Pa Salieu’s walk to freedom

Taken from the winter 2024 issue of Dazed. You can buy a copy of our latest issue here.

It was December 2022 when the past finally caught up with Pa Salieu, derailing his path to success and throwing his future up in the air. His court case was in its final stretch and his lawyer requested a suspended sentence, as he believed that Salieu was by no means the sum of his mistakes. Almost four years after the incident that had put him in front of a judge, Salieu had gotten his life back on track, but it simply wasn’t enough.

Back in 2018, Salieu witnessed the fatal stabbing of Fidel Glasgow outside a bar in his hometown of Coventry. Glasgow, grandson of Specials vocalist Neville Staple, was his best friend. A group of nine men including Salieu chased another young man away from the scene of the murder, with Salieu admitting to hitting the victim with a tree branch and smashing a glass bottle in self-defence. He has said he believed that the man they chased was armed.

Following the incident, Salieu decided to make a change and start taking his music seriously. In October 2019 he was shot in the head, but managed to survive without any serious damage. A couple of months later, he released his breakout single, “Frontline”, to critical acclaim and a debut mixtape, Send Them to Coventry, arrived less than 12 months after that. He won the BBC’s Sound Of award in January 2021, tipping him as one of the hottest acts on the cusp of success, and he was soon clocking features with the likes of FKA twigs and Mura Masa. He was due to perform at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, before being stopped due to failing background checks. At the same time, the Home Office wouldn’t process the paperwork needed for him to travel abroad and perform. Despite this, he continued to flourish.

But in December 2022, with his stardom growing, he was sentenced to 33 months in jail on charges of violent disorder and possessing a bottle as an offensive weapon. So what would become of Pa Salieu? The young, talented and curious artist caught in the crosshairs of the law?

This April, Salieu was released after serving 22 months of his sentence. On a breezy Monday, I meet him in an office space on a quiet back road of Notting Hill. He’s cool, calm and collected until the right questions are asked and he reveals his endearingly animated responses. He is renewed, reflective and hopeful. Time has passed but his goals remain the same. “My mission is to take and go. We will take happiness; we will take all. As long as I breathe, I’m as equal as anyone.”

Below, Salieu speaks candidly on his past troubles, future ambitions and the new music he’s been working on.

People need clarification. You suddenly released new music when most of us had no clue you had even been released. What’s going on, Pa?

Pa Salieu: I don’t know. I made a plan in jail, and we started [working on] the plan. I [didn’t want to] come out [with] a generic champagne shower. We’re trying to stand up to the stereotype and promote education, learning and reflection. The reason I didn’t say ‘Yeah, I’m out!’ was to get shit right first. I came out of jail with eight books, so there are lyrics and ideas everywhere. I even wrote scripts of my life... I’m trying to find an actor one day.

When did you come out?

Pa Salieu: April 17th.

So what have you been doing between April and releasing your comeback track, ‘Belly’, this past September?

Pa Salieu: I went to probation, went to see my mum in Cov. Then I went straight to, I think it’s Cheltenham, the countryside, to record some music. From jail to studio, and obviously, my mum also came to the studio. It’s a residential place. She came and cooked. It made me appreciate freedom so much, and I’ve been working ever since.

When you were sentenced, the judge said, ‘I want you to focus on getting your life back on track and coming out and making the most of your talents, which I trust you’ll be able to do.’

Pa Salieu: There was no point in saying that because I was going to do it anyway. My case was seven years ago. Between me going to jail and bail, the court case and trial, I changed my life within that time. I see the trap and I’m not gonna fall into that, I’m gonna come out ten times better.

How did you spend those 22 months inside?

Pa Salieu: Writing stories of inmates in there – it’s not easy. Officers get paid minimum wage, they don’t treat inmates properly. Some suicides have happened, so many things that I have documented. I used to write diaries. This is where ‘Epiphany’ [track released in October] comes from; I realised so much in jail.

