An interview with poet and rapper AJ and his latest music video Broken
W: “What’s been your experience with autism?”
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AJ: “Got diagnosed with autism in 2015 at the age of 25. I’ve had dyslexia at 10 years old. I was late developing, couldn’t sleep or talk, walk until the age of 10. At the age of 14 I went through a social media addiction, deep bullying, anxiety, loneliness and depression for 10 years of my life. 2015 I found out I had autism and 2017 I got sectioned in my life. I was in and out a hospital, seeing doctors, counsellors, you know 1-1 counsellors. I was on 6 tablets a day, now I’m on 1 tablet a day. Between 2012 and 2015 I had a really big mental health breakdown, you know. And yeah, everything was so confused, when I found out I had autism, you know and it was a lower spectrum but before it was very higher but it fluctuated me so I’m on the lower spectrum now.”
W: “You don’t often hear about people who get a diagnosis quite late, so how has that felt for you?”
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AJ: “It’s been very tough, because obviously when I was in primary school there weren’t enough resources, they just put me in the corner with SEN. Getting bullied by all the kids and teachers as well and having SEN on me and people didn’t really know the meaning of SEN you know so in my life I went through that stage and being diagnosed with autism in 2015 was very, like, very tough. My sister’s a psychologist now as well you know, and what my mission is is to help the people around the world with different disabilities and ensure that it’s all accepted around the world.
W: “And you do that with spoken word and poetry.”
AJ: “Yeah I do that with my spoken word poetry, which I started in 2019 because I was going through another mental health breakdown because I was going through racism at my workplace and that really took a toll on my mental health. Second of all I want to mention that I had a lot of different people couldn’t understand me because they couldn’t accept my disability or my condition. I had a lot of people judging me and picking on my vulnerability and would use me for my kindness in my life, you know and yeah spoken word poetry has paved my way. My mission and vision is to make a change. People are calling me insane from the outside but if you have a disability you have the ability to do what you need to do in your life.
W: “What do you say to people who have disabilities and watch your spoken word video?”
AJ: “It’s a positive impact for the whole world. You know, around the world there’s a lot of countries that don’t accept mental health, a lot of countries don’t accept untouchables so a lot of countries where racism is still increasing around the world you know and my mission is to do that, to make that change and I’m the voice for World Autism Awareness, I’m the voice for World Mental Health Awareness.
W: “Do you want to mention anything about your creative team?”
AJ: “Yeah, my creative team. It’s obviously spoken word poetry for a positive feeling factor for the whole world. It’s the journey of what I went through to help with the people and you know all that depression, anxiety, loneliness on and off of seeing the police in my life a long time ago due to my mental health was too much you know, and my parents went through a lot. 2019 has been the biggest good year of my life and you know, if I didn’t meet Shocker or Hussein I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today so yes, my mission is to do a mental health awareness talk every time I see it around the world.”
