Former Edinburgh boxing star turned hip hop artist has revealed how he managed to survive as a teenager living alone in some of the toughest neighbourhoods of New York.
Stevie Creed, from Edinburgh, has opened up about how his Scottish accent and daredevil attitude he developed growing up in the city helped him make friends in the Black community who adopted him as one of their own.
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Stevie reveals all in his newly-published autobiography, titled The Brooklyn Scotsman, as he discusses how his quick-thinking Scottish chutzpah got him out of a few scrapes when he was being robbed at gunpoint by gangs in Brooklyn.
Stevie tells the amazing story of how, when he was only 19, he flew out of Edinburgh Airport telling his parents, Elizabeth and Alastair he was going to the States on a fortnight’s holiday to see the sights of Manhattan.
But the truth was that for months the talented young amateur boxer, from the south side of Edinburgh, had been secretly planning to live in Brooklyn and train at the well-known Starrett City Boxing Club gym there.
While in America, Stevie eventually gave up boxing and transformed himself into a hip hop star, recording and releasing rap music albums, making videos and headlining shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Stevie's many years in America have played such an important part of his life, that the artist had a giant tattoo of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and Edinburgh Castle tattooed on his back.
Stevie, now 31, is living back home in Edinburgh and is still releasing albums – his latest, Concreed Jungle is out now – making music videos, doing concerts and has appeared in a television documentary about himself and performed on stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a run of shows two years in a row.
Stevie says: “I’ve got a lot to thank Mel Gibson for after his portrayal of William Wallace in the Hollywood blockbuster film about Scots warriors battling it out with the English. When I was living in America, many people thought Scots were all as fierce and brave as Wallace and his battling clansmen.
“I certainly didn’t do anything to disavow them of that notion, as the more they thought of me as a mad Scot always ready for a fight, the better.”
On one occasion, Stevie was about to be robbed by some teenage gangsters until Stevie conned them into thinking he was an undercover drugs detective from Scotland,.
He said he had been sent to New York, and revealed his name was John Kimble – the detective in the Kindergarten Cop movie. The gangsters bought his story and left Stevie alone.
Stevie would also keep an old wallet filled with Monopoly money in his pocket and once when two robbers pulled a gun on him demanding money, he handed over the bulging wallet of pretend cash.
Stevie added: "They see the thickness of the notes folded inside the wallet and think they’ve hit the jackpot. The pair then run off through a darkened outdoor basketball court and disappear into the night.
“I would love to have seen their faces when they realised the wallet was full of Monopoly money and the thick wad they thought was made up of tens and $20 bills weren’t worth a dime to them.”
Stevie continues: “Being Scottish was what made me stand out when I was living in America and what drew people towards me and made them want to look out for me.
“The people in Brooklyn seemed to find a common bond with me because of my Scots heritage."
Stevies book, The Brooklyn Scotsman, is available to purchase from his website here. You can also watch his documentary, by the same title, on BBC Scotland.
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