Durrty Goodz interview in Vice

There is only one MC who has ever beaten Wiley in a clash and that is Waltham Forest’s Durrty Goodz. Three or so years ago when the hunt was on to find out if the success of Dizzee Rascal wasn’t just a fluke, he looked like the most likely candidate to hop on the major label love-’em-and-leave-’em gravy train. Like Rascal, he could flow double time but with the clarity of any hip hop MC. After first starting out on Mystic FM in Hackney and moving up through the pirate stations, he’d managed to get himself signed to Polydor and was dropping verses on remixes for rappers like David Banner.

Then it all started to go wrong. Goodz, his half brother Crazy Titch, and their stepfather were all arrested and locked up on suspicion of the murder of a young producer linked with an MC who had dissed Durrty. Despite the media headlines implying that the murder was over the lyrics of a song, the actual circumstances behind the killing were far more complex, but will probably never be publicly known. After spending over a year in Pentonville and Belmarsh prisons, Goodz was cleared of all charges last November. Titch and his stepfather were sentenced to serve a minimum of 30 years each in jail.

Goodz came back earlier this year while everyone in grime was busy either watching Smack DVDs or MySpacing Kate Nash, and dropped an EP that reminded me why I got into grime in the first place. From what I’ve heard of it so far, if his new album, Born Blessed, doesn’t give you butterflies, like when you first saw your stepsister’s training bra, I will eat my Are You Dumb T-shirt and shit it into a poo gun and shoot myself.

Vice: So was prison fear vibes?

Durrty Goodz: Prison is just like prison. I suppose it’s the same as anywhere, but I dunno. It’s just prison, innit? It’s just jail, innit? They’re all gritty. All prisons are filthy. You just wanna get out because it’s not a place built for human beings. And that’s that. Music don’t live there, music’s out here. Yeah, that’s why I’m here.

What would you eat for breakfast?

You don’t get breakfast and those things. They don’t do that. You have to survive for yourself, innit? I don’t even take food from them. I wouldn’t even eat, I’d just eat my own stuff. I’d just do my own thing. I don’t think they even give people food. They call it food but I don’t think it’s food.

Were you ever scared?

It depends because when you know you’ve done nothing wrong then sometimes you’ve got nothing to be scared about. At the same time, you know that the system’s wonky so you always have like a couple of scary thoughts in the back of your mind.

Was there one definitive moment that made you think you really didn’t want to be there?

Yeah, there was loads of stuff but you can just look at a prison screw—just look at his face—and you wouldn’t be next to that kind of face. Not when you’re known for, like, having pretty ladies and that. I saw so much violence in there that I can’t even say right now. I see a lot of stuff, I see a lot of stuff. It will probably be all revealed one day. Panorama will probably go in there and tell you what’s happening. I don’t think people understand. That place is so deep—you could just see the food and get upset and know that you’re not meant to be there. It’s not food, it’s just garbage. Everything’s just garbage. It’s not the standard of living of where you come from. You’re gonna be upset every second you’re there.

SHANTY MEDDLER AKA PRANCEHALL