream like, "You know what? I'm going to I want to get in the music industry. I want my own record label. I want my own studio. I want my own artists. I want to do I want to do it. I want to do it all legitimately."

[00:07:12]So, you know, we went through the whole process of setting up a record label. I set up called Darkness Records and then also I set up a production recording studio called Unit 10. At this time, I'm only 21. Yeah?

[00:07:27]So, with the little bit of savings that I did have from whatever I used to do, I invested that back into open up a recording studio. I invested that into a record label. You know, we we put a crew together. You know, there was artists from Brixton. there was artists from Lewisham, there was artists from West London, East London. They was all using Unit 10, you know, as a recording hub. However, I still had that conscience in me and I said, "You know what? There's something missing in the community and that's the unaffordable recording studio, yeah, that caters to the mandem."

[00:08:06]Right? And that's basically what Unit 10 became, you know, a hub for all the mandem to network, to work together, to put their beef aside, and [music] make music. And that's exactly what Unit 10 was. Through that, street life, did that end? No, it didn't.

[00:08:26]You know, reason why it didn't, music videos are not free.

[00:08:31]Recording equipment is not free, yeah?

[00:08:35]Distribution and and marketing is not free, right? So, the whole manufacturing of CDs, at that time it was vinyl and CDs, is not free, yeah? No record company was giving us a deal, yeah, to give because we were doing hip-hop. We had to do it all independently, right? So, me being, I don't know, the founder or the CEO Unit 10 Darkness Records, you know, it fell on my shoulders to make sure that the income was coming in, that we could pay for everything, right?

[00:09:14]So, again, the connects had to come out, you know?

[00:09:20]Had to get the black book. I'm sure everyone's got that black book, you know, with all the phone numbers in it.

[00:09:25]So, I had to go through all of that. Yo, what's happening? I'm back on the road.

[00:09:28]Boom boom boom boom boom. What you got for me? I got I got this, you got that.

[00:09:32]Where are you? Boom boom boom boom boom.

[00:09:34]Before you know it, I'm back on the streets.

[00:09:39]Yeah? I've got my legitimate business behind me, but I'm still on the streets because I've got to pay the bills. Yeah? Ain't no one paying the bills now.

[00:09:50]Yeah? Who's going to pay the the electricity bill? Who's going to be paying, you know, the the rent for the studio when stuff as well?

[00:09:59]You know, it's all falling on me. So, I have put my liberty at risk again.

[00:10:04]Yeah?

[00:10:07]Well, Unit 10 was um you remember where we are. This is neutral ground for a lot of people who were thrown. It was very very neutral.

[00:10:14]So, that meant that people can come from all different areas here.

[00:10:19]Um So, with that, we had people from Peckham able to come here. We had um guys from Channel U able to come to the studio. All right. So, I'm going to go down this road here, Penrose Street. So, this is where um I opened up Unit 10.

[00:10:39]I remember when we were but these buildings these buildings were never here before.

[00:10:43]Uh these were all dump yards and railway stuff stuck underneath here.

[00:10:49]All right. So, we had Unit 10 which was the studio what we created it was in here. I don't know if you have them driving.

[00:10:55]So, imagine us having to go down here through this little road.

[00:11:03]I'm able to get to reverse out of them.

[00:11:06]Gosh.

[00:11:08]You see these houses?

[00:11:10]These blocks.

[00:11:12]They've basically knocked it all down.

[00:11:14]It's all gone.

[00:11:15]All gone. Wow. Where we started Unit 10, where we started the music, where we started with hip hop, some of the biggest names in UK hip hop who now have emerged from this very area. So, imagine how it looks now.

[00:11:33]I mean, we had it it was like this one little house, but it was all the way down to the end. And then through there it was a dark little alleyway, which we had to just have our studio.

[00:11:45]But then again, there was a a young man that was unalived right here.

[00:11:52]Right here.

[00:11:53]As he was coming out the studio.

[00:11:57]So, you can imagine on the on the night dark you know, alleyway alleyway alleyway coming out here railway arches. It's not as clean as it was today. None of these buildings um you know, and he got caught slipping or they knew where he was.

