Survived Early 90s Drug Game in NYC AMA

[Piri Tomas]

are any of the old timers or young's u knew growing up still in the game or have they move on to something else if they still around?

I'm not in contact with anyone still in the game, so I wouldn't know about that. Many were casualties or still serving bids (football numbers).

I'm still friends (although not too close) with a few people I came up in the game with. One guy was particularly wild, he used to walk around with the sawed off shottie and a .357 magnum, both always on him, just an arch-villain always busting his gun. He drives an ambulette for the elderly now. You find that what people did back then has little bearing on where they ended up (if they were lucky enough to survive). That's why I'm a strong believer in the need for prison reform that emphasizes rehabilitation.

 

[SireSiah#KWU]

Was it any resistance from the higher ups when you got out the game?

 

[Piri Tomas]

do you ever see the potential of NYC potentially returning to that level of violence?

No, I see that as impossible. The city has changed too much. In the era I grew up the city was pulling out of a period of severe disinvestment/fiscal collapse. The tax base had eroded completely as everything but the finance/service sector had disintegrated. There was an upper class in rich sections of the 5 boroughs and a lower class... The middle class had mostly left for the burbs... A lot of our hoods were left for dead, so we had free reign to do what we had to do to survive, including selling drugs and participating in the violence that came along with that.

The economic resurgence in New York has brought more opportunities to the point that people are finding a place in the formal economy and room for advancement that wasn't there before.

Then the negative side of all of this is the gentrification... The massive investment in police/surveillance that the city has made and won't cut off any time soon... So basically there are a number of factors making a return to the past impossible. I'm more than good with that.

 

[Piri Tomas]

What was the flyest gear to cop back then?

To be out on the block hustling it was a lot of grimy shyt, fatigues, timbs, 40 belows, etc.

In terms of other stuff, I loved leathers, shearlings, Bally shoes, Italian leather shoes, Polo shyt, tailored three piece suits... there was always something different for every occasion... Never a Jordans person.

 

[Piri Tomas]

Can you still cop relatively pure fingers of dope in NYC??

No idea, long removed from the drug game. If you have the money you can buy anything in NYC though, so you could probably get pure shyt with the right contacts.

 

[Indiglow Meta (R$G)]

Did you see the rise of the majority white middle class opiate userbase coming?
What was the demographic of the userbase in your time? Financial, ethnic, lifestyle?
What walk of life/civilian job has a surprising amount of junkies?

 

[Piri Tomas]

was there a dropoff in the quality of women u pulled looks wise since you got out?

If anything I was pulling better looking women after I left the game. Misery loves company, so if your entire identity is being a drug dealer in the hood you'll attract a lot of women with fat asses but no education, traumatic life experiences and chaotic home lives, tacky weave/makeup, you can imagine the type.

I'm a good looking dude, tall, good build but quality chicks with degrees, nice teeth, stable families wouldn't mess with me or take me seriously as anything other than a fling. Once I was in college and working towards a career in the formal economy my options seemed endless (not always a good thing).

 

[Piri Tomas]

Did you ever get any static from other spanish cats in the game about being Afro-Rican?

Besides Ricans and Dominicans did you see any other spanish groups with a foot in the game uptown (Colombians, Panamanians, etc.)

Did you see any junkies in really bad shape that made you feel remorseful?

Did you know any cats who got in the game with a goal in mind (make X amount of bread) and then just walk away?

Never got any static. I'm typically mistaken for a Dominican (I guess I have that look) but most New Yorkers think I have a Latin look. Now once I leave the Northeast, I'm just a light brown black guy lol. And culturally I'm more Rican than a lot of the lighter Ricans I came up with. I actually lived on the island from age 2-10. When I came back I was placed in ESL classes.

Colombians dealt in weight and that was all in Queens, they didn't come uptown. I didn't even know there were Panamanians in NYC until I moved to Brooklyn in '96, that's where they all seem to stay and mostly associate with West Indians instead of Ricans/Dominicans.

My own mother was a junkie and died of AIDS right around the time I went outside. I was bitter, cold, and didn't have much sympathy. I still don't feel personally responsible. I feel like we were all victims of systematic issues.

 

[Piri Tomas]

Was it any resistance from the higher ups when you got out the game?

None whatsoever. The second I left there was someone to step up to take my place. shyt was slowing down by then anyway. Police scrutiny was a bigger problem and you weren't getting fed off of the old cheese lines that used to snake around the block. People stuck around out of desperation at that point. A lot of people I knew were moving on to other things, or robbing people instead of selling drugs.

 

[banner34]

Do you still live in nyc now or moved to another city?

 

[BlackPrint]

Was there an OT (outta town) game in the early-mid 90s outside of DC? 2018 Brooklyn nikkas run pretty much the whole market in New England and small towns in PA..was nikkas taking those kinds trips back then or was the bread so good in NY there was no need for those markets?

Can you still cop relatively pure fingers of dope in NYC??

Yes. You got like 60-65 on most blocks in NY. It’s like bud, everything is better now.

 

[calixprynce]

Yes. You got like 60-65 on most blocks in NY. It’s like bud, everything is better now.

But weed cant be cut..... I will pay premium for quality....and they charging arm and leg on bewkrad

How much those said fingers run?

 

[BlackPrint]

But weed cant be cut..... I will pay premium for quality....and they charging arm and leg on bewkrad

How much those said fingers run?

The only time I seen “fingers” of dope was In jail Most of the time dudes cop drums/bundles and make it move like that. Flat weight though, you normally talking 80 on a grizzy. Idk what the bless would be like copping more than 3 grams at a time tho.

 

[I Really Mean It]

I don't stay in the hood like that. When I come back though it's always love. Many of the old faces are gone.

Recently saw a dude who shot at me in '92 (very stupid misunderstanding) at a local restaurant. We're old timers now, we dapped it up, laughed a little, kept it moving.

I don't know a single cat that was in the game who'd dap it up and reminisce about the old times with someone who clapped at them.

 

[Bigsuk]

By the time I was really active, Rich Porter was dead, Alpo was in DC. Plus that was mostly the West Side. Where I was Bob Lemon's name rang out, the whole world was on the Obsession wave (Boy George), Pure Energy, K-Ci and Purple City, in the Bronx the extortion game was strong, had legends like C&C, Willis Ave Lynch Mob... Chicky in Hunts Point. Uptown by my era most of the legends were Rican/Dominican

preacher n them nikkas not still around ??? If so was he really as evil and scary as nikkas make it seem ?? u not see alpo not even once ?? ...