“Al 40 Cal” Offers No Apologies

Mitchell — aka ​“Al Forty Cal” — went in and out of jail for years, starting at age 14, as a young gun growing up on Newhallville’s Read Street, during the heyday of the group known as ​“R2.”

Now 23, he said he’s bringing up his 2‑year-old son, and claimed he’s turning from a life of crime to a life of rhyme.

Since leaving prison the last time in 2012, Mitchell has dived into hip hop, still using the ​“Al Forty Cal” handle he had growing up. He has attracted thousands of social-media followers for rap videos about drugs and violence in New Haven. He has a second mixtape ready for release in the Spring. He’s organizing a ​“battle rap” charitable fundraising event on Davenport Avenue for mid-April. (Battle rapping is a one-on-one rhyming insult competition in which the combatants throw lyrics at each other until one runs out.)

In his music, Mitchell brags about shooting people and avoiding arrest; he called the plot lines ​“just a story.”

“I’m not going to say incriminating things,” he remarked.

At the same time, he offered no apologies for his past actions and had little good to say about the cops.

Mitchell spoke about all that during an interview on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. (You can hear the full interview by clicking on the audio file at the bottom of this story; excerpts follow below.) Through an agent, Jasmine Canon, he asked to appear on the show to offer a fuller picture of himself, and of the public perception of Read Street and R2, than offered in media accounts or in a prison record that lists convictions for offenses ranging from third-degree assault to carrying a pistol without a permit. He spoke of getting shot at 16, learning how to battle rap during his last stint in prison, at Gates Correctional Institution. He also defended the ​“no snitching” creed.

It’s a career, he maintained during the interview, that may one day land his mother, a mental-health worker who lives in Newhallville, in a mansion on a Hawaiian island.

Mom’s Mansion

WNHH: How old were you the first time you were incarcerated?

Fourteen.

What was it like to go to court?

I just remember just always remember my mom being there, at every court date.

Were you embarrassed? Were you ashamed?

No.

Did you wish you hadn’t done it?

I wish I hadn’t got caught. I always felt bad getting arrested because my mom, I just hate seeing her look at me like that. She went to every court I ever had in my life.

She just always like, ​“Here we go again.” But she always was there. She never gave up on me. That’s why when I do get rich and famous, I’m going to give her the world. She deserves it.

What’s ​“the whole world”? What are you going to give her?

A big house. Expensive cars. Jewelry. Everything.

Where would [the house] be?

I’m thinking outside the country.

Name a country.

Hawaii.

You’d get her a home in Hawaii?

Yeah.

Would you visit her?

Yeah. I’d have a home by her.

I have a big, big, big fan base who believes in me and believes in my art.

Battle Rap Joined

What made you start doing rap?

I actually was battling people in jail.

What does it mean to battle people in jail?

A rap battle can be on beat or without beat. But it’s two people standing in front of each other.

You stop rhyming, you lose?

Yeah. Battle rap is now when people come with three rounds for a certain amount of time. We see who can creatively come up with the best material, basically destroying one another back and forth.

Battle rap is just something I started in jail. I always watched it.

Where would it take place in jail?

It would take place at rec, recreational hall. We all get around each other.

You square off …

Square off.

And you start insulting each other.

I’m undefeated, by the way.

Who decides who has the best rhymes?

For example, you and me could have a rap battle. You could have three hard-hitting lines. If I have six hard-hitting lines, I won.

Was it the opposite of getting in a real fight?

This was more positive. Rap it out.

When was the first time you stepped up and became the battle rapper?

There was this guy, this white boy [at Gates Correctional Institution]. He used to always come to me, ​“I can rap! I can rap!” He used to have a lot of raps in his notepad. He used to let me hear them. I used to show him my rhymes. One day somebody said, ​“Y’all should battle! Y’all should battle!”

Did you like him?

Yeah. I thought he was pretty impressive. I destroyed him, by the way.

What did it feel like when you stepped up to battle rap?

