He was a crack addict by the age of 16, helped found one of London's most notorious gangs and was jailed for selling drugs.

Now Elijah Kerr, known as JaJa, has turned his back on crime and today calls on others to give up violence too.

JaJa, 28, was once the driving force behind Brixton's Peel Dem Crew, known as the PDC.

The gang has been described as one of the largest and most violent in south London. As a member, JaJa was a crack addict and served time in prison for drugs offences.

But he says he changed after discovering religion while in jail, and is trying to turn PDC into a record label and music business. He is due to release an album, Voice of the Streets, in May.

His transformation is the subject of a new book, Street Boys, which follows the lives of seven young gang members.

JaJa, a father of three who hopes to become a role model for boys caught up in gang life, said: "I am the first of a kind. It is a big thing what I am doing - usually guys like me get murdered or end up in prison for life.

"All the violence can be stopped. I want to show people you don't have to disassociate from your friends. You can turn your gang into a gang of property developers or solicitors. You can change the energy into positive stuff."

JaJa still lives on the Angell Town Estate in Brixton, where many original PDC members met and started selling drugs. He moved there from Birmingham aged nine with his mother after witnessing her being violently beaten by a boyfriend.

They were then housed in a former crack den and JaJa saw drug dealers and prostitutes from his window. Before long, he got involved in the estate's underworld. He started smoking crack at 16 and began dealing drugs. When the PDC was formed, he had the initials tattooed on his neck.

JaJa said: "The drug game bonded people . All of us from Angell Town, we were bonding. That's how it became like a big family, and during this time it gets bigger and people are talking about the Peel Dem Crew. There was lots of shootings and lots of talk about selling drugs on the block with the Peel Dem Crew. Shootings and robbings and drugging. We were on the street doing our thing. That's how the PDC started as a gang."

It was after he was jailed for three years and nine months that he discovered Islam and started to turn his life around. He said: "It opened my eyes up to a lot of things. I saw the speed of life, the scattiness, the way we were living."

In jail, JaJa learned business and accountancy and wrote a business plan for PDC Entertainments. On his release in 2004 he started putting what he had learned into practice.

Describing what advice he would give to boys in gangs today, he said: " Everyone has a core dream - they may want to be an actor or fireman, but the street distracts them. I will tell them, 'stick to your dreams'. I will be a role model."

Tim Pritchard, the documentary maker behind Sky TV series Ross Kemp On Gangs, followed JaJa and the six other men from Brixton before writing their life stories. Street Boys was published this month by Harper Collins.

Mr Pritchard said: "Writing it has given me more hope in humanity. These were the toughest gang criminals in London yet I was happy hanging out with them for three years. They have a lot of energy. If it is harnessed they could be upstanding citizens."

Link to:

Columnists

Will Self

If you want to beat fuel prices just get walking

Catherine Ostler

Stop bullying us and get rid of this charge

Sebastian Shakespeare

The gloves are off again in the bruising world of biography

Pick of the blogs

Paul Waugh- Politics

David Cameron's 21st century 'Back to Basics'?

Louise Jury - Arts

The girl power in Abba and Mamma Mia!

Charles Campion- Food

Greek restaurant Tsiakkos & Charcoal in W9 is a real neighbourhood hero