Thank you guys for having me here.

I got kicked out of school in year ten

and no other schools would take me.

I had to go to a Pupil Referral Unit,

which is also known as a PRU.

I went to Tunmarsh Centre in Plaistow

and at this school... I was there with other kids

from a lot more dysfunctional families than me.

They'd been through a lot more than me.

And one thing we shared in common is

we didn't have any respect for authority,

whether it be teachers or police.

I think the reason why we didn't have respect for authority

was because we felt that we're ignored by society.

That we didn't belong to it.

And so we wouldn't listen to anyone

apart from our favorite rappers.

You know -- There was underground music out there that we would listen to.

We would let this music raise us

and most of these artists we'd never meet in our lives

but their words are what guided us.

And unfortunately, some of those words are negative.

You know, within hip hop, there is that kind of --

that hip hop that romanticizes street life and being a gangster and selling drugs.

There is that.

But there's also conscious hip hop.

And I was a fan of the conscious hip hop.

I was a fan of the hip hop that was like poetry,

it was like reading a book.

And it changed your life. Just one sentence could change your life.

And I've realized that this was a powerful tool

and I wanted to change things.

I wanted to change the stuff that I read in the paper or the stuff that I came in direct contact with,

that I didn't agree with.

Damilola Taylor was ten years old when he lost his life.

He was stabbed by a kid

that was maybe only three or four years older than him.

This is a child killing another child.

I didn't agree with this.

I didn't agree with the mentality.

There are a lot of these kids [this was going around with]

but I understood why [there is going around with it].

I understood that they were from broken families

they had parents that were probably alcoholics, drug addicts, dysfunctional.

That raised them up to believe they could never make anything of themselves

because them, as parents never made anything of themselves.

There's a lot of kids that grow up in families where they're abused,

whether it be physically or mentally.

The great thing about the Tunmarsh Centre was

that it was a place where these kids could go for the first time in their lives

and be showed encouragement and motivation,

and be told that they could make something of their lives.

And this school changed my life.

I watched Goldie's TED lecture from last year and he said, basically,

the same things that I'm saying today.

That there's one person out there that can change these kids' lives, you know.

They can come from a negative family environment.

They only have to bump into one person that can plant one positive seed

in their head and in their heart and it can change their life.

And Tunmarsh Centre was full of these positive teachers.

And when I left there, I went on this journey,

through hip hop music,

and I decided to write an album to try to reach out to these kids

and try to, in some ways, I guess, be a father figure to these kids

because they were parentless.

And that's what my first record was.

I found -- with my first record, there was a lot of stumbling blocks

the music industry, the way that it works.

You know, it's not built for the way I make hip hop music.

If I want to talk to these kids, if I want to get through to them,

I've got to talk in their language.

I've got to swear.

I've got to talk about violent negative things

because that's what they're attracted to.

But -- my methods of trying to teach positivity were unorthodox.

I wanted to hook them in by making my hip hop, on first listen,

sound like it was the rest of the hip hop out there.

But when you listen deeper, you'd actually find there was a meaning within it,

and it was positive.

It wasn't glamorizing gang culture.

It was exposing it for what it really was.

The grim reality that, if you get shot nine times,

you're gonna die.

Alright?

You know, 50 Cent is lucky to be alive.

But in reality, you get shot once, you're gonna die.

And I guess the first album was almost like the anti-smoking campaigns.

You know, where you see a main artery with a load of shit coming out of it.

It's trying to scare us into not smoking.

To think about our actions.

And that's what I think the first record was.

And it was very hard to get it played on radio.

So I took a break from it,

because I started hating music, you know,

and I took a break from the politics of hip hop.

I tried to get "ill Manors" made.

And I had a lot of big film companies that was interested in making it,

but nobody wanted to take a chance on me

because I was an un-tested, un-tried director.

I was ready to make "ill Manors" before this album came out.

And the only reason I didn't make it was because no-one would back me

until this album came out and went straight to number one.

And then suddenly people wanted to give me their money.

But by then, it was too late. I had already done a deal

to make this film on a small budget.

And the reason why I care about it so much

is because this project was me going back,

going back to Tunmarsh Centre,

going back to the schools in the local area,

specifically targeting the poor schools in the local area.

Because I needed kids to represent the characters in this story, in a real way.

I couldn't have Thespians.

At fourteen years of age, you can't expect a fourteen-year-old kid,

who's not from this world to portray this world.

You can't expect that.

The one school that invited us in with open arms was Rokeby School,

which doesn't exist anymore. It's an all-boys school in Stratford.

And I found some gems there. I found some real talent there.

You know, I only had one space, for one role.