[00:12:14]And you know, unalived right here. You know, and that's when I realized, you know, what music game isn't really for me.

[00:12:28]I was very happy cuz I didn't know any better, yeah? I didn't know we were poor.

[00:12:32]I didn't know that, >> [music] >> you know, there were at the lot more to offer than you cuz cuz I was happy. And I'm walking down the hill Clifton Rise with my sister Rachel, my twin.

[00:12:41]No, we don't look alike.

[00:12:43]We don't look any We're not identical.

[00:12:45]We're non-identical. But my mom made us wear the same clothes. I thought But anyway, we're in the same jacket basically. So, we get there and we're all strolling around and then one of the guys came running from outside from across deep in girls he's running. And there's police chasing him. And they've chased him and he was drove him on the floor and he's been arrested and we're all standing around and it's all you know, we're all watching cuz that's what you do.

[00:13:10]Well, for some reason one of the WPCs decided that I had interfered. I'm 12 years old, yeah? Right? I've I've done something, yeah? But my And none of us could work out what it is cuz it's me and my twin, but she's walked off.

[00:13:26]>> Weapon is that the police use against black youth was the >> charge of sus. That is being a suspected person loitering with intent to commit a a crime.

[00:13:38]And uh that's an offense which uh the police can pick someone up for if they think they're about to, not that they have, but they're about to commit a crime.

[00:13:48]And the standard pieces of evidence used in practically all the cases I've ever heard of is I saw the defendant wandering down bus queues dipping in ladies handbags, or I saw the defendant trying car doors.

[00:14:02]Um and uh it's something which is tends to be used against youth um either because the police think that they ought to be at school and are not, or ought to be at work and are not.

[00:14:18]Um it is imperative from a general preventive point of view that any offender who is seen in such circumstances that he is a suspected person loitering with intent to commit this type of crime should be arrested before he does it rather than afterwards.

[00:14:36]Uh and if you have got on occasions a number of arrests of suspicious [music] persons, it is because that they are there in abundance at that particular time.

[00:14:51]Oh, no.

[00:14:52]They start here to chase me. I'm walking and anyway, so now my dad's there. So my dad is like, "Boy, we out to go to my picnic. Come out for my picnic." Left me. So they're And then I was I was I was they then got me and there was five police officers, right? And they threw me to the ground and they had one on one arm, one on that arm, one on my legs, one on my back, yeah? And my dad is going home. Like he's like them up cuz I mean he's daughter, yeah? Yeah, and it was bad and the whole community are watching it and they're they're a bit calling me black this black that, yeah?

[00:15:32]And then they picked me up and they threw me, yeah? Into the police wagon, yeah? And I landed and I hit my head, yeah? And I still got the scar. So, I don't And you got to bear in mind, right?

[00:15:45]I haven't done anything.

[00:15:47]I don't know what's happening here, yeah? I'm like, what is happening? I'm crying. My dad's like And my dad's still going mad, yeah? He's banging up, yeah?

[00:15:56]So, I don't know obviously I'm his daughter I'm banging up the woman, yeah?

[00:15:59]We're getting cuz we don't know.

[00:16:01]And you know what they arrested me for and charged me with?

[00:16:05]I told you and you know this this this is what made me who I am today, why I live the way I live and I talk the way I talk and have the fire is in my stomach because they pursued me and they pursued the charges. I was removed from school.

[00:16:20]I was taken to Camberwell Magistrates Court, like a common common crime. I'm 12 years of age. I don't know what's happening and it sets it set a motion in me of a hatred so deep-rooted and a fear of them and a dislike that to this day, yeah? And then when the when when when it was all said and done and the judge, yeah? And there's pictures of my bruises and and the swellings and I got a I got a charge with on my coat. My grandma had bought me a brooch from Jamaica, right?

[00:16:53]And it was a pamphlet and it was about this big and it was deemed an offensive weapon, yeah?

[00:16:59]And it ruined [music] It's It was the It was a road to ruin for me, in my opinion, yeah? Because then at school I hated everybody. I hate teachers.

