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Outlook: The rap star saved by a nursing home

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Rapper T La Rock strikes a pose in front of a graffitied wall

25/01/2021 GMT

The rap star saved by a nursing home

BBC World Service - Outlook, The rap star saved by a nursing home

After losing his memory T La Rock forgot he was famous and had to learn to rap again

T La Rock is a Hip Hop pioneer who lost 70% of his memory but found support from an unlikely group of people when he was sent to recover in a Jewish nursing home.

T La Rock grew up in New York's Bronx and is seen by many as a pioneer of the Hip Hop music genre. He became the first artist to be recorded by Def Jam records and performed around the world, but that all came to a halt when he was attacked and left with 70% memory loss. Struggling to recover, he ended up in a Jewish nursing home where he found an unlikely group of supporters who helped him to perform again. Jo Fidgen spoke to him in 2018.

Catherine Corless has always been interested in history. She’s from Tuam in the west of Ireland, and after her children had grown up, she enrolled in history classes. As a little girl, she had always been aware of the local Mother and Baby Home – a Catholic institution for unmarried mothers and their children. When she started digging, she couldn’t find much public information about the place, but then she unearthed a shocking statistic – almost 800 children had died in that home, but their bodies were missing. Catherine began tirelessly investigating. Her work would thrust her into the spotlight and expose a national scandal in Ireland.  This interview was first broadcast in 2019.

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Image: 'T La Rock'
Credit: Stijn Coppens

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