Sophomore year of HS. I lived and went to school in a part of town that was your every day middle class 1st suburb outside the city limits (suburb starter pack: townhome, decent schools, minivan). It was sold as the American dream. We had "made it" out of the hood.
Come to find out the Crips and Bloods had arrived. Cube's "My Summer Vacation" breaks it all down.
Miami had its own homegrown gangs, who ran the streets in the late 80s. But by early 90s, Janet Reno had em locked up and on the run. The new generation was mostly wannabes, and that's where the blue and red came in.
A couple of real gangsters from LA would move and enroll in school. They them recruited the most promising of the wannabes and put em on missions
high school house parties went from harmless keggers to stabbings and gunplay. shyt started going left fast.
Had to watch who you spoke to and were seen with "yo you down with them?"
We're talking suburban teenagers in the early 90s. Nirvana was huge. So was NWA.
A couple of them gangbangers I knew from back then are still in the streets, running survival scams, in their mid-40s. shyt breaks my heart but at the same time we were all given the same choice and opportunity. Do for self, God.