WEBVTT - Momma Why You Move To This Neighborhood? 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:02.040 But all right, job. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:08.080 All across the USC Compton, Watts Bay to LA come 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:12.040 on to California day from Rowley to Valley. We represent 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.840 that Keller County. So if you're keeping it real on 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.599 your side of your town, you tune into Gainst the 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.920 Chronicles Coronic Goals. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.280 We gonna tell you how are we goals? 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.320 If I lie, my notes will girl like Pinocchio. 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:28.440 We're gonna tell you the truth and nothing but the truth. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:30.520 Gangs the Chronic Goals. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:32.879 This is not your average shows. 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.160 You're now tuned into the rail mc ain't, Big Change 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.200 and Big spells the streets. 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:49.040 Hello, Welcome to the gangst the Chronicles podcast the production 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.519 of iHeartRadio and Black Effect podcast Network. Make sure you 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.400 download the iHeart app and subscribe to Against the Chronicles. 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.680 For my Apple users, hit the Purple Michael on your 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.800 front screen. Subscribed Against the Chronicles, leave a start rating 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.280 the comment. We like to welcome everyone to another episode 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.160 of The Gangster the Chronicles podcasts. I am big Steal 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.600 with my co host Yay y'all hearing right there with 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:14.679 the legendary Jia. There's been a bit numerous times we 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.440 talk about that, but that's a whole nother show with 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.960 a whole another floor that Ja has went around the world. 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.319 It's made its way kind of like it has made 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.679 his travels with two short biax And don't nobody ever 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.720 remembered who the originated that? Everybody else has claimed it 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.080 as they own. But I guess that's one of your 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:33.560 many contributions to hip hop. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.880 Yeah, I don't, you know shit, I ain't charged no niggas. 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.480 You know, I should be like Bootsy start going around 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.399 getting my money back for shit, but you know I 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:45.040 ain't tripping. 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:46.520 We ain't tripping, man. 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.880 I look at it as nigga, you know, niggas paying 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.080 imens and still even if they don't want to be uh, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.840 you know, even if they don't want to recognize where 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:58.640 they got it from, it's all good. 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.840 Yeah. But everybody knows this, specially the way you hit it, 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.520 because you hit it with a chill. Yeah, you know 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:11.200 what it is. Jeez made a whole living. I ain't 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.120 mad at them because guys and I like. 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:15.960 Jesus shit, pay me my money. 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.280 But it's all good. It's all good, yes, indeed. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.520 Because you know we're all about peace and love tonight, man, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.840 and I want to kind of get back to the basics, man, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.679 because we have been talking about music a lot as 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.720 of late. But the show Wheel was called the gangst 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:32.200 the Chronicle. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.560 They won't one of your you know, it wasn't not 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:42.320 that you know, niggas ain't fucking intellectual enough to speak 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:48.280 on current events and ship and being involved with hip hop. Uh, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.480 seeing that a lot of motherfuckers was coming out with 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:57.320 lists about who was the you know, the greatest or 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.160 who was this and who was that, and a lot 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:05.359 of motherfuckers were excluding you know, a lot of comrades 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:09.840 that we had grew up with, you know, so we 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.600 just felt that we had to take the route, you know, 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.880 of getting into that conversation, but we don't want to 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:25.080 get a stray from really, you know, of seeing and 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.200 letting y'all know what's going on in the in the streets, 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.840 in the communities to let's not let's not say streets, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.760 but just what's going on in our communities. 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.000 You know what I'm saying. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.640 Across the country because me and eight y'all go see 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:43.440 us in y'all city in twenty twenty four April, we 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:45.880 would be in the ATA in Atlantic Georgia. More than 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.400 that to come we would be in Memphis, Tennessee, messing 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:49.440 with Project Petra. 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:52.760 It would just be it would just be a little 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:59.560 silly of us not to focus on the communities and 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:04.080 what's going going on. Because outside of hip hop and 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:09.880 music and Hollywood and movies and all that shit. Like 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.240 I always say when I make records, I like to 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:17.440 represent for the for the struggle. Niggas still the nigga 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.039 that's still caught up in the shit. So sometimes we 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.080 gotta address that what's still going on in the communities, 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.200 because it's a lot of niggas that are still out 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.320 here banging and representing, and not just on our aspect 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:35.960 of LA and Southern California and Northern California, West Coast, whatever. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.760 But like I used to tell niggas, niggas was banging 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:39.560 everywhere I went. 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.760 It's across the country, Ohio, they banging in Chicago, Illinoise, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:45.040 They're banging in Houston, Texas. 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.640 That's one thing. That's one thing we're gonna try to 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.640 do too. You know, when we go into these towns 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.120 or these places, when we start hitting the road with 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.880 the podcast. 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:57.680 We want to you know, we want to know what's 0:04:57.720 --> 0:04:58.279 going on. 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.599 In the communities outside of of the stage and the 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.359 cameras and all that shit, just to you know, be 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:12.560 able to reflect on them communities were hitting, not to 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.360 just be focused on the niggas with the status or whatever. 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.240 But you know it's niggas is still struggling going. 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.360 On exactly, man, And we have somebody sitting with us tonight. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:23.680 Man. 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.320 I can't say enough about his value, the Los Angeles man, 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.080 and the things that he's done over the past two 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:33.120 maybe three. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.400 Decades now, yes, sir. 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:41.159 Decades, you know, mister Malik Spelman. I'll let him tell 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.520 what he does. He's the peacemaker. And anyone that's been 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.480 in LA or not just LA, but any place this 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.960 an urban area, you know, an urban inc live man 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.120 in our community. Man, it's hard to keep peace man, 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:58.000 with all the politics and everything's going on. Man, how 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.880 did you get into your line of work? Man? 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.400 Well, thank you very much and much love and respect 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.480 to you and brother A. You know, of course, one 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.840 of the catalysts that carried I speak collectively at this 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.919 very moment in regards to getting the efforts for a 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.919 piece during the peace treaty was his song that opened 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.160 up our radio show that stimulated the mindset of the 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:23.040 people because the music that he was playing was quite influential, 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.040 and it reached the consciousness of brothers in the streets 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.159 in such a way that you guys combined have touched 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.440 people in multiple ways that you will never know. So 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.880 when you get something like that and you get brothers 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.400 like yourself and him who were during that time that 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.159 was very critical for the survival of our race. You 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.600 guys weren't beating the war drum because there's different rhythms, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.200 and there's different music and different sounds and symbols and 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.880 colors that activate black people. Although black it's not a people, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.279 it's a condition. So when you got a brother that 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.000 was singing in them tones and then dealing with crisis 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.800 in the streets, you know, and high places, you never 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.760 know who you influence. So right now today, although we 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.520 did the peace thing, you know, I've been to three 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.000 hundred and fifty gang related funerals. I've buried little kids 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.200 in boxes this big when me and my brother had 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.160 to beat the Paul barri because no one showed up, 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.720 I've done over two hundred gang I say peace treaties 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:19.840 because at the time that was the operative word, like 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.040 the word narrative, is the operative word now, But at 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.600 that time peace was a word that was either escalation 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:27.119 or de escalation word. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.920 And now ever since then, you. 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.000 Know, peace really mean if you look at the acronymys 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.040 powered education always correct errors, you know what I'm saying. 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.120 So once we get the power to education, we can 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.520 always correct the errors of our people. So what I 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.720 decided to do, by God's grace and his grace alone 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.600 and with the blessings of the people, God inspired me 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.360 to come up with a thing called the understanding, getting 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.920 in understanding Because youngsters today, they was born during wartime, 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.200 so they're not familiar with peace, you know what I'm saying. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.320 They was born in the eighties or the late nineties. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.160 We've been at war in America for over fifty for 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.880 thirty years now, you know. And I oftentimes tell people 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.960 it's like, it's a damn shame that I've lost more 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.280 friends on the Crenshaw Strip that they've lost in all 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:08.440 the wars on the Gods. 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.640 Strip, even up to this very day, you know what 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:10.960 I mean. 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.120 I've been I've noticed that there's been fifteen thousand just 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.200 gang related funerals in Los Angeles alone, and some of 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:23.320 those people potential doctors, theologian, scientists, rappers, engineers, and philosophers. