The London Issue will be distributed exclusively to Living Proof Members. Sent to our members for June, 2026.
Potter Payper is a British rapper from Barking, East London. Emerging in the early 2010s, he gained early recognition through his Training Day mixtape series, which bridged elements of grime and road rap. Raised amid instability, time in the care system, and periods of incarceration, his early life was marked by repeated cycles of imprisonment beginning in his teens and continuing into his late twenties. His music reflects these experiences, exploring themes of survival, struggle, and personal evolution.
After years of disrupted momentum, Potter Payper re-emerged with a renewed focus, moving away from the cycles that defined his past toward a more deliberate commitment to music, family, and personal growth. His later projects reveal a deeper sense of introspection shaped by time spent in prison and a conscious rejection of the circumstances that once governed his life. This evolution has earned him critical recognition, a dedicated following, and a legacy that continues to grow.
Now you’re based in Dubai, how do you feel about London? Does it still feel like home to you?
I have a love-hate relationship with my city. London for me is a paradox. It’s beautiful and ugly, safe but unsafe. It’s a sad clown, something that has all of the potential to be amazing, but isn’t.
I’m Algerian and Irish; a product of immigration. I don’t know what it is to be blood English, I was just born here. But even just being born here I feel a massive sense of shame.
Fr, me too. So many of us are leaving the UK now.
Yeah, everyone’s looking for an exit. People feel trapped; money, lifestyle, cost of living, all of it. People wanna immigrate because of immigrants. Make it make sense! But for me it’s different. I left to get away from the police, the system, the government and even the tax. I’ve just got bad memories there. Bad childhood, jail till I was 29, friends dying, lost family — there’s nothing there for me. It’s a workplace now.
So what did you do to get out of that cycle?
When I first came out of jail in 2020, I moved to Sheffield as a soft launch of getting away from London. I didn’t have any money then. Life’s just been going jail, come out, go to jail, come out since 2004.
I got complacent in Sheffield, and heavily involved in circles I shouldn’t be in. I’m a habitual weapon carrier, I don’t have a beef where someone’s going to say, let’s have a 1v1 boxing match. I’ve had many attempts on my life, so I got mad hypervigilance and PTSD. In 2023 a car I was in was stopped, everyone in the car had knives and everyone went to jail.