Thalidomide Ninja

In 1992 I was incredibly angry about the social injustices disabled people experience, so way before Krip Hop was a thing in the UK certainly, I was out there on my white boy middle class, disabled own, rapping about it. Some people liked it, not many. I started with an LP, “Survival of the Shittest,” a blistering attack on Society’s inability to deal with us as equals. There are three tracks up on YouTube from this EP: Thalidomide Ninja, Outsiders, and Bones of a Dog. “Thalidomide Ninja” is inspired by a time I found myself in a white power pub. I almost shit myself with fear at the time then fantasised about having been braver, which turned into my alter ego supercrip hero, the man of the title. “Bones of a Dog,” recorded with The Stratford Mercenaries, featuring Steve Ignorant (of Crass) on backing vocals, is about when a Thalidomide friend of mine went to the Doctors for a cold, and he told her out of the blue that she had “the bones of a dog,” and I found that so charming, it inspired me to poetry. “Outsiders” was actually a track by a band I was the drummer in, “Joyride/Rumerosa.” I used the instrumental of it to rap about disability and sexuality. After meeting The Outsiders group via the sex positive Night of the Senses where I hosted the UK Erotic Awards for 11 years, the song came together. Then I followed it up with a better produced and slightly mellower EP, “Genetically Modified…Just For You,” and from that I have uploaded “There Will Always Be Disabled People” - a 7 minute lyrical workout on how, despite all scientific removals of various impairments and the clear desire to eradicate many of us, we will always be around. As one condition is finished, another appears, and people should suck that up.