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.520 So when people ask me what is it that you do, 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:27.440 I just want to set the reconstrate because there's a 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:30.520 lot of malarkey coming across the internet in regards to 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:33.320 the efforts and the image of black men and Los 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.880 Angeles in particular, which reflects around the world, and as 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:38.679 a result of that, they think that all of us 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:43.000 as wild ass niggas and rob and kill. Absolutely not emphatically, No, 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.920 that's not the case, because we got strong individuals like 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.960 yourself and eight that are personifying their image on a 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.680 balance level to be able to convey your message to 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:53.760 the hood and keep your license to operate, as well 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:54.640 as convey a. 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.760 Message of hope and prosperity to the future. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.280 Exactly exactly, man Wild And I couldn't have said that 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.319 more eloquently. He broke it down. And I think that's 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:07.960 important because one of the elements that you mentioned was 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.880 the music. And you know, I get a lot of 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.040 people asking me, why is the show called The Gangster Chronicles. 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.880 You don't bang and and this and that. No, it's 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.000 gangsters all across the world. You know, it's gangsters all 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.320 across the world. And when you start thinking about the 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:27.240 definition of a gangster, I think we've kind of minimalized that, 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.600 you know, because there are several things in a gangster. 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.120 It's gangster the brother that wake up every morning at 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.640 four o'clock when it's rain and cold. He don't feel 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.120 like it to go go to work because he gotta feed. 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:40.920 It's three or four kids in the house and you know, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.760 put a roof over their head, and he gets up rain. 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.000 He'll sleep the snow and no despite how he's feeling physically. 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:52.080 That's gangster. The brother that comes out of prison and decides, 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.720 I'm gonna change my life and I'm opening up a barbershop. 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.240 That's gangster to me. Anyone that defives the eyes said 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.640 it forth in front of him is gangster. And when 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.800 you talk about the music like you just did, music 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.520 is a very spiritual thing, Yes, sir, it reaches our soul. 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.280 I don't know, and I'm not going off, but this 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.880 is a parallelt what we talk about. You know, everybody's 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:22.480 been talking about scarfaces, tiny desk. You know how he 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.240 had the live instrumentation there and he was just spitting 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.280 the ghetto poetry. I don't even want to call a rap. 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.079 It was ghetto poetry, you know, and it just made 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.559 you feel a certain way because music is spiritual the 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.360 same way. Well, when you in church and service on Sunday, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.680 how they get up there, they singing, man, and the 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.719 sisters get to slap, and they tambourines and they dance. Man, 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.440 It's an energy, and that energy can either be positive 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:50.079 or negative. If you're out there preaching destruction, it can 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:55.160 be negative. You're talking about a crucial period elite in 0:10:55.240 --> 0:11:01.120 the late eighties early nineties, whenmusic was just going to 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.680 a different place. And see one thing that deal with 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.200 his music, as did a lot of other brothers, a 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.640 couple other brothers, a few special brothers. They not only 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.000 showed the pros and glorified it like okay, I'm getting 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.559 away out sold fifty chickens and I got away clean. 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.240 You know, killed a couple of police officer in the process. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.439 He talks about the bad stuff that happen. I got smoked, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.480 I got went to jail, this happened to home, he 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.240 got killed. How influential do you think music was? 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.959 Well to have someone and again not to just use 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.360 the brother as an example, but having someone like him. 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:38.920 You know, you have to speak to the people in 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.640 the language in which they understand, you know what I mean. 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.079 And at that time, the way that they were able 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.960 to convey their message of experiences based on living in Compton, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.360 South Central and Watts, it had to come in such 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.520 a way that they can captivate the imagination of the 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.640 American people. So oftentimes his personal experience that he had 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.360 was conveyed through his music because that's what he was 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.640 told to do by his tribe from Tragnu, whatever tribe 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.679 that he's from. So when you get that type of 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.360 inspiration and then you going to those studios, you can 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:08.920 only if it ain't in you, it's not gonna come 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:11.439 out you you know what I mean. So at that time, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.640 there was really no voice in South Central Watson, Compton, 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.719 you know, him and a couple other brothers that was 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:18.800 putting it down and they spoke of what they knew 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.280 at that time, and the beats represented that particular period 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.800 of time. Now fast forward to this day, you get 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:26.840 a lot of stuff that's on the radio, but it 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.400 doesn't reflect growth and development or enlightenment, you see. And 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.480 there's no offense to them brothers because I don't do music. 