Survived Early 90s Drug Game in NYC AMA

[LunaticVillage415]

They went to full on war the cops back in that era where I'm from. And back then the cops were losing. But the dope track where I'm from didn't get fully shutdown until the early to mid 2000's.

The one reason drive by's are more prolific in Cali is because AK's are cheaper in Cali than handguns in the hood, at least where I'm from in the Bay. Big guns like AK's were cheaper in the hood because they were harder to conceal. That's why back in the day, it was commonplace to see nikkas with AK's on the block like it was nothing. Also, Cali is bigger on car culture. The Bay is the car theft capital of America. Big guns plus big car culture equals more drive by's. A 2010 study concluded over 50% of all drive by shootings in America happen in Cali. Spice 1 wasn't lying when he said "Killa Cali is the state for the drive by". You don't need a car in NYC. You don't need a car in the Bay either but Cali nikkas is so fixated on car culture that nikkas hustle and do whatever so they can have a Skylark, 'Stang or Cougar candypainted sitting on gold thangs. In Cali, old schools are the trademark because back when there was a big black middle class, black folks was copping brand new whips in the 60's and 70's, but the gravy train stopped in the 80's. And the milder weather doesn't wear down cars, as well as houses, as much on Cali.

I guess Cali is just different being stuck in the cycle of hood vs hood violence. You killed my homie, so I gotta come back and kill you. Repeat x 1000. And I'm from the Bay where there is no real presence of Bloods or Crips in the black community or any major organized gangs for that matter. People don't really understand how territorial Cali is when it comes to black folk in the hood. Oddly, NYC wants to copy that shyt nowadays which is why no one from the hood outside the Tristate really respects NY from a hood standpoint anymore. Recent documentaries about NY Crips look boosie as hell. They make modern NY gangs look soft as hell.

 

[Behind-the-wheel]

Don't know anything about Bronx street politics in 2018. We didn't have Bloods when I was coming up. That started to appear as I was transitioning away from the streets.

That was part of the reason I left the Bx in '96...
Got into some unexpected shyt with an unknown and unrecognized gang member that I couldn't get over...past...or under.
First time...and last time.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

They went to full on war the cops back in that era where I'm from. And back then the cops were losing. But the dope track where I'm from didn't get fully shutdown until the early to mid 2000's.

The one reason drive by's are more prolific in Cali is because AK's are cheaper in Cali than handguns in the hood, at least where I'm from in the Bay. Big guns like AK's were cheaper in the hood because they were harder to conceal. That's why back in the day, it was commonplace to see nikkas with AK's on the block like it was nothing. Also, Cali is bigger on car culture. The Bay is the car theft capital of America. Big guns plus big car culture equals more drive by's. A 2010 study concluded over 50% of all drive by shootings in America happen in Cali. Spice 1 wasn't lying when he said "Killa Cali is the state for the drive by". You don't need a car in NYC. You don't need a car in the Bay either but Cali nikkas is so fixated on car culture that nikkas hustle and do whatever so they can have a Skylark, 'Stang or Cougar candypainted sitting on gold thangs. In Cali, old schools are the trademark because back when there was a big black middle class, black folks was copping brand new whips in the 60's and 70's, but the gravy train stopped in the 80's. And the milder weather doesn't wear down cars, as well as houses, as much on Cali.

I guess Cali is just different being stuck in the cycle of hood vs hood violence. You killed my homie, so I gotta come back and kill you. Repeat x 1000. And I'm from the Bay where there is no real presence of Bloods or Crips in the black community or any major organized gangs for that matter. People don't really understand how territorial Cali is when it comes to black folk in the hood. Oddly, NYC wants to copy that shyt nowadays which is why no one from the hood outside the Tristate really respects NY from a hood standpoint anymore. Recent documentaries about NY Crips look boosie as hell. They make modern NY gangs look soft as hell.

That’s false cause those nyc UBN bloods have chapters in most of south east America.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Why do you think the hood never went to war with cops in NYC? I'm from Cali. My hood was so bad that the Feds had to come in to take over a few times because nikkas in the hood in Cali known for not being afraid to spray up the cops. After a while, the cops wouldn't even really police the hood anymore, they would just slide through sometimes and not stop because they were justifiably shook. They wouldn't even reopen the old police substation in my old hood unless the whole building was wrapped in bulletproof glass. Is it because the cops in NY were being paid off? Or is it because the cops where you were at weren't around much because they were scared to come to the hood when it got real bad?

