Yo, it's your buddy Rapman.
We're going to be rolling on the back of the bus.
We've got the cast from the Blue Story movie.
We're going to have some sticky conversation.
There's going to be some moments today, you know?
Really and truly, growing up in South-East or North,
the back of the bus is a place you spent a lot of time on,
you know, for many different reasons. Certain times,
there ain't nothing to do, so we're going to sit on the back of the bus
and just roll it till the wheels fall off.
It's going to get sticky. It might get a bit heated, you know,
cos everyone ain't got the same opinion, but that's all right.
Blue Story, on the back of the bus, let's go.
# Yo, on my way to her
# On a bench, I yell over and tell her all this
# She said, "They like me.
# "Babes, you already know this."
ALL CHEER You already know this!
You already know this!
Bro, I'm feeling weird on the end.
Yeah, why? He scared of the moth.
I'm not scared of it, it just needs to die. What's wrong with you lot?
SLAPS
Are you scared now? I remember sitting where he is now,
I'm coming from school in Peckham and I'm living in Deptford.
So, we're in New Cross now, safety zone.
The border! The border!
Whilst you're on that bus, you're just hoping,
"Man, I hope no Peckham High is coming on the bus."
And then we get New Cross, some of them are my friends.
And then, he's there, I'm there. Brother, I look out of the window
and I see 50 man running towards the bus.
And I go to my friend and say, "Brother..." "Wha gwan?"
"There's like 50 man running towards the bus."
He's like, "Maybe, they will get on." Yeah!
IMITATES FOOTSTEPS
Bro, you see that beat? That's what my heart was doing.
It was doing this. My heart was doing this!
Bro! We sat there, a bag of them came on.
Them barging through to the back of the bus.
I said, "I just live in Deptford." He just silenced me.
Told me to shut up. I was quiet, yeah?
One of them wanted to try and move to us.
Luckily, one older one came through and said, "No, they look like
"youngers, man. They look like youngers. Just leave them."
Cos he was obviously the main man.
And he just said, "Man going to leave yous two.
"But make sure you tell everyone that youngers go on the ends."
And I said, "No problem." "I will relay this!"
I would have relayed it!
Put in a text!
I could have texted if they wanted!
But, brother, when they came off the bus,
I felt like I had another shot at life.
I will never forget that moment, which is why there is a scene
in the film, which it looks like it's entertainment purposes,
but that was my actual experience.
Normally, if I'm on the back of the bus, I'd be sitting here, or there.
Brother, I'm not even moving.
Someone's got to move, was going on? I'm uncomfortable now.
He's looking... Come on. You're good, man.
When the big guys used to come on the back of the bus,
you would be at the front!
How did you go from rapping to film directing
and writing your own scripts and stuff? It's mad, you know?
I've been rapping from when I was in school. I'd always wanted
to rap, cos I looked up to Biggie, Pac and Jay and all that.
But when I started rapping, like, in the UK, kind of thing,
I noticed that there was no-one really telling rap stories.
I done my first story video which is Blue Story.
Every comment under the Blue Story video is "Distribute a movie!"
"Distribute a movie!" People love the gritty gutter stuff, you know?
And I remember getting a message from one kid one day
and he has gone, "Yeah, you're doing all good things now,
"but I bet you can't do nothing else like Blue Story."
I was like, "I could do, but why would I do it?" "Well, do it, then."
You know what, all right.
It's been a few years, maybe I can do it
and not get pigeonholed as just a ghetto writer.
I'm thinking, "You know what, I want to write this film.
"Let me try and get a writer." I've never wrote a film before,
I remember calling up a writer.
I said, "How much?" "I need 20 grand." I'm like, "Bro,
"man don't even know that type of money!
"This ain't even going to work. I'm going to have to call you back!"
Six months later, I've got this feature film script.
So, I send it to my brethren, my brethren don't read,
he's a typical kid from the streets.
He's like, "Bro, I'm going to read it now, I'm about to smoke."
And I sent it to him at 10pm, I woke up at 1am to a message saying,
"Brother, this ting is mad! This ting is mad!
"I don't read, and I read the whole thing!
"This needs to be a film, brother!"
I said, "That's a whole point of it! You get me?"
Where are we? We're in Lewisham. Lewisham.
This is a congregation.
This road here is a connecting road between a lot of areas.
Obviously, we come from Lewisham going towards New Cross
which is going to take us into Peckham, all on the same road.
So, you can imagine, if you're from a different area
within 30 minutes, you can be in that area, do you know what I mean?
And then an area where you're not even welcome.
Why do Peckham be ghetto? What did he say?
He said, "Them man there, they're pagans!"
Why are they pagans though? What does pagans even mean?
Well, I don't know, man.
All I know is if you're from ghetto you don't want to buck up
into my brother in that car, he hates them.
Is that why your brother don't like me, then?
I wish I was around people like Mike with his attitude?
Cos he just sees it as "No pride,
"I'm going to front of the bus, mate."
