Big Frost: 'Rapping helps me deal with brain damage'

The Teesside rapper said after his accident he was told he would not be able to work, so focuses on music to help him cope

Ricki Frost grew up in South Bank, what he describes as a "rough old place" in Middlesbrough. He said he got into trouble, went to raves and spent time with friends in what were "funny times".

But life changed forever at 17 when he crashed on a bike ride and suffered brain damage.

Now 33, the aspiring rapper says it's music that helps him cope with the long-term impact of the accident.

"I'm going to call the track 'Alien Invasion'."

Producer Chief nods in excitement.

"I get it. What you're describing, those feelings - it isn't a human experience. It's alien."

Ricki, also known as Big Frost, is putting together a new track, to be called Alien Invasion, in a Middlesbrough recording studio with local producer and fellow rapper, Chief.

He used to record his music at home, but had to tear down the soundproofing and move out his equipment due to the arrival of his baby.

The garden shed was destined to become his new studio. Ricki had even sourced a leather settee, he said. Then his three Akita dogs "evicted" him.

"They ripped it to shreds," he says.

"Nightmare."

Ricki recently began recording in Chief's Middlesbrough studio

I meet up with Ricki at his home in Eston. He's sitting over the laptop, bucket hat on head and pen in hand, scrawling at the pages of a notebook.

He's bobbing along to an instrumental playing from his laptop. He's honing his craft - constructing rhymes to be used in upcoming songs.

"Music is a channelling technique," he says.

"I suffered damage to my frontal lobe, it affects your personality, your emotions, retaining information.

"My rap's been getting better and better. You do something every day, you're going to get better aren't you?"

He writes about his problems, talking openly about his emotional issues and self-releases the music. He has featured in the past on BBC Music Introducing on BBC Radio Tees.

I'm about to ask him about the accident when we're interrupted.

An old clock begins chiming on the living room wall, revealing a little merry-go-round inside, its vintage aesthetic totally out of place with the rest of the décor.

"It's mint that, innit?," he laughs.

"One of my friends does house removals and if someone passes or wants the house completely stripped he can get some proper antiques.

"I've got a grandfather clock off him, I love grandfather clocks, me. But that one there with the merry-go-round is my favourite."

He goes on to talk about how he ended up with the brain damage.

"I was young and daft, out on a bike ride with all my mates. I was on a bike with no brakes going about 60mph (97km/h)," he says.

"I was coming down Wilton Bank and I couldn't stop. Feet on the floor, smoke coming off my trainers. Boom - straight into the wall.

"I was in intensive care for three-and-a-half weeks, I fractured about 75% of my skull, they said I'd cracked my head like an egg.

"They said I was going to have loads of side effects but being young, I just wanted to be back out with my friends when I'd recovered. I didn't get the right help."

'Zone out'

As he grew older, the issues he was warned about "took a grip" of his mental state, he said.

Mood swings became a regular occurrence, and when he began having fits, he was told he could never work again and now has to rely on disability benefits.

"Sometimes I zone out," he says.

"There's no room for that on a building site, it's dangerous.

"It's not good. It's embarrassing."

Ricki spends countless hours honing his lyrical skills

In 2016, Ricki found himself in court when - according to local media reports at the time - he got into a 10:00 BST fight outside an off-licence and broke a woman's jaw.

It was reported he showed "genuine remorse" and the effects of his brain injury were taken into account, meaning he avoided jail.

"I used to cause half the problems because I couldn't keep my gob shut, but I've tried to keep my head down ever since that incident," he says.

"I got off really lucky. If I didn't have a bad head I'd have got jail time.

"It was another stepping stone in this mad life."

'Make something of myself'

"I used to love MCing, [rave music] makina and bounce. I used to always go to the raves when I was younger and it was good. Used to love it.

"I grew out of raving. I was writing lyrics which weren't really rave lyrics. I'm a bit deep for rave, I thought, so I moved on to rap.

"I can be in a mood and I write about my problems - I'll forget I was even in a mood.

"It helps massively.

"I'm not allowed to work, am I? So music is the only way I'm ever going to make something of myself."