Gassed Up presenter Mist: ‘Prison can make or break you – it made me’

Grime artist Mist, AKA Rhys Sylvester, 29, is a self-confessed petrolhead. Growing up in Erdington, Birmingham, he says cars – especially modified ones with sound systems and loud exhausts – were a status symbol, and his main passion alongside music.

Mist’s latest EP Diamond in the Dirt, released in 2018, hit number 4 in the charts, but when he isn’t rapping, he’s driving.

He seems like an obvious choice, then, to present BBC Three’s new series Gassed Up – a high-octane challenge show featuring cars, buggies, drones and assault courses. Each week, a different celebrity joins Mist, drift driver Becky Evans, pro-BMXer Ryan Taylor and supercar expert Rob Kelly to complete a challenge, like a video game-based obstacle course or off-roading, where the vehicles take tough, bumpy courses through the woods.

“I didn’t have a plan of getting into TV or my own show. It was all natural, I got approached on social media for putting up stuff about my cars,” says Mist.

He’s often seen on Instagram in a variety of supercars and bikes, and it was these posts that led to him getting involved with Gassed Up. It’s a dream come true for the rapper – but a decade ago, his life almost went down a very different path.

'I was living in my car'

"I was 19. My mum and dad died within three months of each other,” says Mist. “My dad had cardiac arrest, my mum then passed away from an aneurysm to the brain three months later. All I knew was my mum’s house and it was soon repossessed leaving me homeless. I bought a car and I was living in my car. That’s when I got in trouble.”

With no licence, the car was soon confiscated and feeling like he had no other choice, he bought another car with money inherited from his mum.

“I still didn’t have anywhere to live,” Mist says. “I was just trying to get on with it, but I got caught again with no licence and went to prison.” He was sentenced to 14 months in prison with a temporary driving ban in 2014.

“I lost my mum’s house, all my clothes, and I came out of prison with nothing,” he says.

Mist had unexpectedly become a father at 19. When he came out of jail his daughter was four, and her asking to go to dance lessons made him realise he needed to get his licence to take her.

Getting his licence gave him a new appreciation for cars and driving, and he embraced his passion for speed legally.

“People say prison makes you or breaks you – it made me,”

After his release, he moved into a hostel, where another resident heard him rapping. That man was involved in the local music scene, and invited Mist to record a freestyle for Birmingham-based online music channel P110. This, he says, is when his music career really took off.

'People say if you’re from my area you’ll end up in prison'

Mist’s prison sentence was the push he needed to turn his life around, and he wants to help other young inmates see a life after jail.

“In society now, there are a lot of kids who feel like, if you’re from somewhere and you’ve been brought up a certain way, you’re going to go down that [criminal] route,” he says.

“I grew up in the maddest area, older kids can always influence you the wrong way. They can make out that’s the cool thing to do. It’s only when you’ve got someone to look up to that can tell you different. There aren’t a lot of influential people where I grew up – there was not one man that was telling me bro, stay on your music.”

He’s currently in talks with a friend, who works with young people, about the possibility of visiting schools and prisons to talk to teenagers and young adults, and be that role model they could be missing.

“I remember being 21, I know what they’re going through. It’s hard to do the good thing because it’s not cool, people will diss you – ‘Oh, you’re going to work again? Nah’. People label you like ‘if you’re from that area, you’ll end up in prison’. If you get told that a certain amount of times, people’s brains go, ‘well, if I’m only going to go to prison or die I might as well do it’.

“Some people in prison, they think it’s the end at a young age. They’ll be at 22 thinking, ‘Nah, I’m done’. It’s so easy to fall into that cycle. My thing is helping people get out of it.

“That’s why I want to go back and tell people, ‘I’ve been where you lot are, bruv, and it’s not over’. I remember a guy, I think he did seven years. It was home time, but he said, ‘Bro, I don’t wanna go home. I’ve got no family, all my friends are here, I’ve got no friends on the outside, I’m not ready’.

“He went home, but he came back the same week. Shoplifting or something. He wasn’t ready. You have to break out of being institutionalised.”

'Driving brings tears to my eyes'

Now, with not just a car license but a full motorbike licencelicense, Mist finds driving an “emotional release”.

“One thing about being a rap star is you have to be this cool guy,” he says. “You don’t smile much, you know what I mean. It’s very stereotypical. But I want to show my outside life. I’ve got a good sense of humour, I’m an outgoing guy, I’m very spontaneous.

“But now with the cars being involved in my life, they can actually see happiness. Not that they can’t see happiness when I’m doing my music videos, but when I’m doing something mad extreme like drifting, drag strip, on a race track, I’m actually loving life, it could bring tears to my eyes, I’m that happy.”

Gassed Up is on BBC Three on 16 February at 9pm and BBC iPlayer