How Reisz Amos was saved 'from the hood' by music, education and his love for language

"I was ready to kill a man." 

Reisz Amos was ready to get blood on his hands after his cousin was murdered on his 21st birthday. Describing the day he was murdered, Reisz Amos said: 

"I was with him on the day he died, he was turning 21, it was his birthday and he wanted to celebrate.
"He always wore a bulletproof vest without fail. Back in the day, we were in the hood, we were losing our brothers and sisters, riots in Lozells were happening, it was normal. But on his birthday he didn't want to wear it, he just wanted to have fun.
"That was the day he got shot and died. I was about to lose my head, my boys wanted to ride out and kill the guy."

Reisz's world had turned upside down, he had now lost two cousins in the same year and he wanted revenge.

However, his mum wanted him to clear his head and go to Bournemouth to see his family as a chance to get out of this environment.

What Reisz didn’t know was how this trip would change his future to become the artist he is today.

"Bournemouth was always our spot to go away on holiday as we didn't have the money to go abroad. My auntie lives down there so I went to stay with her after his death.
"My auntie is a singer and uses the university space there to record, I went with her one day to provide her with some backing vocals. There was a sound engineer there to help, but I didn't realize he was also a musical arts course teacher.
"He came over and said I had flavour after he heard me sing and play the guitar. He asked whether I had considered going to university, but I wasn't in the mind frame to go, my mind frame was to go kill the man that murdered my cousin."

The teacher was persistent and wanted Reisz to consider applying, so he made him write down the experience of his last concert, which for Reisz was Busta Rhymes.

"The teacher used what I wrote down as an essay to showcase my writing to go with my musical talent as a way of applying without me knowing. He offered me an unconditional place after that."

Reisz life has now changed, he had never had the opportunity or even considered going to university.

Now, Reisz is a successful artist individually and in the band ATTY, as well as hosting events and being an influencer, but his journey to accomplishment hasn't been easy.

"I had to make a choice, university started in 6 weeks or I stay in Newtown. I told my mum straight if I stay here I'm going to do something bad and end up in prison or worse."

Reisz had his second thoughts about going to university after being wrongfully kicked out of college just weeks before his final exam, leaving with nothing.

"I loved being in academia but I had an experience which put me off. I was on stage performing as I studied arts when a man ran in with a knife. People start screaming and security was doing nothing so my group and I stepped in.
“The police thanked us after for our cooperation in getting the guy down, but the story changed when they found out I was from Newtown. They then believed the situation was gang-related when it had nothing to do with me.
“I ended up getting suspended and the security guards even lied saying we had attacked them. This put me off trying again, I never got to finish with my BTEC."

Reisz decided to take a risk with a fresh start and went to university in Bournemouth which he described as "life changing."

"It sounds cliché but I came out of a good struggle and managed to maintain my awareness of it to keep my little brothers and cousins safe, you know, to protect them."

With his love for music and language now Reisz's focus, he claims that this is when he discovered that this was his calling to get him to where he is today.

"I've been writing since I was a kid, I’ve always been intrigued in the English language after being in a broken English household, I thought how am I going to conduct myself in major society.
“Words just excited me, one of the first words I learnt was 'amalgamate’ in year 4, which means to fuse together, I used this as much as I could in every sentence."

His understanding of language helped to create his own music:

"I combined poetry and songs together which allowed me to understand what a writer of a song was trying to say. I started doing it for my own songs by putting a piece of music with certain words."

Reisz believes that he has a great responsibility' to "use his power for the right reasons."

"I can manipulate sound and language, so imagine if I wrote the right song, I could win a woman, that can be a dangerous power to have so it needs to be used correctly."

Reisz explains that many believe 'gospel' is a genre of music when actually it’s the message.

"I want someone to pick up my CD even if it's in the R&B or indie section, gospel is a message not a style of music. My music has to send a message.


“People have their assumptions on gospel in music, but sometimes you don’t even know it’s gospel. It’s better listening to it before you know it’s gospel, like eating a nice burger and enjoying it before you know it’s alligator meat, that shouldn’t now change your opinion"

Just because it has a religious or gospel message, he says, this doesn't mean the church has to like it.

"When I told my church that my latest song (Run Away) was a gospel message, they didn't believe, but my calling is beyond the church, my gospel isn’t for the church, my work isn’t about preaching and vandalising people to go church or pray.
“Church doesn’t like what I’m doing, they haven’t seen life outside of the church, they think we’re the young people that they have prayed for to come in, we’re not, we can just speak the language of those people as I’ve been on the streets I know what it’s like, but a lot of people that go to church only know church, that’s all they’ve ever had."

After a journey full of ups and downs to get to where he is now, Reisz talks about what the future holds for him:

"Looking towards the future, plans are to approach the music industry with new knowledge and apply what I've learned from experience in order to use my platform to catalyse social change.
“I want to continue enjoying and using my music to mediate on behalf of those searching for a common language of understanding, who need a place to belong. Music is life."

Run Away is Reisz Amos' latest song with his band ATTY and is available on Apple Music or Spotify here.