“I feel like I died when I got shot. Music came at the same time, and so I was like, ‘OK, I died, and I’ve been given this’” – Pa Salieu

You’re a documentarian.

Pa Salieu: I always say this in interviews, we come from folk music and the meaning of folk is to document and keep it for the next generation. I thank God ’cause my mind is a world in itself and I realised that while locked up. I was comfy on my own. My conversations with God and prayers were on point; they’re still on point. Everything happens for a reason. God was keeping me from something. I embrace every moment, every single moment.

Your glass is always half full, never half empty. How do you maintain optimism even in the face of adversity?

Pa Salieu: I feel like I died when I got shot. Music came at the same time, and so I was like, ‘OK, I died, and I’ve been given this.’ My whole life is dedicated to this. To educating myself and educating others. You don’t know who you’re gonna push. The person who reads this might be the future president of Gambia or Somalia. Maybe I’m supposed to say one thing, and the right person will hear it. I died then, but I believe I’m here for another purpose. I’m here to live. My generation is a different kind of generation.

Was there ever a moment when someone’s words or actions inspired you and made things click?

Pa Salieu: It happens a lot to me. For example, little words like when Nelson Mandela says, ‘Politics can be strengthened by music, but music has a potency that defies politics.’ I feel like I’m on a mission and my mission ain’t complete.

Will the mission ever be complete? You strike me as someone whose mission is eternal. When will you ever be satisfied?

Pa Salieu: I follow my spirit. When God is satisfied.

You’ve always wanted to help people. After coming out of prison, do you have any thoughts about helping people inside?

Pa Salieu: The easiest thing is to get out, continue with your life and just move on. But that’s cowardly behaviour. You’re supposed to see things for a reason. What you do with it is the difference between good and evil. I’m not going to leave jail and act like things didn’t happen. If I didn’t write, maybe that would be easier, but no, that’s not my intention. It’s not my intention with anything I do or anywhere I go.

I was told that you designed a collection.

Pa Salieu: In jail? Hey! Listen... I don’t know who told you this, but yeah, it’s true and I’m proud of it. I call it OTSS. Only the Strongest Survive. I started taking it seriously when they put me in solitary confinement. I made it all inspired by the room I was in.

You’ve got that creative bone in your body. I was actually going to ask, have you ever considered acting? I’d love to see that. You’re incredibly charismatic.

Pa Salieu: Yeah. If I bring certain friends here, they’ll tell you, bro. I would still wear that vest after jazz class. I’d just put my jacket on, and now I’m chilling in the ends. Jazz, what?! Come on, bro! Even with my first album next year, I’m thinking of a theatre kind of run.

What are some of your earliest memories and how have they shaped who you are today?

Pa Salieu: I got sent to Gambia at [the age of] two. I have autism as well, so I didn’t speak for a while. I didn’t know who was around, and it was unfamiliar, so my grand parents were very worried. I remember my dad came to Gambia while I was there. It was me and my cousin there at the time; he was born there as well. He came to the house like, ‘Come on, we’re going to the beach.’ He got me a bike and everything. My cousin just followed but I was aware [of what was going on]. It was next to a mosque. Where’s the sweet shop?! We go to a doctor and there’s this Dettol smell that I will never forget because of that day. I heard kids screaming, and I disappeared. No one found me for hours but I got caught somehow near the beach and they took me back. I went back, my cousin’s done, this guy’s screaming. He’s finished. They circumcised him. Since that day, I have followed my spirit. And that’s my earliest memory of following my instincts. Do what you need to do because you might be right.

“I cried in my cell. I cried watching the news. I’m emotional and I don’t give a fuck” – Pa Salieu

What were some of your earliest interests growing up as a child?

