DIZZEE RASCAL - RASCAL: 'STABBING WAS MY FAULT'

RASCAL: 'STABBING WAS MY FAULT'

DIZZEE RASCAL has accepted partial responsibility for his near-fatal stabbing - because he stood up to his attackers and refused to be harassed.
The British rapper was terrified after four thugs began chasing him in Ayia Napa, Cyprus in 2003 - but he decided to defend himself from the gang and was knifed six times.
Now he's opened up about the frightening experience, insisting it was his experiences battling violence and petty crime during his youth in East London that prompted him to stand up for himself
He says, "It was all in slow motion. It was partly my fault. I got off my bike doing the bravery thing when I should have just sped off. But I don't like to walk away. I don't like to be picked on. Growing up where I did you learn to fight."
Rascal, real name Dylan Kwabena Mills, has only just begun to move on from the stabbing and has started to make lighter music: "Getting stabbed, it's not glamorous. It was a bad time. I had internal bleeding in my chest so I was coughing up blood all the time, I was on a drip that was getting on my nerves.
"It changes you into a really dark person. But really, I'm a joker. I'm a clown. It's only just starting to come out in my music. All I really want to do is make people jump around and smile.
"I didn't want to make a meal of getting stabbed. And 50 Cent had already done it. I didn't want to compete with getting shot nine times."