I brought my rap star son back to life in a video – to beat the knife crime that killed him

EVERY mother whose child has been killed dreams of seeing their son or daughter alive one more time.

For Alison Cope that “miracle” has happened.

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Thanks to revolutionary artificial intelligence technology, her son Joshua Ribera has been brought “back to life” nine years after he was murdered by a killer who plunged a knife through his heart.

For three fleeting minutes at a time, his mum can see her dead son from beyond the grave.

In a new rap video, Joshua’s ­likeness is superimposed on to a body double.

The words were taken from his old songs — with others written by his mother and local ­musicians and given his voice by music boffins.

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To Alison, Josh was the 18- year-old son she had steered away from crime through his love of music.

To his thousands of young fans, Josh was Depzman, a rapper tipped to be the next Stormzy.

In the astonishing video Josh raps once again — this time about his own death, delivering a ­warning to others about the ­horrors of knife crime.

He tells how he had the world at his feet until his life was snuffed out by a teenager armed with a ­hunting knife.

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And he implores others not to carry blades — or they could end up like him.

In the video, Josh raps inside a disused church about “the night when everything ended and it tore my ­family apart”.

He adds powerfully: “I never fulfilled my potential or got to be the things I was meant to be . . . all of my plans got floored . . . I did so much in a short time, I never got the chance to do more.”

He ends his rap saying: “The day I died it ruined the lives of over a hundred more. You better think twice before you pack the knife and go and walk out that door.”

The last time Josh was rapping he was on top of the world.

His debut album, 2Real, had gone straight to No1 in the UK iTunes’ hip-hop chart, his grime music was being played on top ­YouTube channels and he had just received his first royalty ­payment.

But instead of celebrating with a boozy night out, Josh kissed his mum goodbye and went to sing at a charity event for a friend who had been stabbed to death.

Tragically in the car park ­outside the event, an argument over a girl escalated and, despite being unarmed, the youngster was stabbed.

Since then, Alison, 48, has toured schools and prisons ­campaigning against knife crime.

In the nine years since Josh’s death nearly 2,000 people in the UK have died from stab wounds — many of them teenagers.

In that time Alison has stood in front of a million young people ­warning them how being involved in knife crime will devastate their ­families just as it did her.

This year an advertising agency approached Alison wanting to use Josh’s likeness and voice in a video so he could “tell his story”.

Devastate families

And last month, in a studio, Alison watched her son become Depzman again.

In Josh’s old bedroom, Alison tells The Sun: “I thought I’d be fine because I’d heard the track and I knew the words. But seeing him again, I was devastated. It was so realistic it was like he was there and I could just grab him through the screen and bring him back.

“It gave me real heart-wrenching pain of loss.

“I sat there sobbing. I cried for 15 minutes. There’s a bit in the video where he says about looking down and seeing me cry. That was really, really hard. It still is really difficult to watch but no more painful than living without him.”

On ­thousands of occasions Alison has told young people the story of the night her son was murdered —  and it is still heart-breaking.

On September 20, 2013, Josh received £2,500 — the first pre-sale royalties from his album.

She says: “The first thing he did was buy me a Michael Kors watch.

“I’ve never worn it. It’s still packaged up with the gift receipt.

“He so desperately wanted to spend it on me, which breaks my heart, and then he went out and bought his friends computer games because he felt fortunate.”

That night Josh performed a track he had written in tribute to his friend Kyle Sheehan at a fundraiser to ­support his pal’s family.

Kyle had died a year earlier after being stabbed in the leg.

During the evening at TC’s nightclub in Selly Oak, Birmingham, 6ft 3in Josh and Armani Mitchell, got into a row over a girl which came to blows.

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Bouncers threw Mitchell, 18, out.

Alison says: “There should never have been a knife at an event like that. After being ejected, Armani made the choice to come back with a knife.

“On the nightclub’s CCTV you see Josh walking across the car park and Armani follows him.