Pa Salieu: I was into dancing. I couldn’t dance, but I liked to. If you saw my documentary in Gambia with SoundCloud, you’d have seen a little boy shaking his legs. That was me, and I used to dress up as Kankurang. You know the masquerade I used for the MOBOs performances [in 2021]? It’s called a Kankurang; they used to chase me around as a child. I just like vibes, man, and that’s something I really want to recreate, ever since I was locked up. Everyone gathered together, the whole neighbourhood, hundreds of drums, djembe drums, bare masquerades. Oh my days, it’s beautiful, bro. My grandma and grandpa were there every night telling me a story or folklore. In the night-time, the grandchildren would just sit down, and there’s a fire, everyone’s just quiet, listening to the elders speak. Yeah, man, that’s what drives me.

You have a new EP, Afrikan Alien, coming out in November. When was the majority of it written?

Pa Salieu: I would say 80 per cent is new lyrics. ‘Belly’ was made before jail; ‘Young, Great & Free’, too. ‘Epiphany’ was written in jail. I’ve got a lot of songs. We’ve been recording since the last project. I’ve got over 300 songs now.

When you have 300 songs, how do you go through the process of deduction for a project?

Pa Salieu: I think that’s why I have a very family-oriented team. They understand me. Everything that has ever been out, I have been fully confident with it, and I haven’t been pressured. I have ADHD but I’m not gonna blame ADHD, I just love making music. I have a lot of trauma that I need to express, and pen and paper are my boxing, so I can’t help making so many songs. My songs are to help; they’re just therapy, man.

What’s the story behind ‘Epiphany’?

Pa Salieu: I’m emotional, innit. Listen, sometimes in my culture, everyone likes to be big. But you see me? I cried in my cell. I can’t lie. I cried watching the news. I’m emotional and I don’t give a fuck. In a sense, my heart was hurting. With ‘Epiphany’, it was about how we don’t like death. We come from violence, but we don’t like death. We’re all suffering. I’m not comfortable with death being normalised. I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite talking about ‘no violence’ when on my past tracks... but [these things] happened in real life. This is real life, shit I can’t escape. I hear loud bangs and you think man ain’t doing this? [Pa suddenly turns around to check both sides of him.] There’s a lot of hurt in the world and I feel it. I feel deeper than the average person. ‘Epiphany’ means a lot to me. We wanted to show genuine feelings and I hope [we succeeded].

The song doesn’t have a typical rhyming pattern. It’s like a spoken-word piece, almost.

Pa Salieu: Everyone used to get on to me – again, I don’t come from music, but I understand music, I understand rhythm. Why do I need a rhyme scheme? As long as one understands the feeling. We were going to change certain lyrics on ‘Epiphany’ because of the rhyme scheme. I had to fight with my spirit for that one. I think music is far more than just rhymes. It’s a feeling and it’s so deep.

My favourite line on ‘Belly’ is, ‘You don’t feel the power when you self-invest?’ How have you been investing in yourself?

Pa Salieu: By being kind to myself and learning to forgive myself. I’ve learned how to invest in understanding myself. You know, a victim is weak. I’m not being a victim. I have to understand the shit I’ve done, also. Investing in and understanding myself is the best thing I have ever done. Reflecting and also forgiving myself.

You’re conscious of your mistakes but you won’t allow them to define you. Another favourite lyric [from ‘Epiphany’] was, ‘I couldn’t recognise any peace, I was full of grief.’ And then, ‘with the lean, I thought it helped, but I was so wrong. But it was driving me away from everything I loved.’

Pa Salieu: Deep down, I meant that bad. I was in such a vulnerable situation; that was my best friend, you know? That whole situation was a madness; it was taking a toll. I shouldn’t have been drinking lean and smoking weed; my spirit told me I shouldn’t have done certain things. I didn’t pray a lot at that time when I should have prayed. I don’t know, maybe I wouldn’t have drunk so much lean. I wasn’t in the right place at all.

You have a great deal of self-awareness. You’re also very self-reflective, which is important.

Pa Salieu: I understand my mission here.

“I wake up every morning and I have meetings with the 12 people in my head! We set the day, we finish it, we go back and brainstorm” – Pa Salieu

What’s your mission?

Pa Salieu: My mission is to take and go. We will take happiness; we will take all. As long as I breathe, I’m as equal as anyone. I have the right to feel; I have the right to an easy life.

Are you an internal thinker or do you have someone you speak to about this out loud?

Pa Salieu: Yeah, I wake up every morning and I have meetings with the 12 people in my head! We set the day, we finish it, we go back and brainstorm, we sleep, we wake up, we have a meeting again. In jail, I used to read a lot of philosophy and someone called Lao Tzu and his school of thought. I love Chinese culture and that they have a school of thought, I think that’s amazing. There’s one quote from Lao Tzu, ‘In the quality of the mind, it’s depth that matters, in government it is order that matters’ and, ‘He who stands on tiptoe doesn’t stand firm; one who tiptoes cannot stand still.’ I remixed that last one: ‘One who tiptoes cannot stand still because they’re too sneaky.’ I liked Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. It changed my whole mindset; it really helped me with my creativity. The best one I read in jail was Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom; it took me four months to finish that. It’s a very long book because you want to take in what he’s saying; it’s like you’re hearing him. When you’re tapped into reading you’re locked in. The closest thing I can [compare it to] is singing melodies in a studio when you’re alone with the beat. You’re in another world; it’s hard for me to explain.

I always think about when I first read Harry Potter. I imagined them a particular way, but now I can’t see anyone other than the actors cast in the movie.

Pa Salieu: The people I created in my head have all gone. I think reading hands you power. A lot of people did not read or know how to read in jail, and I think it could have helped them. I bet some of those suicides could have been prevented if they’d had what I had. I think it would have been a bit easier for them.

Without digging too much into your trauma, on ‘Epiphany’ you say, ‘I don’t fear pain because it gives me knowledge.’ I wanted to ask if there’s a valuable lesson you’ve learned from any of the pain you’ve felt?

Pa Salieu: There’s a lot of pain I’ve had. There’s a lot of knowledge that’s been gained through it. The one thing that sticks out is, all the pain I have gone through, my mum’s felt it ten times more. It keeps breaking my mother and time is not on my side. She can’t live a life like this; it breaks her heart, man. Second, I’d say, before jail, there were a lot of things I kept in that I didn’t even know were there. I didn’t know how it affected me, but I realise [now] it doesn’t have to affect me. I could go do a madness, blame the world – everyone. But it doesn’t have to be like that and I learned that, for sure. I am in control.

The last lyric I want to ask you about is from another new track, ‘Crash’: ‘You don’t fuck with them because they don’t have an open mind.’ I want you to speak on that.

Pa Salieu: I believe closed-minded people are dangerous. A closed-minded person will block you from the millions you’re supposed to get. They will drain your energy. Take your energy from those closed-minded bastards! They’ll block you from your destiny. They’ll block you from your blessings.

What’s your favourite track on the EP?

Pa Salieu: Well, it’s not on the tape, but ‘Epiphany’. African dey Alien started when me and Black Sherif were angry. He’s another one that feels life; he has deep feelings. We were angry and talking about why our brothers are taking the back way and drowning. Ending up in Libya... You know, for £400 in Libya you can buy a person who looks like me? This is happening right now. I have brothers in Congo, my boy just got deported back there, and I shouldn’t care about what’s happening there? Black Sherif, Odumodublvck and Byron Messia all feel the same way. A lot of things are going on right now and people like us, we ain’t stupid. We aren’t distracted, we understand we’re right in history, we’re living in history. We’re seeing the truth and we’re a generation that’s filled with knowledge. This is it. I’m growing and I’m not looking back.

“We aren’t distracted, we understand we’re right in history… we’re a generation that’s filled with knowledge” – Pa Salieu

Who do you make music for?

