Real mates and learning to rap in prison.
First published – Feb 19 2008.
Back again,
Instead of bagging the prison system today Im going to talk about a couple of good things I got out of being inside.
A mate for life and the inspiration to consider my music as new path for my future.
When you‟re locked up you come across all sorts of characters and you‟re stuck with them twenty four seven, 365 until you get out.
Some are great blokes, some are dickheads, some are nutters, psychos, drug fiends, murderers and all walks of life in between.
Unless a guy has been convicted of a sex crime or something against children all are just another number in the prison system.
Just another one of the boys.
Just another one of the thousands serving time around NSW and Australia.
Throughout your sentence you move from prison to prison, settle for a while, crew up with some of the lads and then when you move on…you move on.
You might swap min numbers (prison id numbers) with a mate you met and write for a while, you might even swap phone numbers and get together for a beer or a smoke when you both get free.
You might hook up for mutual business interests or because you both get in to the same hustle on the outside.
Along the way though you come across some really stand up guys.
Guys that you can trust 100% no matter what.
Guys that have your back no matter what.
Mates for life.
I met a handful of mates like this during my time inside and I would like to tell you all about one of them.
Without this lad telling me that as a rapper I was good enough to make it in the music biz I may never have taken a chance and things would not be as they are today.
You might have heard me talk about two mates of mine “Dug” and “Tilly” aka Bt from my time inside.
They really had an influence on me doing something with my music.
The first lad I mentioned “Dug” is the definition of a real lad and after we spent some time locked up together at Long Bay and Goulburn over a period of around fifteen months we have been mates ever since.
I remember I was assigned to work on some demountable school buildings with about sixty other blokes at Goulburn when I heard there was a new Canberra lad in X-wing.
(my wing at Goulburn).
If you are from Canberra you all ways know who else in a prison is from Canberra because we are shipped off to the NSW prison system and tend to stick together somewhat inside.
So I sat down for breakfast and as I ate my toast I looked up and in came Dug, the new Canberra lad.
I recognized Dug straight away as once I had sold a half ounce to him and a cousin and Dug had asked me to hook up ten or twenty pounds of hooch for him.
I did so and he never called back, cheeky bastard.ha ha We had a laugh and had a chat about what had been doing in Canberra since we both got locked away.
Canberra only has a population of about 300,000 so we had plenty to yarn about and we knew a lot of the same people on the outside and if we didn‟t we knew someone who did.ha ha.
Over the next year or so in X-Wing I got to know Dug and he was one of the few lads who had access to my cd collection. Ha ha
We both had both been in to hip hop since we were kids and it turned out Dug didn‟t mind a bit of a cipher.
At this stage Dug was more of a hype man then an emcee but the lad loved his hip hop!
Here and there we rapped over a few American hits while they played on my discman which was jimmied up through my one speaker radio by a mate but at this stage we were just doing our time and not really taking music that seriously.
I was writing the odd rhyme during long hours in the cell but mainly to kill time and express myself so I hadn‟t shown them to anyone yet including Dug.
At this stage I had been told that if I transferred from Goulburn to Long Bay and completed a 3 and a half month course to ready myself for release then I would receive parole.
As the beginning of the course drew closer I found out that Dug was heading to the Bay to do the same course.(the course is called “Nara Ngura” by the way) We arrived at Long Bay and ran in to another mate who was also a budding rapper Bruce “Bt” Tilly and then we started counting down the days to release.
We hit the gym pretty hard for the last few months so we would be looking good for the ladies when we finally got to hit a night club after all these years out of action.
The schedule at the course we were doing was pretty busy to.
We would start the day with a quick breakfast and cigarette followed by education and course related activity until about three pm.
After the course stuff we would hit the gym for a couple of hours and then cook up a big meal over which we would discuss our big plans for release.
Dug was all about his daughter and settling down as he had been away from her for so long.
I was more about my weed business and getting back my old life, neither of our plans went to plan.
After dinner I would hit the showers and maybe have a game of chess or cards with who ever was about.
On Wednesdays the whole wing cooked and ate a big meal together and then did the dish‟s so this is when the ciphers went down.
The ciphers would mainly be held down by me and Tilly but heaps of lads had there moments.
Occasionally we would get a little battle going but mainly the dis‟s went out to the screws or the guys that hated hip hop.
Dug was all ways hyping up right in the middle of things and getting involved with a few lines here and there and didn‟t really start to polish his own rap ability until after his release.
Even though he wasn‟t rapping yet I feel a big influence on me picking up the mic and pen was the support from the lad.