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.360 I do people. I do human beings. You know what 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:36.800 I'm saying. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.280 I could give a rabbit's ass about where you're from, 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.520 where you come from, and I'm definitely look at me closely. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.559 I'm definitely not interested in your tough guy story. I 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.280 done ran with the Tony Bogars, the baby gangsters, the 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.439 whole gamut of real live brothers that accepted the challenge 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.959 to change, and I came out of old folksome level four. 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:04.160 I was in corkorand four house in Solano's Level four. 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:07.839 Old folksome up there in them yards with them brothers, 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:13.280 enlightening from them two twelves, that that blue note, that BGF. 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:14.600 Car, stuff that you don't know nothing about. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.040 So to all you youngsters out there thinking that this 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.640 is a tourist attraction and you're a tourists, then white 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.080 folks got something for you mine. So if you're not 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.800 familiar with the eat to E ratios, you know, your 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.520 earnings versus your economic income or the ETE ratio when 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.559 it comes to to like, for example, white people, for 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.720 every fifty dollars that we spend, they spend two hundred 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.200 on education. You know, see what I'm saying, so you 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.600 got to know the ratios in your own biological existence 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.840 and know to draw the line, because they say, what 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.120 is knowledge. Knowledge is to know the ledge of something 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.840 before you fall off. So today's youngsters, man, they just 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.240 need to be put in the right direction, because it's 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.760 really the crips and bloods and the lad a lot 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.760 of fuck with them all f thirteen's eight teen streets. 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.120 We done did pieces with them. I done did pieces 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.520 with with with with the forty six folk six is 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.120 hot Dog and them when the ventished shows name a 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.800 Negro or successful world worship, did eat Deity in Los 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:18.319 angles and not unfucked with them name of neighborhood because 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.240 there's no fear. I walked through the valley to Shadow 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.320 with death and fear no evil. I sold two thousand 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.520 gallons of PCP. My body burnt up from selling water. 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.240 I'm not no spring chicken. I just love black people 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.840 and poor people. Don't get it twisted. I was a 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.040 d number. I just happened to be the type of 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.080 nigga that got good hair and don't care about nothing. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:38.440 But poor folks. 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:43.120 Because madea's at the bus stop shitting on herself. So 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:44.800 when they get to talking up. That's why I came 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.040 onto this show, because this show will saving more lives 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:48.080 and a cure for cancer. 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:49.480 So when I come on that, I wanted to. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.080 Let the record reflect that his brothers out there like us. 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.880 That's really pushing the line. In Los Angeles, everything is 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:56.760 not foolishness and bullshit. 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:02.800 And that's what we tend to stray away from. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:03.800 I think. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:12.640 The youth, you know, as far as the communities, the neighborhoods, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.840 it's hard to try to reach, you know what I'm saying, 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:27.080 when the when the mind is young, my fascinating and 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.920 I don't even want to call it a fascination with 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.320 you know, claiming the hood. 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:37.280 I grew up a normal kid. 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:42.720 In the beginning, I thought, I did you know, uh, 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.920 like I said, single moms in the house. You know, 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.400 I still had a connection with my pops. You know 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.360 a lot of people say when the home is fatherless, 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:54.400 that's when you. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:55.040 Can you know. 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:59.120 But I think my mom did a good job up 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:06.560 until those adolescent years when you know, sometimes teenagers get 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:11.280 naive to shit, or even though you're in a situation 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:16.120 where you middle class, you know, we I grew up 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:20.120 in Compton in Spooktown. 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:22.880 Uh, moms worked. 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.920 Me and my older sister, But it just seems like 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:30.520 the neighborhood. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:34.560 Life is that was it. 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:40.600 You know, you have a lot of access like still 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.160 your son played football, my son played you football, got 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:49.240 trainers and all of this and that. But back then, yeah, 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.120 a lot of shit was n not affordable for a 0:16:52.200 --> 0:17:00.360 single parent. Walking through the neighborhoods going to sh school 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.800 as a youth, you get me. You start seeing the signs, 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.600 cars pull up on you going to the bus stop 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.080 to school, dudes asking you where you're from. You know, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.119 I guess it was the thought of unity for me. 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.399 It wasn't the all the red and blue rags and whatever. 