Rude boy

Leppo had been a rudeboy since his teens, earning his first three-month jail rap for vagrancy in 1971.

I still use the word rudeboy cos it’s been round for longer. People’re always tryin to stick a label on our scene. That’s the problem with havin a fuckin scene. First we was rudeboys, then we be Indian niggas, then rajamuffins, then raggastanis, Britasians, fuckin Indobrits.

We were shooting in Pittsburgh, and there were some rudeboys looking at us, like [agonisingly broad Jamaican accent]: “Ya shoodent be shoe-ting ere.” So we’re driving around in this grim area of Pittsburgh and I start talking in this over-the-top Jamaican accent.

Since I was a teenager I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school.

Few brands have been tussled over as hard by competing subcultures. From tennis nuts to Jamaican rudeboys, skinheads, mods, ska-punks, indie kids and Camden popstars, all have done the Perry polo before Proud Boys came along.

"I swear I've watched as much MTV Base an Juggy D videos as they have, but I still can't attain the right level a rudeboy finesse," bemoans Jas.

The rudeboy might have evolved since his ska-fuelled early days on the streets of 1960s Jamaica, but the staples are the same: nicely buffed footwear, pork-pie hats, cropped trousers and sharp suits.