So Solid Crew's Asher D, who spent time in jail last year after being charged for carrying a loaded firearm, is to front a Home Office backed anti-gun crime campaign launched yesterday. Launching the initiative the Crew member told reporters: "If you carry a gun you could end up having a gun to your head and being killed. To some, weapons have a feeling of power. But guns lead to death. If we get one gun off the street then that's a good thing."
So Solid Crew have, of course, been dogged by run-ins with the law, especially on gun possession based charges, with two members - Shane 'Kaish' Neil and Jason 'G Man' Phillips – currently in jail awaiting a trial on fire arm charges. Meanwhile the media have been keen to link the Crew to the popularity of guns among the young black community, especially since that shooting at a So Solid Crew party at the Astoria a couple of years ago. Continuing Asher D said: "I've been through my thing, some of the guys have been through theirs. But we want people to know that's not what we are doing now. The main thing I've learned is to behave myself."
So Solid Crew will join with Mica Paris, David Lynden Hall and the Heartless Crew for one of the main events of the campaign. They will each perform a 'Disarm' gig at a different London venue on 24 Apr (SSC at Ocean, Mica Paris at Shepherds Bush Empire, Lyden Hall at the Astoria and the Heartless Crew at the Mean Fiddler). Mica Paris, whose brother was shot dead two years ago, said of the campaign: "We, as a nation, need to include young black males into society so they would not feel a need to turn to gun crime."