Do you think NYC adopting gang culture is stupid? I know the older heads with the hustler mentality generally look down on the new generation adopting gangs, let alone gangs from other cities, even if it's just using the same name like the original NY Bloods in the mid 90's.

Do you find it hard working in the white collar office world where most of the people you interact with day to day have lived very sheltered/privileged lives? Do you feel like you're hiding a secret identity from all of the uptight white folks you probably deal with at work daily?

Ever seen someone get bodied right in front of your eyes?

Did NY have a lot of large caliber weaponry on the street back then? Or was it mostly handguns? Were drive by's ever big in the hood in your area? I'm guessing no.

Did your hood beef with the other side over some dumb shyt that had nothing to do with money or the dope game that resulted in a lot of your homies getting killed and a need for retaliation?

Cops in nyc got killed a lot during the crack era. Some say the cops were also useless (the nyc Cacs)

 

[UberEatsDriver]

NY nikkas banged on cops so much they have a 1-800-cop shot number.
I

Lmao you peeped. Don’t forget the reward amount lol

 

[UberEatsDriver]

They went up and down the east coast taking Ls to JBM in Philly...and 4th X Kdy in DC

Do you have web links about those DC crews or videos?

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Trust me it wasn't just Trinidadians and Yardies doing they thing , you had Guyanese getting in the game heavy too,

Check out 0:02 of Everyday Im Hustling were Busta Rhymes talks about his coke connect from GTs/Guyanese.




Yardies were the number 1 suspects tearing up shyt with Guyanese and Trinis not coming far behind. Not sure how much clout Haitians had because they were kind of frowned upon back then.

A lot of Yardies,Trinis,and GTs ended up in other states going to war for some reason. This especially happened in DC where things were out of control.

But a lot of West Indians weren't necessarily uneducated they were poor and did anything to get out of their country,when they came to the US they did anything to make ends meet.

Since when were Trinidadians known for being big in the game? In nyc I always thought it was Jamaican, Guyanese and To a lesser extent Haitians.

 

[Sensei]

Do you think NYC adopting gang culture is stupid? I know the older heads with the hustler mentality generally look down on the new generation adopting gangs, let alone gangs from other cities, even if it's just using the same name like the original NY Bloods in the mid 90's.

I guess Cali is just different being stuck in the cycle of hood vs hood violence. You killed my homie, so I gotta come back and kill you. Repeat x 1000. And I'm from the Bay where there is no real presence of Bloods or Crips in the black community or any major organized gangs for that matter. People don't really understand how territorial Cali is when it comes to black folk in the hood. Oddly, NYC wants to copy that shyt nowadays which is why no one from the hood outside the Tristate really respects NY from a hood standpoint anymore. Recent documentaries about NY Crips look boosie as hell. They make modern NY gangs look soft as hell.

Older NYC dudes talk about the younger generation gang banging,but most of the UBN sets were started by grown dudes .They didn’t come out of no where ,OG Mack was like 24 when he started NTG,Dead Eye,Green Eyes,Pistol Pete were all about n their mid 20s.All the generals and superiors had drops in the early to mid 20s too,so its myth that it was the younger generation of misguided teens,of course you had hella teens jumping that but they were following the old heads.

Since when were Trinidadians known for being big in the game? In nyc I always thought it was Jamaican, Guyanese and To a lesser extent Haitians.

What I know is that back in the 80s and 90s young cats from any ghetto were trying to get in the game.
I didn’t say they were big I’m just saying they were in the streets moving work, like other groups.

You had cats from the Bahamas,US Virgin Islands,Belize,Panama,etc trying their hand in drugs.

I know Guyanese were known for having weight, but Yardies were the ones that were the most predominant of immigrants,them and Dominicans.[/QUOTE]

 

[BmoreGorilla]

I've read and heard a lot about the ongoing violence in Baltimore. It's a very sad situation. It seems like your city keeps on experiencing the nightmare my generation lived through in New York. All this killing over the real estate.