“As Josh turns, Armani just stabs him in the chest.

“There was no police phone call, no police knock. The girl the ­argument was over just came to my door, really upset and said, ‘He’s been stabbed’.”

For seven hours medics at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham battled to keep Josh alive but at 5.58pm on September 21 he died.

Alison recalls: “I knew he had gone before they told me. I felt a shift, as though he had left my body. Ten minutes later the consultants, the anaesthetist and the ­people who had tried to help came out as white as ghosts.

“They were so traumatised, not only because of what was ­happening but because his mobile phone was still on. Distraught fans were sending hundreds of messages of support on social media.

Alison said: “This young man was dying in front of them and all they could hear was his phone going beep, beep, beep. Fans were sending Josh their best wishes.

“When they looked through to A&E there was a sea of about 600 traumatised young people.

“They had seen on social media ‘Depzman has been stabbed, he is at the QE’. I walked out, and told them ‘Josh has gone’. They looked at me like an atom had blown their emotions apart.

“To see tough 20-year-old lads — street guys, hard and muscley — ­sobbing in each other’s arms is tough. Then they wanted revenge but I said that would not resolve anything or bring Josh back.”

‘Hugged and kissed me’

Mitchell — now serving life with a minimum term of 18 years — quickly handed himself in.

For months afterwards, Depzman’s distraught fans would turn up outside ­Alison’s ground-floor flat unable to get help for their grief elsewhere.

And 5,000 fans, from all over Britain attended Josh’s funeral at St Martin’s near the Bullring, one of the biggest churches in Birmingham.

Alison says: “Kids as young as eight turned up and it was really sad seeing the little faces.

“I saw these three little kids and each was holding a white rose. It broke my heart.

“I got out of the car, went over to them and took their roses. They are now big people and they still ­message me.”

Since Josh died, more than £70million has been spent trying to combat knife crime in the UK but without much success, Alison believes, because youngsters are immune to campaigns warning them not to carry weapons.

Every week Alison travels the country telling Josh’s story to as many as 1,000 young people a day.

She says: “When somebody dies, the police shove the grieving mother in front of the camera to say ‘Stop knife crime’. We did all that and then I started to think this is not really having an impact.

“Now I speak to four or five thousand kids a week. I show them CCTV of the stabbing, Josh’s funeral and the trial but they are just like ‘whatever’. There are channels now that show unedited police footage of stabbings, shootings, trials — they are desensitised.

“It is only when I tell them I am the dead boy’s mum that they sit up and take notice.

“I tell them the last time I saw him he was at the front door. He hugged me, he kissed me, ‘I love you Mum’. And that was it. I never ever saw him alive again.

“Until that point they don’t realise the impact carrying a knife will have on their own family.”

The walls of Josh’s bedroom are covered with pictures painted by his fans and on the bed are ­hundreds of letters from youngsters and their parents thanking Alison for making them think about knife crime.

But in pride of place is a school textbook filled with ­messages thanking Alison for ­helping to change their lives.

She says: “These are prisoners in a secure unit for children. Some are lifers, already murderers. I have seen quite a few of them since who have come out and not gone back which is really, really nice.

“I have seen about a million kids and lives have definitely been saved. Even if it is 50 lives or 30 it has been worth it and hopefully many more will be saved by Josh’s message from beyond the grave.”

THE VIDEO

CREATIVE directors at top advertising agency McCann and computer experts used the latest deepfake AI technology to create Depzman’s music video, Life Cut Short.

A body double performed the rap at the Asylum Chapel, in Peckham, using words written from Josh’s story.

The hand movements and Josh’s face and features were ­computerised digitally.

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Musicians in Birmingham, a deepfake artist in Dubai and audio engineers in London also worked to create the video.

Alison says: “All the creative specialists gave their time, rather than charge. It would have cost up to £360,000 and it cost just £1,500. We spent hours and hours trying to tune his voice to the best we can possibly make it.”

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