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News: So Solid has been cleared of murder and is free now
I was an innocent man from the beginning - nothing has changed and nothing will ever change - says Megaman.
Latest news are So Solid Crew rap musician Megaman has been cleared of murder by a jury at the Old Bailey.
Megaman, whose real name is Dwayne Vincent, was just 21 when the group, whose numbers swelled to about 30 members, shook up the UK music scene in 2000, winning Mobos and then Brit Awards. Then he had made contacts in the industry through promoting garage club nights in south London.
At these days Solid Crew's biggest hit was the number one single 21 Seconds, but after its success some of the group were regulars in the news for the wrong reasons. Perhaps unfairly, their gigs became synonymous with violence. As a 21st birthday party for one of the members at the Astoria venue was marred by a gun fight which left two men wounded. His UK tour was axed because of security fears.
A little later a fatal shooting in Luton was also linked to the band because it happened after one of their gigs. They tried to dispute their involvement in violence but just then several So Solid members have been jailed for gun-related crime or assault, including Asher D and G-Man.
Megaman was questioned after the stabbing of rapper Dizzee Rascal in Cyprus in 2003. He had been performing at the same club as Dizzee but was quickly eliminated from inquiries. As black gun crime grew in London, So Solid was often blamed for glamorising guns.
The influence of the band was questioned by London mayor's race advisor Lee Jasper. He suggested the band should be more forthright in condemning the issues they were singing about. But Megaman refused to distance the group from its controversial image as he believed that gun culture was part of life.
"That's normal man we been around it from day one, shootings, people getting killed, people getting stabbed. You expect it to happen," he said in an interview.
He and other members performed at an anti-gun concert for the Disarm campaign in 2003, with largely toned-down lyrics and songs, showing their support for the cause.
Two years later, Megaman found himself in court facing a gun-related murder charge. Dwayne Vincent, 27, have been accused of encouraging and supporting his friend Carl Morgan in shooting Colin Scarlett in a "revenge" attack in November 2004.
Mr Scarlett was shot four times outside his home in Tooting, south London, by Morgan, who he had beaten up earlier that day, that what was told. Mr Vincent, of Barons Court, west London, denied the charges.
Morgan, another member of the rap collective, was jailed for life last year after he was convicted of Mr Scarlett's murder. The jury in that original trial could not agree a verdict in the case of Megaman and a retrial was ordered.
Earlier this year that was halted and a third trial was ordered. As you know Megaman has been cleared! After the verdict, Mr Vincent said he felt "like a broken man. I have finally been released from a system which has been designed to keep people behind bars whether they are innocent or guilty. I was an innocent man from the beginning - nothing has changed and nothing will ever change."
Jeremy Donne QC, prosecuting, told the court the issue was whether Mr Vincent was a party to the crime. But Mr Vincent said the suggestion was ridiculous and he was a campaigner against gun crime. Mr Donne told the jury it was a case about "humiliation, or disrespect, fermenting a desire for revenge".
Earlier in the day Morgan had been beaten up by Mr Scarlett, the court heard. He was attacked in front of his former girlfriend, who was going out with Mr Scarlett. The prosecution said he was left to "brood on how he might exact revenge on his tormentor". Enlisting the help of Mr Vincent and others Morgan armed himself with a pistol and ammunition and shot Mr Scarlett, the jury heard. That was the way whole incident was settled and the case closed.
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