HIP-HOP music is being used as a vehicle for positive change by a Newport man who grew up in a culture of drug and alcohol abuse.

David Taylor, owner of MisFit Media, busks about his “really rough upbringing” but also spreads “positive messages”.

“If the youth are listening to music talking about drugs, knife crime and girls, it’s going to have a bad effect,” he said.

READ MORE:

“If I speak about positive stuff, I believe the impact is then going to be positive.”

Mr Taylor, 29, from Pill, regularly witnessed people taking heroin and crack cocaine when he was young.

“That was all very normal for me,” he said.

When “criminality became normality”, he found himself embroiled in a life of crime that resulted in three separate stints in prison.

Yet when his father died in June last year, Mr Taylor decided enough was enough.

He quit drinking and embarked on a life-altering course.

“I bought myself a speaker and the first day I came out busking, my friend recorded it and it went viral," he said.

“It had half a million views.”

Now, 12 months on from that first performance, he is trying to empower young people and turn them away from the potential perils of life on the streets.

He is organising for a song and a video to be put together by eight children which will focus on decreasing knife-crime, dubbed, Put the Knife Down, Pick the Mic Up.

On Saturday, October 26, MisFit Media will be hosting auditions for the project at the Newport Centre from 11am until 1pm.

Both the studio hire and video creation will be paid out of Mr Taylor’s own pocket.

“That’ll be my little impact for decreasing knife crime,” he said.

A month later, MisFit Media is helping to host a family-friendly hip-hop festival on Friday, November 22, at The Neon, Newport.

“All the music from normal hip-hop is aimed at under-18s, but if the family listen to what they’re actually listening to they would think ‘Oh my God, what am I letting my kids listen to?’.”

Seven under 18s have been selected to perform positive, uplifting songs at the event.

MisFit Media's Facebook and Youtube page.