An American soldier serving in Iraq has made a rap album about his time on active service. Sergeant Neal Saunders was deployed to the country back in 2004, and decided to use music to help him deal with the trauma and frustrations of serving in Baghdad. "When you see someone standing beside you take a bullet, it changes you," he says, "after the first ambush, I knew if I spent my last dime I was going to spend it telling this story."
The album 'Live From Iraq', was written, recorded and produced in Iraq, in a temporary recording booth Saunders set up in a 30ft by 30ft room he shared with eight other soldiers. The record focuses entirely on events taking place in the war zone, and Saunders, agreeing that the album may not make easy listening, says there was never a commercial angle to creating the long player, but that it was intended as a voice to reflect the reality of war for those caught up in it. More than ten thousand copies have been sold.
Saunders, who has now left the army and has set up a recording studio and is running projects to support serving and former soldiers, says he is contacted by soldiers and their families who say the album has helped them deal with their situation. He says: "I've even gotten emails from parents that say, 'I've listened to this album and my son or daughter they don't talk to me about this. And after listening to the music I understand maybe why they'd want to keep it to themselves and they don't want to talk about it, because they still can't deal with it.'"
A documentary about Saunders is to be broadcast on BBC 1Xtra today at 2.30pm.