What does the word 'chav' mean? The term may have its origins in the Romany word "chavi", meaning child. My godfather used to call me chav, but it was affectionate. I used to enjoy it. So what does that word mean now? I believe it stands for "council house and violent". It's a word that's used to ridicule and label people who come from a less educated background than the rest of society.

For me, it's no different from similar words used to denigrate people's race or sex. The difference is, in this country we openly say the word 'chav'. The papers openly ridicule the poor and less unfortunate. If you did the same thing with race or sex, there'd be public uproar, and rightly so. But why is it different with this word?

See, this fuels the fire. If you call kids words that are derogatory to them just because they are unlucky enough to be born into a family that couldn't afford to give them the education that you had, they're going to hate you. And you're going to hate them because of their actions. And it becomes a vicious circle. 

By using these words you push these kids out of your society and they don't feel part of it. You beat them into apathy and in the end they just say: "Cool, I don't care. I don't want to be part of your society."

I got kicked out of school in year 10 and no other schools would take me. I had to go to a pupil referral unit called the Tunmarsh Centre in Plaistow in east London. I was there with other kids who'd been through a lot more than me. But one thing we shared is we didn't have any respect for authority, whether it be teachers or police.

I think the reason why we didn't have respect for authority was that we felt we were ignored by society, that we didn't belong to it. And so we wouldn't listen to anyone apart from our favourite rappers. Their music would raise our spirits and, though most of us knew we would never meet those artists, their words guided us.

Unfortunately, some of those words are negative. Within hip-hop there's some who romanticise street life, but there's also hip-hop with a conscience. I preferred this - I was a fan of the hip-hop that was like poetry. It was like reading a book and it changed your life. Just one sentence could change your life. I realised that this was a powerful tool and I wanted to change things; I wanted to change the stuff that I read in the paper or the stuff that I came to direct contact with which I didn't agree with.

The great thing about Tunmarsh is that it is a place where kids can go, and for the first time, be shown encouragement and motivation, and be told that they can make something of their lives. They only have to bump into one person who can plant one positive seed in their head and in their heart and it can change their life. Tunmarsh was full of positive teachers. 

When I left there I went on this journey through hip-hop music and I decided to write an album that tried to reach out to these kids. I tried in some ways, I guess, to be a father figure because they were parentless.

They are the reason I have gone back to Tunmarsh now for the Hackney Project and that I am performing at the Hackney Weekend - part of the Cultural Olympiad. The kids of east London should benefit from what is going on around them.

Everyone knows one person they can help who's less fortunate. And I'm not talking about help financially. I'm talking about knowledge. Plant that seed. Find out what these kids are good at, or what they care about or like, and try and draw it out of them because it will change their lives. 

Plan B is a Brit award-winning musician, actor and film-maker. His programme Plan B, Leona & Labrinth: Project Hackney is on Sunday BBC3 at 9.00pm