Yeah it's a very different game for anyone freelancing. You had to be your own muscle, your own runner, lookout, etc. Back in the day in the dope spots we had multiple lookouts, pitchers, steerers, and depending on how hot things were a few guys just to hold us down on the security tip... A lot more money, but overhead was no joke. You really had to do a lot of serving to make it worthwhile.

This has always been a violent city going back to the 1800s. But homicide numbers are back where they were during the crack era. There was a huge dip in the early 2000s. Mayor O'Malley hired a ton of cops and gave them incentives for arrests. He also is the reason for the blue cameras all over the city. I remember when they started putting them up a friend of mine joked that it would make it harder to hustle and gangs would start popping up as a result. He was right. Before this era there was no Blood or BGF presence here. now theyre all over the place. You mix that with a judicial system that has gotten very lenient and here we are today. Killers come in and out of jail like its nothing. Ironically enough these policies are what helped get the cops off who killed Freddie Gray.

Cops have always played a major part in the drug game tho. Some tax, others are on payrolls. The cops gotta be one of the biggest suppliers in the city. Its nothing to ride past a strip and see nikkas operating as usual with a cop parked at the end of the block with his lights on just there to make sure nobody gets killed. Wasn't like that at all in my day. We saw cops and it was time to vacate

 

[Piri Tomas]

Makes sense. What about those who were all-in full time (street level on up) like you? 5-10%?

Thanks for doing this. Very insightful.

I was on the middle management level so by the time you got to where I was you had people under you/responsibilities. Not a boss by any means, but you were in the mix enough for the police to care about your existence. I'm guessing maybe 25% of us got out without an F on the record.

Boss/lieutenant/full time muscle level, probably about 10%. A lot of them got clipped too. shyt, people got clipped in high numbers at every level.

 

[Piri Tomas]

They went to full on war the cops back in that era where I'm from. And back then the cops were losing. But the dope track where I'm from didn't get fully shutdown until the early to mid 2000's.

The one reason drive by's are more prolific in Cali is because AK's are cheaper in Cali than handguns in the hood, at least where I'm from in the Bay. Big guns like AK's were cheaper in the hood because they were harder to conceal. That's why back in the day, it was commonplace to see nikkas with AK's on the block like it was nothing. Also, Cali is bigger on car culture. The Bay is the car theft capital of America. Big guns plus big car culture equals more drive by's. A 2010 study concluded over 50% of all drive by shootings in America happen in Cali. Spice 1 wasn't lying when he said "Killa Cali is the state for the drive by". You don't need a car in NYC. You don't need a car in the Bay either but Cali nikkas is so fixated on car culture that nikkas hustle and do whatever so they can have a Skylark, 'Stang or Cougar candypainted sitting on gold thangs. In Cali, old schools are the trademark because back when there was a big black middle class, black folks was copping brand new whips in the 60's and 70's, but the gravy train stopped in the 80's. And the milder weather doesn't wear down cars, as well as houses, as much on Cali.

I guess Cali is just different being stuck in the cycle of hood vs hood violence. You killed my homie, so I gotta come back and kill you. Repeat x 1000. And I'm from the Bay where there is no real presence of Bloods or Crips in the black community or any major organized gangs for that matter. People don't really understand how territorial Cali is when it comes to black folk in the hood. Oddly, NYC wants to copy that shyt nowadays which is why no one from the hood outside the Tristate really respects NY from a hood standpoint anymore. Recent documentaries about NY Crips look boosie as hell. They make modern NY gangs look soft as hell.

I don't know much about California in terms of the crack era. From what I've heard and the way you describe it sounds very different.

We didn't have a culture of hood vs. hood. I come from an era that is unrecognizable to most people who visit NYC today. In my day people were constantly moving building to building fleeing the fires... landlords just straight up burned down their shyt to collect insurance. In the Bronx/Spanish Harlem it was regular for a kid to have had numerous addresses by the time he hit adolescence. Crews that were built off of blocks as in we were all born and raised here existed but they tended to be small time moving small amounts of crack/dust. For most organizations your enemies didn't live in a specific neighborhood. They were every other crew in the vicinity selling what you were selling.

