A convicted drug dealer and gun thug is trying to reinvent himself as a rap star from inside prison — posting slickly produced music videos to TikTok from his jail cell and boasting about his criminal past.
Shaun Ventre, 25, who now goes by the stage name ‘Lil S’, is currently serving a 16-year sentence after being locked up in February 2023 for his role in a heroin and crack cocaine supply plot and for possessing a 9mm firearm, silencer and ammunition.
But the Liverpool-born inmate appears to be using illegally smuggled smartphones to launch a music career from behind bars – rapping about drug deals, shootouts and street life in videos filmed from his prison cell and shared online.
Dressed in designer sportswear including Under Armour t-shirts and Berghaus fleeces, Ventre performs in front of a sign reading ‘straight outta Liverpool’, with other prisoners sometimes seen joining him on screen.
The clips, posted to his now-removed TikTok account, quickly gained traction, amassing 12,000 followers and more than 100,000 likes before the platform took action this week.
Shaun Ventre, 25, who now goes by the stage name ‘Lil S’, is currently serving a 16-year sentence after being locked up in February 2023 for his role in a heroin and crack cocaine supply plot
Dressed in designer sportswear including Under Armour t-shirts and Berghaus fleeces, Ventre performs in front of a sign reading ‘straight outta Liverpool’
A TikTok spokesperson confirmed: ‘We have taken action’ following a review by its moderation team.
By Thursday, the account had been taken down after the Liverpool Echo alerted the company to the fact that the videos were recorded inside a prison.
But Ventre was undeterred. He launched a new account and hit out at the takedown in a now-deleted Instagram post, writing: ‘shut down my TikTok, add me one people f all them blag ones haha sad t****’.
TikTok said it relies on prison staff and law enforcement to identify and report accounts being run from inside jails, adding that they take swift action when local laws are being broken.
Ventre’s Instagram page, still live at the time of writing, features several more rap videos, and a bio that reads: ‘Fire in the pad. Real rap no cap. Liverpool on the map.’
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that Ventre is serving his sentence at the notorious HMP Wandsworth – the south London prison which made headlines last year after terror convict Daniel Khalife escaped by clinging to a food van.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘We do not tolerate mobile phones in prison, and we have ensured these videos have been deleted and the profile removed. Any prisoner found to be using social media could face extra time in prison.’
The rap lyrics in Ventre’s videos make frequent reference to his criminal history — including drug trafficking and firearms offences.
In one verse, he brags: ‘Since I was a kid I pushed crack on the pavements, if I get nicked, no comment, no statement.’
The rap lyrics in Ventre’s videos make frequent reference to his criminal history — including drug trafficking and firearms offences
Another sees him boast: ‘I was 17 and I had three bricks on tick, up and down the country I was taking the trips, trying to get dough, I was taking the risk.’
Referencing his gun conviction, he raps: ‘Where I’m from you have to learn how to shoot’, and ‘Glock 19 with the extended clip.’
Ventre claims to have left crime behind, stating in one freestyle: ‘F** up the trap, now it’s onto the music game.’
But some posts on his Instagram appear to show him smoking cannabis inside his cell, which also features banned items including a laptop, speakers, a CD player and two Xbox controllers.
Ventre’s criminal record stretches back years. Originally from the well-heeled Cable Street in Formby, he was previously jailed for a county lines drug plot that saw him transporting heroin and crack between Liverpool and Macclesfield.
In that case, he was caught in a Mercedes with £1,200 in cash, designer clothes worth over £700, and a ‘graft phone’. A female passenger had over 100 wraps of heroin and crack on her.
Ventre denied dealing, claiming the money and items were given to him and that he lived off the ‘generosity of others.’ He was jailed for four years.
His most recent conviction came after two major investigations — one by Lancashire Constabulary into a county lines operation in Blackpool, and another by Merseyside Police, after officers discovered a loaded Beretta pistol in a house on York Road in Huyton in 2021.