[00:17:09]>> [music] >> I hate you all, yeah? I'm going in at every opportunity. The only thing that saved me is cuz [music] my level of intelligence, yeah? I managed to pass my GCSEs, not because I studied or I was good, yeah? I was awful, yeah? I had no respect for authority, [music] because I couldn't believe that what had happened to me, yeah? And [music] then if it was now that every I could have sued, and we would have won, but we're just we're just poor ghetto people, yeah? So, I've got to be I'm left in this bubble of hate, yeah? Nobody and and no one to talk to. So, now every time I'm in class, everywhere I go, I've got a chip on my shoulder. I've got an attitude, yeah? I'm condemned in this in this place. So, I learned two two things. First, I I learned [music] to fight, but I could always fight cuz I could bang out my brothers, yeah? But I'm only joking, yeah? But but I learned to win, yeah? That's what I learned. By any means necessary, I learned to win, yeah? I learned that I will never be a victim to anyone at any given time, yeah? I'm afraid of nothing, and that's especially That's not a good thing, you know? I'm not saying I'm proud of it. Well, I am, a little bit, but it's not a good thing, cuz I shouldn't have lived like that. I should have been I may have been a different person. Not that I'm not proud of myself, cuz I am, but I'm just saying that's what we went through, and it was terrible.

[00:18:41]Was it all this always going in and out of prison? Prison was like a disease, a a normal thing, you know what I mean?

[00:18:47]People And it's just a a salute, a star accreditation when they came out.

[00:18:52]You know, um so, there's some olders I would never have met because they'd just always been inside.

[00:19:00]Things happened, people got robbed, and there was retaliations in the in in uh our borough, New Cross, or people got rushed, and it created a split between our area, which has never happened before.

[00:19:15]So, that we're going from early days.

[00:19:17]Ghetto boys one and our ghetto boys were split. I'm ready to turn things around. You had shower and anti-shower.

[00:19:25]It was a crazy experience because it's people that you was once uh around, once with, and then now you're kind of going against each other. And I think for all the time when it first happened, I always thought it wasn't right. It never set well within Do you know what I mean? I I remember the time when I was put in a hospital bed and some uh I was rushing, some of the people's uh brothers that rushed me were put in a hospital bed next to me and that was when we were one. And those same people that were on the other side.

[00:20:00]And that so, I wasn't associate with anti-shower. They associate with shower.

[00:20:05]And things start happening, you know, um some people lost their lives in it and it was a devastating thing. It weren't that we're going to stop happening.

[00:20:16]So, um it was like the destruction of a new cross, the destruction of the borough.

[00:20:24]At that time, um I was, you know, I was into drug selling because that became like the normal thing to do. Having all that experience I was trying to stay good.

[00:20:37]But, I felt like I yearned from almost the acceptance of love.

[00:20:41]So, like 2 years out the hood when I've come back and I'm seeing my homies selling bits of weed and I start selling with them.

[00:20:50]And I remember one time it was my birthday and one of my guys just gave me 5 pound.

[00:20:54]At that time, you know, I felt like wow.

[00:20:57]And then I'm with the guys and my my friend's driving now.

[00:21:01]And they're doing I'm thinking, you oh, what was this? That we're in whips, we're driving.

[00:21:06]Do you know what I mean? I'm like, we going like teens. Obviously we were in our later teens now, like mid to late teens, but I'm like, yo, this is different.

[00:21:16]As I was growing up in New Cross, that felt like as if it's a legitimate thing to do.

[00:21:20]Like to sell drugs, it's like as if like you're not doing no robberies, you're not really on uh gang activity. There were some people that weren't involved in a gang, they were just hustlers. They were just sellers and they and that was just a normal thing to do in terms of I mean, like we were aspiring to try and be like them. That was uh the mindset. It just like feeling better when it was just like um having money on me. You know what I mean? Having my own money on me.

[00:21:48]Um cuz it was just like before that I was on any any any opportunity. I remember you know, we seeing food trucks coming in, like Iceland van or whatever and we we just we just taking it. We just busting the boot, taking everything.

