How former criminal from Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men made a new life away from crime

A former gangster who featured in Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men has completely turned his life around to get away from crime.

Dyer went to stay with Elijah Kerr, who is known professionally as Jaja Soze, in an episode of his Deadliest Men series released back in 2009, when the actor went to experience what life was like on the streets of Brixton.

Watch what happened when they met:

Before Dyer met Soze, he'd racked up a rap sheet which included mugging, robbing banks and dealing drugs, with his crimes beginning from when he was just 12 years old.

By the age of 15 he was a leader of the infamous south London Peel Dem Crew (PDC), a gang known for robbing and drug dealing.

In 1996, when he was still just 15 years old, he was convicted of a bank robbery. At 22, he was convicted and ultimately jailed for drug dealing.

@jajapdc/Instagram

Soze told Dyer he'd accepted he was likely going to die in his 20s, but he managed to turn his life around after he created the PDC Rap Group, which also became known as Poverty Driven Children.

In 2008, Soze teamed up with Tim Pritchard to release a book telling the true story of seven children trying to escape a life of gangs and violence.

The book hit stores the same year he released his debut studio album, titled Streetboy, in 2008, followed by his second in 2009.

Over the years he went on to release numerous other albums, and Soze now owns Brixton Recording Studio. Last year he promised fans a tour was 'coming soon' following the release of his latest album, Shadow Revolution.

In an interview last year with The Sound Bank, Soze explained that his decision to get away from a life of crime came after he was involved in a police chase which ended in him crashing his motorbike.

@jajapdc/Instagram

"I could have died that day, so that was a big turning point for me... I woke up in the hospital handcuffed to the bed," he told the host.

He was 'halfway on the streets' and half involved in 'more progressive' ventures at the time, and about a week after he woke up from his accident he decided it was time to move to the 'more progressive' life.

"That point [was] when I said, 'I'm gonna move forward and do something much better'," the rapper recalled.

Topics: Crime, Danny Dyer, TV and Film

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.