Inside notorious gangster's rap career and the four-minute song that changed his life | The Sun
A NOTORIOUS gangster who "grew up in jail" has told of a four-minute song that changed his life.
Jordan McCann, 28, was in prison when hit rap Lifestyle, detailing his life of crime, was released and put him on the radar.
He belonged to a well-known criminal family in Salford, Greater Manchester, and has been convicted for crimes including violence, armed robbery, gang affiliations and drug dealing.
McCann held a listening party in one of his cells when Lifestyle came out, but it was part of the reason he was back in jail in the first place.
He had showed it to probation officers to show them what he was up to while out on probation, but officials were alarmed at lines like "coming out of jail doing shootings on licence".
McCann admitted: "I said that because that's what I was doing."
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But he said he realised he had to turn away from a life of crime when he was sentenced to six and a half years aged 19.
He told the Manchester Evening News: "I was just thinking, 'I'm not coming home now for years, I'm living around all these same people, I lived by this f****ing code, I've been the loyalest guy, I've been the realest guy' and it does get you nowhere.
"I just realised, 'bang' this life is the fakest life in the world'.
"After growing up in prison and seeing so many scenarios and people I've looked up to and seeing some of the moves that they pull themselves, I realised it's inevitable in this life bad things are gonna come. Nothing good's gonna come, when money gets involved, when girls get involved people are gonna f*** people over.
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"I just realised that the streets is a serious trap and it's a mind frame of 'oh I want to be a gangster, I want to be someone' but you make one mistake that's gonna f*** you up for the rest of your life.
"Who cares about the streets, who cares about who did what to who? I need to have a house, I need credit, I need a car, I want to have a baby, I want to have a dog, I want to have a life."
McCann was 13 when he was first jailed for attempted robbery, and he was in and out of prison for the next 11 years.
He has now been kept busy by his music career. He says every song is about his reality and is a cautionary tale.
He has been on a 21 city tour in just a week and even recorded a mixtape at the iconic Abbey road.
He said: "From somewhere in Little Hulton to Abbey Road, that's crazy bro."
And he featured in an Amazon Prime rap series called Jungle alongside stars like Dizzie Rascal and Tinie Tempah.
Bu the did receive some backlash because of his origins and friction with loved ones when he started out.
And it has caused some issues with his brother Patrick, who is serving time for firearm offences. He said: "I didn’t speak to my brother for two years because he thought I was going to get him more sentences.
“But I was like, 'I’ve got nothing left, this is my last chance for us all.' I still love him though."
He began rapping when he was in HMP Nottingham in 2018.
But he was originally reluctant, adding: "It was such a step for me to rap bro, a leap like you wouldn't believe! I couldn't even tell someone I was gonna rap.
"I was so like, 'I'm Jordan from Salford, I'm an armed robber, I don't rap, we don't speak to the police, I don't have iPhones.'
"That was the no-brain mentality, I was so egotistic, so trapped in that mind frame of what other people would think."
In 2016 he was among 11 people, including Patrick, given a 'gangbo' injunction in a police operation to stop a series of shootings by rival gangs.
He said it caused a "massive divide" in his family but admitted he probably deserved more.
And one of the prisons he want sent to growing up was at a secure training unit that ha since shut down because of historic physical and sexual abuse.
He said the discipline and structure given by the strict regime was beneficial, but said it was his first experience of real abuse, describing it as "torture".
He added: "But it was a very, very bad place, if you even look at the pictures of the building it gives you chills. To be honest, it made me worse, I didn't give a f*** anymore.
"Before then I'd be scared of a slap, but after so many beatings in (the unit) I literally did not give a f***.
"It was a bad place man, even after all the prisons I've been to, that place f***s me up the most because of all the abuse bro, off big guys as well."
Soon he will be touring to teach people in jails how to write an record music in a bid to help them break the chain of criminality.
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He said: “I’m not trying to be some neighbourhood hero, but I feel like it is my right, my duty. I need to tell people don’t just stay in these areas, don’t just accept what your life is because that’s what your family are doing.
“I’ve been the worst of the worst kind of person and if I can make it out, anybody can.”
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