The energy was incredible. It was about 20 people around. [Note: The above video shows Mitchell’s first Battle Rap in New Haven, at Westville’s X‑Clusive Stylez on Whalley Avenue in Westville Village.]

R2

Things were hot in Newhallville when you were growing up [in the ​‘90s and aughts] …

Definitely. … I mean, there were times when you know I definitely felt pressured.

What kind of pressure?

Police brutality. A lot of that. A lot of harassment. Pressure just growing up overall.

One story we hear out of the neighborhood is that there’s a lot of pressure growing up to be part of a gang.

Yeah. Cops consider a lot of things gangs that ain’t. Read Street [aka ​“R2”] is not a gang.

Read Street goes by R2, R1. Police held press conferences saying R2 was the most dangerous gang in town. … They would say, ​“We brought down Read Street. We brought down R2.” A lot of people went to jail. There was a federal investigation. Did you run with these guys [as police alleged]? Did you consider yourself R2?

I don’t want to get too deep as far as do I consider myself that.

Read Street is like every other street in New Haven. It’s not a gang. Definitely not a gang. I;m me. I’m Al 40 Cal. That’s what I’m going by. …

I actually went to four different high schools. I went to Wilbur Cross, Hillhouse, Hamden High, and Eli Whitney. I got kicked out of all of them.

How come?

I just couldn’t stay in school. It was hard for me growing up. I was very popular. I got kicked out a lot. Fighting.

What was hard for you?

A lot of people didn’t like who I was growing up. I was very, very, very popular. Especially a lot of allegations in the paper. Like the article you did about me getting arrested with a gun.

I was up on Facebook one morning. I’m very popular on Facebook. I woke up one morning. Everybody was sharing your article. Everybody’s going like, ​“What is that?” I feel like I need to get my side of the story. I wanted to come up here.

[The arrest] was for possession. In the article they said I was going on my way to shoot somebody.

What was the true story?

The true story was I got arrested. [Laughs.] That’s the true story. Everything else is really irrelevant. I served my time for that. Basically right now I’m just trying to show the youth there’s more out here than getting arrested with guns. That’s my job.

There’s so many kids out there got that talent so far as to shoot a basketball, catch a football, instead of shooting a .40. …

Jail helped me become the man I am. It helped me become the full-time father I am. I have custody of my kid. Going through this, this really made me a man. I don’t regret nothing. I don’t regret going to jail. It made me stronger. It made me a man. It made my music more powerful. …

Were you dealing drugs? Were you dealing guns?

I’m not going to say any incriminating things. I’m just going to say, ​“poverty.” That’s why a lot of kids get caught up in what they get caught up in. If you in the streets, you in the streets. There aren’t many things for the youth.

Out, Shot

How many times were you shot?

I was shot three times. It was three times at once. I was 16 years old.

Where were you?

I got shot leaving a party. It was just, things happening, man.

Who shot you?

I don’t know who shot me. … That is also irrelevant. I would never say who shot me.

I forgot the name of the club. I actually had just got out of jail that first week I got shot. It was actually my girlfriend at the time party. She had a party for her birthday. It was a little club. I forgot the name of the club.

You were coming out at what time at night?

11:30ish. People were just shooting. That’s just how it was in New Haven, man. It’s still the same way. Ain’t nothing changed. Sometimes stuff just happen …

What did you do when the bullets started flying? Did you pull out a gun?

I ducked. If I did pull out a gun, I wouldn’t say anything to incriminate myself.

You went to the hospital… You always read [in news accounts], ​“I don’t know who did it.”

Yeah, that’s what you say. …

That’s considered a snitch. I would never tell on anybody in this world. Police, I don’t agree with how the police handle things sometimes. You know what I’m saying? That’s just how I go by.

No Snitching

What about that? You hear a lot of people in Newhallville saying, ​“No snitching. The police are not fair to us. They beat us up We don’t want to cooperate.”

Yeah.

Then some people say, ​“We’re not safe in our own neighborhood. You should be snitching. You should be giving information to the police. Because we want people who are shooting people to go to jail.”

I mean, everybody has their own mentality. A lot of people, when I was coming up felt I should be off the streets too. You can read about somebody. You can hear about somebody. You never know the whole story ​‘til you meet that person.

What about ​“no snitching”? Why shouldn’t people give information to the police if they want to try to stop people from shooting each other?

Like I said, everybody has their own opinion. My opinion can be different from your opinion. Me and you are two different people.

I think what you’re saying is that it looks different to you because you feel the police weren’t there to help you or keep you safe; the police were there to jam you up. …

Exactly.

So what should the police do? How should they go about it?

I don’t know. …

You felt you couldn’t talk to the police. … How should they go about their job so you can trust them and other people can trust them?

Police lost all trust with everybody. The rate of them killing people is so high. I can go on the Internet every day and see a policeman killing somebody. I’m not saying everybody they catch is innocent or guilty. I’m saying the percentage of people they’re killing is tremendously high.

What is the answer? President Obama says the answer is: Let’s have cameras on the cops, let’s have community policing training, we want to have sensitivity training.” But they’re also saying, ​“We want to keep people like the young Al 40 Cal off the street because they have guns and they’re going to shoot people. Should they still try to arrest Al 40 Cal?

I totally understand where you‘re coming from. It’s hard to answer that question. Outside looking in, you’re hearing these bad things about this person. It’s easy to go and want to arrest them and apply pressure…. But actually going and meeting these kids and talking them is different. Nobody comes and talks to these kids.

What would they find out if they talk to these kids? What would they have found out if they talked to you at 16?

You’d be surprised. Just like… you’d never know I was this intelligent until you sit down and talk to somebody. Do positive things so you can see these guys and talk to them.

When you were in your teens you were running in the street. There was a guy named Thaddeus Reddish [Newhallville’s top cop]. Do you remember him?

He got me my second gun charge.

The R2 kids used to talk to him. Here’s a guy who lived in the neighborhood. He could be tough. He used to hang outside Larry’s bar, the Taurus, in the middle of the night with the lights [to crack down on the establishment]. He also took kids to the baseball games. Did he do it right? Did he have credibility with you when he arrested you on a gun charge? What did you think of Reddish?

I didn’t like it at all. That whole situation was crazy.

What Should Cops Do?

Should you have been arrested for having a gun at 16?

The second time, no. … My opinion about him? I don’t know him personally. Just like he don’t know me personally. I’m going to leave it like that. That’s why people feel the way they feel about people. Because they don’t know them personally.

Should they try to arrest people who are shooting each other and dealing drugs?

I mean, I’m not a policeman.

But you still live in Newhallville?

Yeah.

Do you want them to arrest people who are shooting people and dealing drugs?

That’s up to them.

You live there. You have neighbors who … get mad at the police … and say, ​“There are kids out here selling drugs. There are kids out here shooting each other. I don’t feel safe … I want you to arrest them.” 

But if you don’t have any evidence, then what are you going by? It’s all, ​“He say. She say.” I can go do something right now — you can read about it in the paper. Doesn’t mean it’s true.

Should they try to get the evidence?

It’s up to them.

You know, it’s not up to them. The police work for the people.

Definitely.

So it’s up to the people. It is up to your neighbors …

Yeah.

… who say whether or not thet want police to arrest people.

I know. But if they hearing things about somebody doesn’t mean that it’s true.

I’m not arguing about that. …

Should they protect the community to feel safe? Yeah. Nobody wants to hear gunfire at their house all day. Nobody wants that.

You [police] should know the people. You should have real evidence. You should not jam people up on fake charges. But should they get the evidence … and catch people who sell drugs and have guns?

I don’t support it.

We get questioned every day
But we ain’t saying nothin’
Trying to indict niggas
But we know the front …
Wherever there’s no case
We ain’t saying nothin’
—From Al Forty Cal’s song ​“Homicide”

Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full interview, which includes detailed discussion about Mitchell’s current recording, battle rap, and video projects. Subscribe to WNHH’s new podcast ​“Dateline New Haven,” where episodes of the show will be delivered directly to your phone or smart device. (Click here for details on how to subscribe.)