Pa Salieu: Honestly, I make it for all of us. I also make it for the next generation. That’s in my head the most. The way I’m speaking now, I would not have been able to speak like this to you before I went to jail. So where will I be next year?

Is there anyone out right now that you like?

Pa Salieu: Chy Cartier. She’s amazing. 450, a Jamaican brother. Saràh Phenom’s hard, I heard her tune. The latest person I listened to was Pozer. I don’t listen to a lot of artists, not like my shit don’t stink because I’m definitely not the best artist. I just never get time.

Is there anyone that you listen to that might surprise people?

Pa Salieu: [Sings] ‘Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand.’

That’s a good one! A classic.

Pa Salieu: There were some Irish brothers in my wing. Every time I passed their cell, they’d be blasting some country musician and it ended up being Johnny Cash. I love him. ‘A Boy Named Sue’ – if you listen to this song, you’ll creep yourself out.

Who is your dream collaboration? Anybody dead or alive?

Pa Salieu: Can I have three, please? Three, come on now!

Mmm... OK. Three!

Pa Salieu: Stevie Wonder. Youssou N’Dour, he’s a Senegalese artist. You know why I’d like him though, right? Because Senegal and Gambia... one country. Sorry, but I have to call out the colonisers’ for the books. The English took Gambia, the French took Senegal. They divided the people. Now, some Gambians feel a way about Senegalese and some Senegalese... Ha! France has made their country nice but the divide has caused tension for their own gain and it’s crazy. They gave me a president and took my King. How cheeky, bro?! Senegambia!

And who’s the last person, Pa?

Pa Salieu: It’s hard... That’s why I was trying to change the subject. I’m caught between Capleton and Nina Simone. I’d say Nina, because she suffered a lot. They gave her hell for being herself. I know what that’s like because I can’t help being myself.

Who do you turn to when you need life advice?

Pa Salieu: My mother! It’s hard because I usually would but there are some situations you can’t tell your mother. Maybe one or two of the 12 people in my head?

How are you planning to end 2024 and start 2025?

Pa Salieu: My brother, I just came out of jail! One thing I don’t like, coming out of jail, is trying to figure out what’s changed. There’s a lot of change and I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m kind of finding it weird, if you want me to be fully honest. I haven’t finished rehabilitating, I’ve been working. I still haven’t experienced what outside is like, you know? I’ve been to, like, two things, and I felt weird with so many people around. I think I need to be out for a few more months. I need to work it out... This is for me and my therapist.

And next year?

Pa Salieu: The album, God willing me. And I have my second headline show in Gambia! My first time going back in two years. I’m excited but emotional because my auntie, who was there last time, died when I was in jail. And this music, I really appreciate it. I really appreciate her. I will go back in memory of her and do this show in memory of her. This year won’t be last year. It is the start of my freedom.

Grooming NAT BURY at LEFTSIDE CREATIVES using THIS HAIR OF MINE, hair LAURAINE BAILEY, make-up MASAÉ ITO at MA+TALENT, models RABBI KANINDA ITELA at THE MODEL CLUB, HASHIM SAIDAHMED at KULT, EMMANUEL OGUNKOYA at ESTABLISHED, MCDANIEL at SELECT, set design SAMUEL OVERS at NEW SCHOOL REPRESENTS, photographic assistants TEDDY PARK, JOE PETINI, styling assistants ANDRA-AMELIA BUHAI, LEA ZÖLLER, MONICA JIANG, ZAIN AMEEN, hair assistant ANISAH MYERS-GREY, make-up assistants MARGHERITA FABBRO, AURORA BLANCO, SASHA CHUDEEVA, set design assistants HENRY HAWKSWORTH, digital operator NICHOLAS BEUTLER, production assistants PHOEBE VEELENTURF, CALLUM KAMARA, post-production THE HAND OF GOD, casting MISCHA NOTCUTT at 11CASTING, casting associate OPHELIA HORTON at 11CASTING