Dorian Lynskey

Trading crime for rhyme

Lamont ‘U-God’ Hawkins narrowly escaped death five times as a teenager. But the fighting was ‘all over nothing’, he now realises

issue 05 May 2018

I’ve interviewed a lot of rappers over the years and always feel a little grimy when I find myself nudging them to repackage a horrendous experience as a juicy anecdote with which to promote an album. Some natural raconteurs are happy to play that game — 50 Cent can now tell the story of the day he was shot nine times with the fluency of Peter Ustinov on Parkinson — but many rappers are understandably coy, at least outside the recording studio, about sharing the gory details of their previous lives.

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