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:21.720 It was a shit. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.520 It's a gang of niggas over here like me. You 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.040 feel me. I don't see no, you know, you know, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.640 not too many fathers around and carrying, you know, loving 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.320 family situations, and some of them might have been good, 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.160 But growing up in the hood is was our connection 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.440 to claim the neighborhood. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:44.280 You feel me. 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:54.520 I had no intention of trying to become something else 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:55.520 at that time. 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:57.480 All I saw was. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.760 Selling crack on coradon or and or hanging with the homies. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:11.880 That was my family connection at home, everybody was on 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.440 their own shit, you get me. My sister did her 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:18.000 own thing. I was over here in the hood, moms 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:24.640 was working, You get me. So I think a lot 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.920 of youth today are looking for that. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:31.680 You get me. That unity is what a lot. 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:38.280 Of motherfuckers, uh uh start claiming or relatives or cousins 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.160 who grow up in the neighborhood and that connection and shit. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.000 But I don't think you know, we realize what that 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:49.199 in with that what you inherit when you start claiming 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.960 the neighborhood because you gonna see some shit, You're gonna 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.399 see some drugs, You're gonna see some niggas dying, You're 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.879 gonna get caught up in some shootouts or whatever. So uh, 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:07.240 not having opportunities to me is what you know, It 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:09.600 is what get a lot of young niggas to start 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.680 claiming the neighborhood or growing up into the culture of it. 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:14.280 You get me. 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.320 And when you living in Compton Long Beach La Watts 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.199 at that time, when I started claiming the hood in 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:26.320 the middle eighties and shit in the late eighties, that's it. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.919 That shit was it. It was fascinating, and you know 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.920 what I'm saying it wasn't like, oh it wasn't. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.760 It was nothing else. What else was we supposed to do? 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.199 You know what's funny about you seeing that in malite? 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.880 Maybe you could speak on this. You remember before Reagan 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.400 got in the office, we had all these programs after 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.320 school to where you can go to the gyms, the 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.160 local gyms and play basketball. You had a lot more parks. 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:55.680 You see brothers outside shooting hoop. You see had more 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.560 kids playing baseball. And it is just something because I 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.080 noticed that the other day. I was talking to one 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.240 of my homies from Compton, and I said, man, you 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.560 remember when we was kids. Man, that you can go 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.720 outside and see people playing at parks. You can go 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:10.439 up to the rec center. Everybody was headed to the 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.080 rec center to play basketball. They had something going on. 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.000 They had an activity. Some brothers was even able to 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.920 get jobs once they turned sixteen. I remember I couldn't wait. 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.160 I used to be on my mama's ass to fill 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.240 out my little paperwork to get a summer job. Right 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:28.000 because you had a little summer job. I think it 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.919 might have paid you two fifty over the summer. But 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.080 she was happy that you want to bost school clothes 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:34.359 with that money, and it kind of gave you some 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.040 purpose when you spent your own money on something, you know, 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.320 because I always I discovered I liked things, so I 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.280 always had me a little paper route. I cut grass, 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.639 shovel snow, whatever I could do to make some money. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:50.560 But I had a mission. How big of an impact 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:52.440 do you think that was on the hood by them 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:53.600 cutting them programs up? 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.440 Well, it was very impactful to this in the sense 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.440 that I wrote for the Los Angeles I wrote several 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.680 hundred articles for them, and I wrote one of many articles, 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:05.560 one called. 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.359 Mama, why did you move on this block? 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.200 And basically it was giving you a scenario in which 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:12.840 like a lady moved from Texas and she moved to 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:17.919 say Santa Fe and Tucker, and she don't know that 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.440 it's the trees is beautiful, The school system looks nice. 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.280 But you put your son in that gang. You understand 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.040 what I'm saying. You put your son in that gang, 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:30.320 and then when they get to that neighborhood. I don't 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:32.920 like to call the little brothers in gangs. I said, 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.720 for the purpose of conversation, but those are escalation words 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:38.720 for the police and the system to write checks and 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.560 cost the right people. So when you see brothers and sisters, 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.800 that's in these communities that they enjoy dwelling in, jumping 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:46.359