[00:22:00]And then we we bringing it back home and mom's like, yeah, hey, here we done shopping. And then, you know, they were happy because that that's what that's what we we we were about doing any opportunity, you know, piece of black man come, you know, we taking it off the back and we spending a week in a pizza or hungry.

[00:22:16]You know?

[00:22:17]Starting to see my my guys, you know, that was around um getting into the hard game now, hard food.

[00:22:25]Like cocaine now and like I'm like I'm seeing it my my eyes are opening up.

[00:22:31]And these times I was I was in college.

[00:22:32]I was in my second year of business studies. I was in I was in college.

[00:22:38]So and I like I said, I've cleaned up. I know I've kind of jumped, but I cleaned up for like 2 years. For like 2 years I was clean. I'm returning to church. I'm living a clean life. Everything was like it was never I intended to like even being a kid, I never intended to even selling crack. I never intended to. But it We were like young teens and my uncle punches on money. I'm like, [ __ ] that I had. You made that in an hour. Like we're not going to do a shift working I won't make it in 1 hour. I'm like, what the hell? That's a paycheck. Like, it was it was mad so like we were becoming men now, but we still young like I said in the middle of the power cut. King, I'm like, "Oh my god. I'm getting everything called one bro."

[00:23:19]Like, you chicks chain whip Like, I've come from broke now to something.

[00:23:26]I'm about what I was under as a as a team under something and we're taking our shoes on the phone it rings ding ding.

[00:23:34]I start building my own life. I said well, you know, is I started knowing about the hustle. This this [ __ ] used to go and we having something to crystalize the hill.

[00:23:42]And so one of my [ __ ] he made I think a ounce at that time I put 100 pound and he made uh 500 pound from the ounce of of weed.

[00:23:53]Now, that rang a lot around everybody.

[00:23:55]That's one of my [ __ ] like that rang a lot like, "Yo, bro."

[00:23:59]I started seeing a bunch of [ __ ] they just they just sitting there and he was like this.

[00:24:03]They see one customer come up. She was like, "Yo, she might might running up running up trying to get to her. Quick quick get to that person, bro." [ __ ] sold.

[00:24:12]Sometimes they were selling some fed. I see man blatantly do a fed. They know the feds are going to come. Everyone's running.

[00:24:19]Like, that's how it was and it would be like sometimes police would come from left or right and then we would have to scatter. It was like quickly try and get as much as you can.

[00:24:28]Like, so I remember one time I Kish, I'm going there night time by myself knowing it going to be down people. So, [ __ ] got a couple of rocks going in my mouth throwing them waiting.

[00:24:40]I got my bicycle.

[00:24:42]I'm waiting on the hill now by myself and see who comes.

[00:24:47]And then I just see a police car just shoot like a boom Stop there. I try to jump on my bicycle and I'm about to ride. The guy he just came with a dog. He said, "Hey, if you run, I'm letting it loose."

[00:25:01]I'm like, "W- W- What did he say that?"

[00:25:03]He said that from a distance. I was like, I was shooting I was shooting pebbles out of my mouth like a like a machine gun.

[00:25:11]Letting it flow out of my mouth.

[00:25:14]Come to me. Come search Come tap me down. I'm like, "Yo, what you doing?" I said, "I'm just just coming for some air. I'm just about to go home, man. Just had some things I had to do at home."

[00:25:24]Okay, cool. Cool. Tap me down. Done search.

[00:25:27]You know, what do you think? My name guns. So, I ain't wanted.

[00:25:32]You go.

[00:25:34]Exactly, no. So, that was like a little L. Like I couldn't find a rock. So, I had money and my substance as well.

[00:25:40]It dropped out on in in the motion of everything happening. And that was a thing with the hustle. Sometimes you take L's. And then you you you are So, that was me doing my own thing from being my my guys with selling. I'm doing my own thing.

[00:25:53]So, my little thing used to be that I would And I got a bit of money to get a car now.

[00:25:59]I'm not Yo, okay, cool. I'm I'm I'm I'm trapping.

[00:26:03]You know, um cuz our [ __ ] used to do it. Save up their money. I did a little jar of money on top. Get something then So, um nighttime I'll be sleeping awake with my phone. Put on my chest. Bam.

