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‘What’s good fam?’
James and I touched knuckles as we met up at the station in preparation for the day.
I swayed slightly in my Reebok’s before pulling up my tracksuit bottoms as they hung loosely across my hips, at any time in danger of falling off my legs completely.
The only thing that held them up other than that was my tiny bum that somehow managed to keep it all together.
I had the hoodie to match the bottoms, and this was also another top that engulfed me as we strode to meet our other friends.
Lee, Rene, Ben or rather, Scarecrow, Riddlez and Phase were all ready to head to the studio.
My hair was gelled up, and spiky, and my 18 year old face displayed how young and frail I really was.
Amongst the others I felt strong though, I felt like I belonged to a group of people I could finally in some way call my own.
We were laying down tracks at studios on an almost weekly basis now and putting together the beginnings of an album.
Today we were headed to collaborate with another group on a track that would ultimately feature another 7-8 MCs.
I had a deadline so needed to be the first one to record my lyrics.
It felt surreal, and I felt I was the epitome of cool because I was the only Indian kid who was part of a group where everyone was either black, mixed race or white, and in that order.
We by this time even had our youngers – a crop of kids maybe 2-3 years younger than us who were meant to be our proteges of some kind.
I’d struggled through secondary school is one of few Indian kids struggling within a predominantly white working class environment. In grime, I’d found solace and through grime, I’d found a community I could share my passion and time as well.
At least temporarily within this group, I belonged.
Somehow I’d become something between us in the times there were squabbles, egos and all that threatened to break us up. By this time, I was in my gap year after finishing my A-Levels.
I did a good job of ignoring the mental elephant in the room – that I had 4-A’s at A-Level and the other reason why I was taking a gap year was to travel and then reapply to Oxbridge.
In hindsight, for James and Ben especially – this was a way of life