A former gang member who learned to “load a gun before a washing machine” and spent more than five years in jail before performing at Glastonbury as a rapper has now said he feels “blessed” he did not kill someone as he called for greater support for young people at risk of a life of crime.
Sachmo Quain, from Balham, who goes by the name of Fatch, was facing more than a decade behind bars and had been shot three times by the time he was just 19 years old.
In 2009 he nearly died after a bullet struck a major artery in his leg, which he did not notice until he began running – which he said felt like someone was throwing “buckets of water” on his trousers as blood poured from the wound.
Fatch was jailed later that year for firing a gun at rival gang members outside a nightclub in south London and spent the next five-and-a-half years behind bars, which is where he learned to “spit bars” with his cellmates and discovered his passion for music.
Today the 34-year-old artist has turned over a new leaf, having performed at Glastonbury music festival with his band The Fedz on BBC Music Introducing and hosting an online “6AM Club” which helps people “start their day on a positive note”.
To tackle rising youth crime, he is also calling for more youth clubs, closer ties between local communities and the police, and for therapy to be offered in schools.
But it could have ended very differently for Fatch, who considers himself “lucky” and says he would have “died or killed someone” had he not been sent to prison.
Fatch said: “That I missed was one of the greatest things that happened to me, but do you know what would have been even better?
“That I didn’t think that was an option in the first place.
“I’m lucky and I’m blessed, because I went to jail and I never want to go back.”
The rapper was once a member of Stick Up Kids (SUK), a notorious gang from Wandsworth, south London, who were known to clash with rivals, the Mitcham-based Terror Zone (TZ).
“The word gang is misleading because it’s really about relationships, they are just people you have grown with because you are from the same area and you see each other every day,” said Fatch.
“Beef can start because of anything, like because of the way someone looks at you, it’s completely stupid most of the time, but it’s because you don’t have nothing, only your pride.
“If my answer is to stab someone, that should tell you that my thinking is dysfunctional, that’s how I’ve grown up, so why would you expect someone whose thinking is dysfunctional to care.”
In 2006, Eugene Attram, 16, from Thornton Heath, was stabbed to death after a brawl broke out on Lavender Avenue, Mitcham. Police found 14 knives around the murder scene.
“That was the first person I knew to die,” said Fatch.
“After that, things started to spiral and it led to a sequence of events which are still impacting me and his family today.”
Fatch said that for many poor inner city London children, violence is a normal part of everyday life.
He said: “Your normal is not the same as my normal, and that’s the problem we face, why is there such a difference between the way we see the world?
“Why is there a road in Clapham Junction called Northcote Road, which is pretty prominent and affluent, yet if you come out the other side and walk under the bridge, you are in hell.
“So you can be facing a completely different set of problems to people who live 10 minutes up the road.
“For example when I was 15, I should not have known what crack looks or smells like, but of course I knew.
“Just like I should not have known how to load a gun before a washing machine.”
According to a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of people killed with a knife in England and Wales in 2021/22 was the highest on record for 76 years.
The largest volume increase in victims was for teenage boys aged 16 to 17, rising from 10 homicides to 24 in the 12 months to March 2022.
“People always make it [the violence] out to be some mad, foreign thing,” said Fatch, who attended Ernest Bevin College in Tooting.
“But for young teenagers in the borough, in those estates, they are surrounded by it every day and it starts to feel normal.
“You are not thinking about death – it’s all just a game, like a film, except it’s very real.”
Fatch himself has been shot three times but only thought ‘I’m going to die’ on one occasion when the bullet struck the main artery in his right thigh, causing him to lose litres of blood.
“I didn’t know it had hit a major artery and I was running,” he said.
“It felt like every step I took, someone was throwing a bucket of water on my leg except it was blood.”
Fatch collapsed and rolled into the middle of the road where a driver eventually stopped and called an ambulance.
The same year, Fatch was arrested for a shooting outside the now-closed Love2Love Club on Cheam Road in Sutton on September 8 2009.
While nobody was hurt, he was found guilty of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life under section 16 of the Firearms Act 1968.
During his trial, Judge Nicholas Riddell said: “I have no doubt you were a member of a gang and the offences were carried out in the course of that membership.”
Fatch said: “At 19, I was given more than half my life in prison and what did I learn?
“But the blessings are in the curses.
“Because if I had not gone to jail, I would either be dead or I would have probably ended up killing someone.”
Fatch was handed eight years starting at HM Prison High Down near Sutton in Surrey which was then extended to 11 years after an appeal was filed halfway through his sentence.
It was during his time behind bars that Fatch began making music, rapping to beats on a £14 CD player.
“When my two cellmates would go on a visit, I would play Jay-Z The Blueprint album and start rapping.
“Whenever I felt the weight of prison, I would take a minute to rap bars and for a moment I felt free.”
After being released, Fatch, who has never tried drugs or touched a drop of alcohol, worked at The Feel Good Bakery in Wandsworth before dedicating himself to music, eventually joining The Fedz, a London-based music collective who were named Hot for 2016 on BBC Radio 1Xtra.
“It’s easy for someone from outside to say couldn’t you just… do this or that, but the reality is that there are kids who are living in that,” said Fatch.
“Kids believe in superheroes when they are growing and then realise they are fake.
“Well in the street, by the time you realise that it’s fake, it’s too late, you’ve already either been stabbed, you’ve been shot, you’re dead, you’re in jail … and you’ve ruined your background.”
While SUK no longer exists and he has turned over a new leaf, growing up in that environment has left its mark on Fatch, who fears for his 14-year-old brother.
“Obviously no-one is out to get me,” he said.
“But I still notice things, like if a car drives past more than once and people often think I’m paranoid.”
Asked what the solution for stopping teenagers in London from killing each other is, Fatch said he would offer therapy in schools and encourage closer ties between local communities and the police.
He also says bringing back youth clubs would help strengthen relationships within the community and outside, with other areas.
“When kids come to school they are all the same, but when they leave, they all go home to a different environment,” he said.
“So just making sure that everyone is equipped is really important.”
Listen to Fatch’s music online.
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