Do you know how many situations man's avoided
just by going to the front? Do you know what, and I feel like...
I might not even be here. I might not be here!
That's a split-second decision. That's the cool attitude.
That attitude is kind of seen as negative or weak
from where we came from, do you know what I mean? I see that as strong!
A lot of urban films, they don't really touch on, like,
mental health and all that stuff, but we really touch on that
in this film, especially with Leah and Timmy.
She really doesn't understand why he has so much pride
and why is he trying to follow the crowd kind-of-thing?
That's mad.
It's great, the acting.
So, did you enjoy Corrina's party, then, yeah? Yeah.
I would have liked to have danced with you for longer though.
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry about that.
I saw that guy punch Michael, and, obviously, I had to back him.
I get you wanting to help your friend,
but what are you trying to prove?
Even now, I don't really talk to people about how I feel at times.
Just soldier, 100%. Because, I don't know,
it's just the way I have been moded, you know what I'm saying?
I feel like a lot of people that are similar to me think the same.
I personally feel like men are still struggling with it.
A lot of men are like committing suicide, do you know what I mean?
Like, it's rising.
As a girl, are you confused by the mind-set that some guys are in?
I'm not confused, cos I get it, I do get it.
And I don't know how I can help that,
just, obviously, to be the person that you can talk to.
This film, it's showing that these strong people
can share their emotions with their friends. People that they look up to
as strong role models and figures need to open up about their issues
with their mental health and their struggles and you are seeing it.
Cos you're seeing people like J Hus writing essays now
about how he feels. We see Ramz, for example,
he literally said he got help,
and he made a big example about thinking about suicide and...
I see it more now. That's what we need.
So, the more people open up about it, it becomes natural,
there's no tiptoeing around it. "He done it, so I can do it."
And then, eventually, it becomes a conversation.
You know what I'm tired of, yeah? When people say,
"You're glorifying the hood perspective of life."
How do you feel about that, fam? You know what's mad, yeah?
Most times, the people that are saying we are glorifying this
are the people that don't understand where these people are coming from.
They don't understand what's going on, you know what I'm trying to say?
Watch the story, take the story in,
and then tell me if there was any glory.
Did the violence encourage anyone to want to go out and do the same?
I find that very unlikely, but this is a conversation
I would like to have with someone once they've seen the film.
I'm allowed to rap about what I saw, like, what I went through.
It's my life! To be honest, we don't talk about it enough.
Which is why there is so much dramas on the streets.
We're getting a bit local. Getting a bit local!
I quite like it! I quite like it! I got it a shisha down there!
ALL SPEAK TOGETHER
Are we good?
From now on, is that how you're always going to write,
you're always going to write from stuff that happened?
I would love to say that, but I want to do a sci-fi one day.
I could do something like a Misfits, but a bit deeper.
Like imagine someone from where we came from gets powers?
Like real powers, like what would man really do with that power?
What would he do? Some might still decide that... Like you!
No, I'd be a role model, you'd be surprised, you know!
If you could pick any power, what would you pick?
Super-speed and mind-reading.
Oh, no, you wouldn't want to read minds.
You have got one mutation in your genes, what mutation would you want?
Super-speed. Is it? For me, reading minds.
You think you want that. Until your hair falled out,
you didn't want your hair. I want to control their thoughts.
You can't control somebody else's thoughts!
No, I can control them. I'd listen to everyone's thoughts.
You're speaking to your girl who loves you one day, one minute
she's thinking, "I hope he doesn't find out I slept with Robert!"
Bro! You're not going to want that power no more!
Well, at least I found out that she slept with Robert!
Oh, I would hate that!
That's what I was going to say, teleporting.
OK, OK, OK. What would you do with teleporting?
Exactly. Exploring!
And do what?
He wants the power to explore! What's that?!
This is why I need to write a show.
What is man really going to do with these powers? Telekinesis.
Is that what it's called? When you can move stuff?
What do you want to move? Why would you want that?
Do you know, when you need your phone quickly, you say,
"Bro, can you get up, that's my phone, there."
"No, no." "Bro, move! Move, bro!"
And that's what you want your power for?! But, to be fair,
you said super-speed, so you can't really talk.
I think mine was the best anyway.
What would you do with your super-speed?!
Say one thing! One thing! One example!
OK, that would make my life much more convenient,
because everywhere I've got to be, I'm always just a little bit late.
Why don't you get teleport? Exactly! When I come off I've decided
I'm going to go home and write a movie tonight. I'm like that.
Don't start me! Don't start with me!
# And it's the Arsenal!
# Arsenal! Arsenal! #
It's Arsene!
Ar-sen-e! Ar-sen-e!
Now, we saw you in the film when you kicked the ball,
and you weren't the best, you know what I mean?
No tekkers whatsoever.
No technique, no coordination.
I bet you knew about that,
They used to call me "RE".
LAUGHTER
RE!
OK...!