Question time

Ashley Walters on how gun crime ruined his first taste of fame, surviving prison and why children need parents rather than gangs

Do you have regrets about being in So Solid Crew?

No, not at all. I just wish I'd done it differently.


A lot of the negative things that happened to us were to do with paranoia for me. Rather than enjoying my success I was stressing about it. Wanting it, but at the same time I couldn't handle the consequences. I was intimidated by people.

Is that why you carried a gun?

Yes, definitely. There were a lot of different reasons, but I made that decision. I can't blame it on people intimidating me but, if you want to be deep about it, it's the same reason kids are doing it today - it's through my father being absent, and me not having a role model. I felt very much alone. That's why being part of a unit like So Solid was important and that's why kids go to gangs - they become your family and they take care of you, and that fear of being hurt by someone else is diminished.

You found your dad when you were older.

I always knew where he was, and he knew where I was, but he was in jail a lot. But when I had my kids, my girlfriend and my mum convinced me to let him be involved. Then he told me he had cancer and that's when I had to let my kids have that year with him. That's when we started being friends. He was proud of me before he died.

Is there a crisis in the black community?

It's not a sudden crisis. This has been happening for years. Go back and listen to So Solid's first album. Then people were saying we were just glamorising violence and we were saying, we're talking about what's happened to us on the streets. You think we are glamorising violence when we say we're scared of getting shot? We're talking about our environment, and now you're seeing it happen.

How did you feel when you were sentenced to 18 months in prison for possession of a firearm?

My barrister said the lowest I'd get was three years and the highest was seven. Either was too long for me, so I was devastated. I didn't realise until then it was that serious. I broke down, I started crying. When the judge said 18 months, I had a tear in my eye but I think I even smiled. I worked it out when he was talking: 18 months, you do half, so that's nine, I know I can get at least two off for good behaviour, so I could be out in seven months, with a tag. It's still bad, but three or seven years would have ruined me.

Do you think our prisons work?

No, not at all. According to the statistics, the majority of people reoffend. Once you've been in you're meant to go back again.

When you got out of prison, did you think your career was over?

Yes. I had a good three or four months of mad depression where I thought, I'm not doing this any more, it's brought me nothing but problems, I can't take it. My own label didn't want to touch me. A lot of people just shut doors. It's been hard to even talk to some people in the music industry because of my past.

You have done a couple of films. You were named best newcomer at the British independent film awards for Bullet Boy, and you were in 50 Cent's film, Get Rich or Die Tryin', and now you are in the BBC series Hustle. Presumably you are now being recognised by a whole different group of people?

Yes. Last week black cabs wouldn't stop for me. Now they do. They're just asking me if my money's real or not. [Laughs]

Do you worry about selling out?

Selling out is a myth. Bill Gates isn't selling out, is he? Richard Branson isn't selling out. Why can't black people make money?

Are other members of So Solid jealous of your success?

I hope not. I haven't spoken to a lot of them for a long time. I speak to Swiss every now and then. Shabz I work with a lot still. I see Harvey a lot - we're good friends - but that's about it.

There were over 30 members of So Solid. Wasn't it always going to implode because there were so many people?

We never knew it would just end like that. It was very abrupt. We were lifted up, everyone loved us, we were the golden kids, then they threw us down. But that's what they say: don't bite the hand that feeds you - and we bit it too many times.

· Ashley Walters appears in Hustle on BBC1 at 9pm tonight. His album In Memory of the Street Fighter is rereleased on May 21.

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