[00:26:15]That rings. Sure. Answer. Yo, I'm not less than five five minutes max. I'm there.

[00:26:20]Um my thing was that okay, if you sleeping or you with a girl or whatever, and you missed that, cool. They're going to phone me. Bam. They're going to know that my [ __ ] good and I'm on time.

[00:26:30]So, I was just able to build land so quickly. I think it it feels like when you're able to come home with money in your pocket and able to buy things and um It probably had a a feeling I'm doing something, but couldn't had a didn't have a really nail on the head of what I was doing. But where you're looking after home family situations are happening and someone's got like a bailiff come around or whatever. You're able to help with the money. You're able to help with some shopping. You're able to help with stuff like private schools. You know what I mean? I've put towards some of that.

[00:27:04]Everyone's keeping their mouth shut.

[00:27:05]They don't want to say nothing. You know what I mean? Like And what I what made me learn is that it gave me my first level of respect because I'm I'm searching for respect.

[00:27:15]You know what I mean? Like when you're growing up, respect was the man that would do something for the the minimal bit of disrespect to wanting.

[00:27:25]Now there's a respect for someone when you've got money. When you've got money, there's a whole level of of respect. And loved it.

[00:27:33]Do you know what I mean? I'm I'm building up now. I'm I'm I'm going from there and then I've got a super bike.

[00:27:39]I've got a car. I've got another car.

[00:27:42]And it was just like the respect I had, especially amongst family as well, because when there was a birthday, they know that I'm I'm bringing a gift.

[00:27:51]I was looking after people.

[00:27:53]But I loved it the hustle.

[00:27:56]Deep down parts of it, I loved it. I I loved having that thing where the phone rings and I've I've got maybe six to 10 destinations. I'm mapping out the routes and it's pa pa pa pa. I've I've bust all the the shots and I've come back. I'm cutting up again and we're going back up. We get a call now we're we're on the streets. My turn. I've just come back on the on on the phone now.

[00:28:17]And I'm now moving up and down. I've I've I've got a little van. I wear these these high visible things. It looks like I'm out working, no matter what.

[00:28:27]So I'm I'm I'm driving and um with one of my next young guys with me and we've gone to meet uh the person I shot.

[00:28:37]He's hopped out to go uh beat the you know sell the drugs, man.

[00:28:43]He's come back to say he wants some more and more.

[00:28:46]Then all of a sudden, I've looked I seen a car just speeding up to me like like it's beaming. I'm like, "What the heck?" It just stopped.

[00:28:56]I just see I just see up some blacks jumping out like it's slamming on my car window. I'm like, "What the I was like, what the" I'm like, "The glass is smashed."

[00:29:09]Boom. I'm like, "What the heck?"

[00:29:11]Then, they just smashed my window as well. Like I'm I'm I'm I'm covering up like, "Look what the heck?" I hear them say, "Car."

[00:29:19]I've got a seatbelt on. Got a seatbelt on now. Got a seatbelt Is it a car? And they said, "A car." So, I'm thinking, "What the heck?"

[00:29:26]It's caught now. And then, I've looked I've looked right and then I've just seen I've seen these They were officers, yeah.

[00:29:35]But I would just see they were running and [music] they were really biting his lip here. I go, And then I just pow. I'm like, And they went >> [clears throat] >> I'm just taking the shots on the Probably they they're kicking the shelves, bro.

[00:29:49]I'm like, "Bro, this I've even got blood coming from this this this glass that's that's that's hit me from the the smashing the windows. Remember they're smashing that window, smashing that window, smashing the side window. It's just me. I ain't got no weapon. But it was just like an excuse to beat up a poor black man in the in the in the vehicle.

[00:30:09]They they were hungry. It you know, to see to to remember me I remember I just peeped out to like when they hit me, I peeped out what are they stopped. I looked like that. I just see them right away.

[00:30:23]Boom. Cop they pulled me out. Threw a few kicks.

[00:30:26]And then, you know, someone read me my rights.