New York is a very individualistic place. Money has always been the key element. Everyone wanted to get put down with a crew in that era that could allow them to access that major pay day. Those crews were businesses with divided/regimented labor force. Lookouts, steerers, pitchers, runners, managers, muscle, lieutenants, and bosses. Organizations might have spots in 2 or even 3 (rare but it happened) sections of the city. So what you did in the streets depended on where your opportunity was, not so much what building you were from. We modeled ourselves after the mafia in a sense.

The projects were a little territorial, but like I said the projects weren't the most active/out of control drug markets in my era.

From what I know about them, LA/Chicago gangs did not start as fundamentally criminal enterprises. They were a way for local kids in very specific neighborhoods to have strength in numbers (and yea little of that community uplift element way back in the day). We had gangs like that too in the 60s/70s but crack erased them. In New York we just had organizations that existed to protect and generate income off of drug sales--had nothing to do with a specific section and never anything to do with protecting the community.

Revenge was a big motive in murders in NYC but it wasn't abstract as in a long time ago they killed a gang member in our hood now it's beef on sight. If someone killed your family, friend or associate they might become a target. Not their whole crew, just that person or anyone who might stand in the way of getting at that person. A non-stop war made no sense from a business perspective. And if you became a liability to your own people due to a penchant for starting unnecessary beef, you'd better believe it might be you who gets clipped next.

 

[Piri Tomas]

That was part of the reason I left the Bx in '96...
Got into some unexpected shyt with an unknown and unrecognized gang member that I couldn't get over...past...or under.
First time...and last time.

That must have been one scary motherfukker to make you leave the city entirely lol. I knew a few people that would have that effect on me back in the day if God forbid I ever crossed them.

 

[Piri Tomas]

This has always been a violent city going back to the 1800s. But homicide numbers are back where they were during the crack era. There was a huge dip in the early 2000s. Mayor O'Malley hired a ton of cops and gave them incentives for arrests. He also is the reason for the blue cameras all over the city. I remember when they started putting them up a friend of mine joked that it would make it harder to hustle and gangs would start popping up as a result. He was right. Before this era there was no Blood or BGF presence here. now theyre all over the place. You mix that with a judicial system that has gotten very lenient and here we are today. Killers come in and out of jail like its nothing. Ironically enough these policies are what helped get the cops off who killed Freddie Gray.

Cops have always played a major part in the drug game tho. Some tax, others are on payrolls. The cops gotta be one of the biggest suppliers in the city. Its nothing to ride past a strip and see nikkas operating as usual with a cop parked at the end of the block with his lights on just there to make sure nobody gets killed. Wasn't like that at all in my day. We saw cops and it was time to vacate

Yeah it seems like your city is actually more wild now in many respects than it was in the crack era. What you're describing about the patrolman just watching from the safety of his vehicle, indifferent to the presence of a busy open air drug market is exactly what NY was like in the early 90s. Maybe they were overwhelmed to a degree because some sections had 2-3 crews operating per block (not street, block), but I know for a fact that there wereuniformed officers (and even some DTs) getting paid to look the other way.

In NYC the gangs also appeared with the end of the big time hustle game. If your identity can't be a kingpin/aspiring kingpin anymore because there isn't money in the street like that you need to identify with something to show people you're official. That's the best way I can describe it.

 

[Behind-the-wheel]

That must have been one scary motherfukker to make you leave the city entirely lol. I knew a few people that would have that effect on me back in the day if God forbid I ever crossed them.

Seriously...it was.
I could have taken him on...one on one...but weak ass gang members don't move like that.
Once he let his crew in on his plans I had random people approaching me at places all over the NYC area.
It was gettin hard to breathe at one point...couldn't fight em all and I wasn't tryna intentionally kill anyone...so I had to jet.
Plus my family was actin stupid too...
No better option at the time than to leave the state.

Best decision I ever made.
NYC woulda ate me...literally....and I had plans and goals.

 

[Houston911]

@Piri Tomas great thread

"Cops on payroll, every block got blow/we fight every night, reunite and pop mo'"

What kind of business relationship did y'all have with dirty cops?