Vendor interview: Captain
So how did you get involved in selling DOPE magazine?
So I was really lucky, it was my 30th birthday, now I’m 38. Two days later, this guy was unloading the van (of DOPE magazine). And he said “you know what guys, you guys might like this, this is cool stuff, this is DOPE, man. And we’re just giving it out to people so they could just earn something.” For free like, you know and get by. He was so kind, one of the kindest people. We helped him unload some stuff, and then he was like “Hey guys, look, I’m okay. I got other guys to help me out here take it in, so just take some”.
I love reading man, because, you know as a child, I didn’t have that privilege. I was a lone child, so I was exposed to music, and just the artistic side of life. I didn’t know I was artistic. So when I learnt to read it was just so much knowledge… So yeah that’s when I found out about it.
Whereabouts do you sell the newspaper?
You know what, I don’t really like the word selling. You know why? Because I believe in changing the world, or saving someone’s future, or saving the earth's future. Because for me it’s not selling the newspaper, it’s the views. So, if someone’s a tory dickhead and offered me £50 like (editor’s note: putting on a posh voice) “Hey man, go get something to eat, you child” that’s literally taking my humanity and degrading me and makes me feel utter shit. I’ve seen a poor girl on the floor, and some major tory tried to sexually exploit her “I’ll buy all your magazines if you come with me”. Fuck you pal! Because you know what, I don’t care how much money you offer, you can’t afford love and humanity. You can’t change the world. It's priceless. So it’s more of actually changing the person's perceptive and for them to learn. There’s a lot of people walking confused. They don’t know about the economy, the don’t know about gender equality, they don’t know about their rights even…
So I don’t sell… But what you have got here (with DOPE Magazine) it’s not government editing, but what we’re seeing is all propaganda, it’s all a fake illusion. The stage. So, way I look at this, I'm not selling, I'm giving people brightness, life opportunity to be happy, to stand up, to chase their dreams. And most important, they don’t even know there’s an option. There's an option and that’s happiness…
It’s the commitment. Every single person I’ve handed it to, I can see is gonna make a great change… Whether they’re on benefits, whether they’re on the floor, whatever. They’re traveling, whether they're Australian, where they're Brazilian, wherever they're from in the world, whether they're a student, whether they're a millionaire.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
Very simple. It's just this dumb barbarian violence. It's just caveman. Like “ooh, ah, I hit you with something.” We need another solution. It's just dumb. It's uneducated. And also, with violence we need civilization and peace, we need to look after humans. Like this is flesh and bones. This is someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. It’s just dumb. It barbaric. There's different solutions.
Can I say one more thing? When you gave me these papers, this is the real reason why I wanted to do this interview, I found a purpose of holding onto love. Holding onto that there are a lot of good people. Seeing it because before you, I was around negative media, negative people. Everyone’s in a negative place, and it is just utter darkness non-stop. With this newspaper - positive. It rebuilt my love and my heart and my ambition in life, and then the safety of Angel Alley when it's clean, it is so nice and so peaceful, and sometimes right in the middle, it's so beautiful. You can learn. And I’ve read some of the most important things I’ve ever knew if my life, just here in this alleyway. Land is land, tree is tree. Earth is earth no matter where you are in this world. There's so many different things I've learned. It opened my eyes, so thank you.
DOPE Magazine is free for anyone who wants to sell it in the street.
Photos: Emil Lombardo
Each issue we print 40,000 copies, worth £120,000 to our vendors. Your £3/month subscription is used to print 30 copies per issue, worth £90 for our vendors. We went from 1000 copies per issue in 2018 to 40,000 per issue in 2025. The only thing stopping us from doing more is money. With your support, we can go even further. Help us print and distribute more copies for free to anyone who wants to sell it by becoming a monthly subscriber.