[00:30:29]And you know, you got you you were read your Miranda Island. Well, you know, conspiracy to you know, so uh class A, class B. I'm like, "Oh, okay.

[00:30:39]All right, cool." They threw me in the the um the police the police car and a van.

[00:30:49]And then they they drove me back now.

[00:30:51]As as we're driving back now, I'm just thinking, damn.

[00:30:55]Now I'm I'm I'm a gone.

[00:30:58]Get to the police station.

[00:31:01]Uh you know, they phone you in themselves and court cells and stuff in court.

[00:31:05]You know, you do your first interview.

[00:31:07]And I'm thinking, nah, I won't I'm not I'm not getting no bail. You know, I'm I'm bound to rights.

[00:31:12]You know, I mean, I'm I'm seeing they're showing me the camera uh footage of everything.

[00:31:16]One of these is my homeboy. I can see it is my homeboy. You know, I feel they just see you black people just look alike. It's actually my homeboy.

[00:31:22]It's like there was like four counts of him. They had one of me. One of one one Yeah, they had one of me.

[00:31:29]But they had all of them. I just, you know, I'll see my [ __ ] I'm going to go just go guilty to it. You get police station, you do your interview, obviously no comment.

[00:31:41]Uh go to the court.

[00:31:43]I'm trying to get bail, you know, because it's my first time.

[00:31:47]They're like, you know, no bail.

[00:31:49]And um you go to them courts. My them courts is like sitting on this this five bucks.

[00:31:55]And court cells is one of the worst. I feel that's the worst place there is.

[00:31:59]When you're in court and police station, you shouldn't go prison.

[00:32:02]So um from there send me bail march.

[00:32:09]Uh you drive on the prison bus there.

[00:32:13]You go down into reception. You come in late, so they serve you a bit of food there.

[00:32:18]I remember tasting that first bit of food. I think it's some chips.

[00:32:22]It tastes like cardboard, man. I remember biting in that and tears actually dropped down my right eye like to say, "Hey."

[00:32:31]Walk with the prison.

[00:32:33]I could remember that. Just going up just that we're taking you going up the stairs and they they they're putting you in you're walking down and you're looking down the the the corridor you're seeing all the windows is bars everywhere is bars bars bars. I'm like, damn.

[00:32:49]They you go and they unlock and go into another place where you just locked but you just unlocked from there locked they lock you big your foot lock behind you making sure there's another guy and then I remember we we're going to have an interview right now. I don't know it was like a one of them hence prison lady sitting down and we're telling me like, you know, um like he's looking at my file I was listening there'll be no selling drugs in here. And if you do, you know, get out of hand we will bend you up. I have she told me that straight. I was like at these times I'm I'm I'm here I'm I've just made it into adult prison.

[00:33:23]I remember asking people and they're like, 3 years man and they're like you're only going to get like 3 years.

[00:33:27]So and when you're seeing people that at the time, you know, you got someone that's looking at murder, looking at you know, 40 years or someone that that I remember downstairs from me or someone that already had 30 there.

[00:33:41]Someone just, you know, got 6. You know, everyone's got letters and and numbers to to Everyone's addressed by their their surname.

[00:33:50]And um they're just thinking, damn like Wow.

[00:33:55]You can't watch that without feeling something.

[00:33:58]The pain, the choices, survival.

[00:34:03]It all leaves a mark [music] on you.

[00:34:05]As we wrap up this chapter, we move to the final journey, trial.

[00:34:11]Turning survival [music] itself into driving itself into >> [music] >> The excuse was that Manchester was developing a ghetto.

[00:34:29]Ghettos, as it had been seen from the American experience, were bad things because out of ghettos came riots and so on and they were determined not to let it happen here.

[00:34:37]So that it now became necessary during the late 60s to find a way of containing this very threatening presence.

[00:34:47]And the way that was found was the destruction of the of the black community.

[00:34:54]All along here there used to be black people's houses, Carter Street and Mountain Street and so on.

[00:35:01]I mean I was born around here. It didn't get you very angry that you face it the same way that you've got to go wherever they've got places for you. This is before they even consider anything else.

[00:35:11]It's not an ideal community.