WATCH: Talented NI rapper reveals how the grief he experienced through mum’s death inspired him to write breathtaking tribute - ‘‘I cried while I was writing it because it was so hard

Alan Braniff, 24, known as ‘Belfast Grime Man’, wrote his rap about the death of his mother from cancer, in a matter of hours.

But he said it “was not easy to do, because this is my life, not a game, my life”.

“I wrote it in one night and it brought all the memories back because it is all true,” he added.

“It was hard to write. It was the first time in my life that I sat down and put it out there and went through it all again.

“I cried while I was writing it because it was so hard. I couldn’t have written it if I hadn’t lived it.

Alan said he had seven siblings growing up on the Shankill Road - “and some of them couldn’t believe I had written about it”.

“That rap is more or less my whole life,” he added. “My mummy was a really good woman. I remember she was just brilliant to me. I always knew she was sick but I never remember her shouting at me, ever.

“She showed so much affection to the younger ones in the family, I suppose because she knew she wasn’t always going to be in our lives.”

Alan said his mum had cancer for around seven years. She died when he was eight-years-old. His mum was only 40-years-old.

“From I was about 13-19 I smoked a lot of cannabis and drank a lot,” he said. “That was when I felt the loss of my mum and I was acting the big lad and trying to blank it all out, but I was making silly mistakes.

“I would go to friends houses and I would see their mum’s cleaning their rooms and other wee silly things that got to me,” he added.

“I met my girlfriend when I was around 19-years-old and then kids came along. Then you have to wise up.

“I have always been into music and raps and I did some for mental health awareness to try to help people. It just took off from there”.

“I would really like more people to look into the rap scene in Northern Ireland as it is booming”.

On Alan’s Facebook page he describes himself as: “I am a local rap artist from Belfast a song writer with the aim to raise as much awareness for mental health in northern Ireland as possible”.

Alongside the rap he writes ‘...My world (story telling rap)’. Later he says: “This time of the year I always feel my mums spirit so I thought I would post this for her.. rest in peace mum”.

Around 20,000 people follow him on Facebook.

See his facebook page here - Belfast Grime Man

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