And it was like five kids. The one other kid that didn't make it into my film,

off the back of us knowing about him and the casting director taking another job,

he got the main part in "Top Boy".

So the young man in "Top Boy" is someone that through failing to get into my film,

got another opportunity off the back of it.

And that filled me with even more purpose.

So when you've got these kids giving you 100 percent,

and they're believing in you and expecting you to pull through for them,

how could I neglect this project?

How could I enjoy the success of what students make?

I couldn't!

Not coming where I come from.

So... I'm gonna play you a little bit of my next single

and we'll talk about it afterwards.

(Music)

[Lyrics] Let's all go on an urban safari, we might see some illegal migrants.

[Lyrics] Oi, look there's a chav. That means council housed and violent.

[Lyrics] He's got a hoodie on, give him a hug. On second thoughts, don't, you don't wanna get mugged.

[Lyrics] Oh shit, too late, that was kinda dumb. Whose idea was that? ...Stupid.

[Lyrics] He's got some front, ain't we all? Be the joker, play the fool.

[Lyrics] What's politics, ain't it all smoke and mirrors, April fools?

[Lyrics] All year round, all in all just another brick in the wall

[Lyrics] Get away with murder in the schools, use four letter swear words coz we're cool

[Lyrics] We're all drinkers, drug takers every single one of us burns the herb

[Lyrics] Keep on believing what you read in the papers council estate kids, scum of the earth

[Lyrics] Think you know how life on a council estate is from everything you've ever read about it or heard

[Lyrics] Well it's all true, so stay where you're safest there's no need to step foot out the 'burbs

[Lyrics] Truth is here, we're all disturbed we cheat and lie, it's so absurd

[Lyrics] Feed the fear that's what we've learned Fuel the fire – Let it burn.

[Lyrics] Oi! I said Oi! What you looking at, you little rich boy!

[Lyrics] We're poor 'round here, run home and lock your door

[Lyrics] Don't come 'round here no more, you could get robbed for real

[Lyrics] Yeah, because my manner's ill.

[Lyrics] My manner's ill, for real. Yeah you know my manner's ill, my manner's ill!

[Lyrics] You could get lost in this concrete jungle. New builds keep springing up outta nowhere.

[Lyrics] Take the wrong turn down a one way junction, find yourself in the hood, nobody goes there.

[Lyrics] We got an Eco-friendly government they preserve our natural habitat.

[Lyrics] Built an entire Olympic village around where we live without pulling down any flats

(Applause)

I wanna ask you guys: What is this a picture of?

A what?

(Audience:) A youth!

(Plan B:) A youth.

Oh no, that's not me!

(Laughter)

What is it, though? What is it?

(Audience: It's a child.)

(Plan B:) It's a child, it's a boy.

Yeah? Alright.

What's that?

(Audience:) That's you!

(Laughter)

It's funny you should say that because that's the point I'm getting to next.

What is it, though?

Who just said "chav"?

It's a chav, right?

He's got a Burberry cap on and everything.

It's a chav.

What does the word "chav" mean?

[inaudible audience remark]

...yeah, that's what it means now, but what did it use to mean?

It did, yeah.

The term may have its origins in the Romani word "chavvy" meaning "child".

Now, my godfather used to call me "chavvy".

He used to call me "chav" and it was affectionate.

I used to enjoy it, used to like it, when he called me that.

And then, in 2004, I think it was, Michael Carroll, the "Lotto Lout",

won nine point something million in the lottery.

And suddenly, the papers adopted the word

and started using it to represent people like him.

That looked and dressed like him.

But people that look and dress like him, where did they live?

They live on council estates, right?

Yeah... they're poor.

They're the underclass.

So what does that word mean now, what does it stand for?

Now I state – this is what I believe – it stands for

"Council housed and violent"

Yeah?

Because people like Michael Carroll,

people like the guy up there,

they're dressed like that,

commonly come from council houses.

And ignorant people, you know, they say, well, the difference is using violence, right?

Well, they do, 'cause they're not educated enough to settle it any other way.

So this word is derogatory.

It's a word used to ridicule and label people

that come from a less educated background than the rest of society.

For me, it's no different from similar words used to be prejudiced towards race or sex,

the difference is, in this country, we openly say the word "chav",

the papers openly ridicule the poor and less fortunate, openly.

If we'd done the same thing with race or sex,

there'd be a public uproar, and rightly so.

But why is it any different with this word?

It is how I believe!

(Applause)

I believe there is a demonization of the youth.

Throughout the media and people are falling for it.

'Cause if you have no direct contact with the kids that I'm talking about,

how the hell can you judge them?

'Cause you're only judging them based on something you read in a newspaper!

Aren't you?

And see, this fuels the fire.

If you call kids words that are derogatory to them,