Welcome to your freedom.

You're outside for the first time in 2 weeks.

You have a half-pack of cigarettes, $380 in your account, a script for 800mg of Seroquel, and you're wearing the clothes you were wearing when you were admitted, and the hospital wristband for 'LGE Ward' they gave you on the way out; what now?

Well, you have no real home. You can't go back to your mums, she'd be drunk right now and both your arms are covered in hundreds of barely healed gashes and stitches that are yet to be removed.

'Oh yeah!' You remember the card some nurse gave you a few days ago after she asked where you were living.

"IFYS Youth shelter?" answers a stranger through the payphone.

"Hello. I'm... Not sure what to do or what to ask"

"Come by and we'll have a chat"

I lived in this homeless shelter for a couple months or so. in this time, between the antics i got up to during the day, i wrote rhymes about my life and my thoughts on the injustices of my world. a little bit of a poetic self-pity party.

a year or so later, I was living with some friends i'd made. Mall rats, as theyre referred. And after not finding any instrumental music i liked, had began producing my own hip-hop tracks to record my poetry onto. it was poor quality. but as i kept creating, writing, producing, i justified spending my booze budget on some better quality gear.

I recorded 10 songs in the bedroom closet of that house, the first one took 9 months, learning production software, writing, recording, and mixing. but completely from scratch, i created "LGE ward discharge" INSERT LINK HERE

After these 10 songs, which took a couple years to create, i entered a rap competition for a L.A contest that i'd been following for years. When i found out I'd made it to the finals, I started saving money for the fisrt time. not by drinking or smoking less, of-course. but by eating the cheapest, nastiest food i could, and quitting my social life due to the poor financial habits that came with my friends.

My sister and I flew to LAX from Brisbane, Australia. I never thought I'd see another country in my life. I was a loser who lived in 'Junkie Towers' and Psychiatric wards and homeless shelters. Now I was performing on stage in front of 2000 people, and a handful of judges who were among my favorite artists. I would perform 16 bars among 2 other contestants. here is that performance: