this is hillbrow. a notoriously dangerous district.re, i always dreamed of being a musician. i see myself singing in front of huge crowds, you know, making money in the process. that's what i dreamt about. >> he spins records and promotes acts and events in nightclubs. we meet in his favorite spot. sympathy's restaurant. what's good? what do you like? that looks good. is that fried chicken? >> that's the fried chicken. >> the place is heavy with the smell of frying chicken, stewing greens. walk right up. place your order. and be sure to get some mill pap. heaped on a plate with beats and coleslaw that's a nice, heavy base. >> tell me about the neighborhood. >> when i first came, it was rough, my friend. >> before '92, it was like white business district? residential district? >> back then, it used to be clean. used to be respected. >> once hillbrow was an elite whites only center of town. but when things started to change, so did hillbrow. becoming one of the first gray areas where whites and blacks mixed. hillbrow became aspirational.

hillbrow became aspirational.was now accessible. people poured in in large numbers. many of them squatters from all over the continent. >> people come here, they come here with one intention. making a living. making money. started coming here. white guys kind of -- >> white landlords and tenants simply walked away from their property. the disenfranchised who moved in legally, semilegally, illegally or just squatting, an influx of gangs and criminal organizations, the area soon slipped into anarchy. >> there's a saying around here. okay? this building's been hijacked. >> entire buildings were seized to become superstores for i illis-it drug operations. everything that could go wrong did. >> people make a living from different things. some hurt people to make a living. some they sell their bodies. sometimes things aren't always according to what you plan. this is where i live. this is where my life is. i'll show you. >> we walk down the street and one of the many enterprises doing business on corners and in doorways