Dug was telling me I could do something with my rhymes way before I ever considered the thought as more then a dream.
For that shit I will all ways have Dugs back 100%
On another note Dug has just asked me to be the godfather of his daughter!!
Anyway back to the routine of our days at Long Bay…
By six thirty we would have another hour long education course and then it was a half hour break before getting locked in our cells.
The nights at Long Bay were not the same as the nights at the other prisons I had stayed at.
For starters I was pretty sure I could finish the course and get parole so the end of my sentence was in sight and I would sit there at night for the four months or so that I was there writing raps and feeling almost free.
In the morning Dug, Tilly and myself would go over the raps that Tilly and Myself had written.
Dug would always be telling me I had the story and the ability to make it which spurred me on.
I kept a couple of the raps I wrote in the nik, Im pretty sure Dug has a couple I wrote that he liked too.
I don‟t think they are good enough to release but they are a good memory of what hip hop means to me.
And so the week would role on basically unchanged except on weekends when we would watch video hits, have a huge breakfast and maybe play some basketball.
Of course with the weekends come visits, round once a month we would get a visit from family or friends.
So we had a fair bit of spare time over the weekends and we would use some of it to spit a few raps that we had written during the week.
As the four month course was getting closer to winding up the three of us decided to put together a little set to perform for the guys in the wing as like a farewell for Tilly who was due to go home first.
We put a few songs together for it but couldn‟t get our hands on beats and a stereo so instead it was just a cigarette at the gate and Tilly was gone.
A week later and it was my day, despite my Canberra ban I was keen as hell to get out.
I won‟t go in to details about my release day n all that but I said my goodbyes to Dug and the rest of the lads.
I left a few written raps that Dug had liked with him and he chucked me a painting he had done for me which hangs right here on the office wall and will move to the studio too.
Another week later Dug got out and despite my ban from Canberra I was heading back to celebrate Dugs first night out after all I had promised to show him what a real E does the day he got out!
I had a friend coming to pick me up from the Gong where I had been sent by parole to give me a lift to Canberra but he ended up in an accident and I was stuck.
At around 7 or 8 pm I decided if I was going to get down to celebrate with Dug I had to move fast but most of my mates live in Canberra so I had few options for a lift.
I had come in to a chunk of cash over the first week of release so I thought stuff it Im getting a cab cause this is a big day for my mate.
$500 later I hit Canberra and met Dug in Civic.
Dug was blind drunk so I probably shouldn‟t have given him a full one of these E‟s I had but it was his release day.
Me and a couple of friends also popped one and within twenty minutes we were dispersed through the nightclubs of Civic.
Ironically after all that effort I didn‟t see Dug again that night.
Come to think of it with all the shit going on in our lives straight after release we didn‟t see each other again for a while.
Even after all our plans.
That‟s how it is sometimes when you return to the real world.
If you read my blogs then you probably know about the shit that went down after I got out and Dug‟s plans didn‟t go any better as he was locked back up for a while on some charges he was later found not guilty of.
Around six months or so after release I crossed paths with Dug again at skyfire (a Canberra festival) and I found out he had been locked up again.
I had been trying to phone the lad but his number had been cancelled.
I was still in Canberra for the next four months before my ex mate ripped me and the parole board and afp drove me out of town so I was catching up with my man Dug and his girl on the regular.
I was living with my new girl and ex mate in a near by suburb so we were catching up every couple of days.
By now I was comfortable as hell freestyling in front of who ever and I was even hitting some open mics so I would be at it all day.
Dug was even starting to find his own flow.
When I did finally get run out of Canberra the first thing I did the week I finally retreated to Wollongong was head to Sydney for Scribblejam which was a national rap battle comp.
Stacey, Dug and his girl came along to see me get to the last sixteen in NSW before bombing out.
Since then I‟ve been in the Gong and have only caught up with Dug a few times, the last time being at my Canberra show in October.
We stay in touch on the phone though and coincidentally Dug and his girl had a baby shortly before my daughter was born so we are now both proud fathers of beautiful baby girls and life has changed for both of us.
Dug‟s working and doing well he has been working on his raps and most likely soon you will get to hear him on a track.
He has been supporting my career, the Koky Prik movement and polishing up his style for the last two years.
He keeps telling me how much he wants to get up on stage for a chance to rip a set so once things quite down we will get something recorded and see what you all think.
You know what I think?
You find good people in the strangest places.
Even Goulburn gaol.
You find inspiration in the strangest places.
Even Long Bay gaol.
Shouts out to ya Duggy, madd inspiration!
You know Ive got your back brother!
Koky Prik Son!!!!
Back soon people.