Survived Early 90s Drug Game in NYC AMA

[lib123]

Do you enjoy any rappers who exaggerate about drug dealing past (Ross, Pusha, etc) just for entertainment?

 

[truth2you]

My only experience with Yonkers back in the day was hitting Cross County Mall for food/light shopping. There was no reason to go there. One of my friends bought a condo on that side too when he started making real money in the streets. A lot of rap legends came out of there obviously, but it wasn't on the map for those of us hustling in the Bronx in that era. If anything dudes would come down from there and other towns in Westchester to cop work.

I thought Ma$e was wack, wasn't familiar with his shyt prior to Bad Boy... Big L I knew from his first album which I thought was good, I liked that MVP shyt, it got a lot of spins in the clubs around '95/'96--especially Kid Capri parties for obvious reasons.

I thought the Diplomats were corny. I mean those dudes are my age, some of them are from the East Side too (Jim Jones), which is my hood. Never knew about them until rap. It was a wave, thought the music was mostly low quality, although Cam can spit his ass off.

A lot of you ask me about hip hop. To be honest, hip hop and the streets were mostly two different worlds. If you were in the hustle game for real you were in uptown drug spots almost 24-7, you wouldn't have time to be ringside for Fat Beats ciphers and vice versa. We listened to what was hot on the radio or the club scene, and if we liked it we'd cop the tapes/CDs. That's why a lot of these NYC rappers from my era weren't really in the streets like that, there's no way to really advance as a rapper or anything else if you're a real street dude. You're trapped.

Everything you wrote is exactly how i see it, except on the rappers not being in the streets

If you look around 96-98, that's when guys was coming home from being locked up around the early 90's, late 80's, and at the same time the drug game was drying up, that's when more real street people started getting into rap. 50 Cent is one that is a prime example because he was one of the first to get into it when the times changed. I heard about 50 before he put out music in 97. Cormega is another one. I remember when he first get out, he was at esso's with foxy brown, and he didn't even have a song out just telling people he was the one from the Nas record, and he was gonna make some music. A year later he was on Affirmative Action album, then putting out his own shyt. Nore was another one. There is more, but you get the point. Love hearing from people back then tell stories, it reminds me of the times.

 

[truth2you]

As for food, I didn't grow up eating soul food, Rican on both sides. Once I was getting money I would hit the old restaurants uptown for all that stuff. The best thing I ever had in terms of AA southern-style food was at my boy's grandmother's crib in the projects back in the day, and I'm not even sure it was "soul food"... It was chicken liver on rice with some greens. She was mad southern, but that might've just been a thing she cooked up, not a real soul food dish.

Rican food, I love all of it, from chillo frito to mofongo, to alcapurria. My mofongo is top notch (learned how to make it in PR from my grandmother as a kid)... piped down a lot of dimes off the strength of my skills in the kitchen lol.

Yeah, that's southern. My mother make that shyt, I bet she had onions on it

My mother loves making pan fried liver, gravy and rice, with cabbage. I wasn't crazy about the liver, too irony. I don't eat any meat, anymore, so I aint eating it now!

 

[Wise]

1. How much were brownstone homes back then?

2. What differentiated the legends like Rich Porter, Boy George, from the other dope boys?

3. You said your girl said you were smart and for you to leave. But that’s a lot of money on the table you’re leaving that you wouldn’t make in a legitimate job.

4. Do you know any successful dope boys from that era who didnt get killed or go to jail (and didn’t rat)?

 

[thekyuke]

I know little about the drug game in NYC,America or anywhere else for that matter but I've read most of this trying to confirm smth:
-at what level do cops cooperate with the major drug importers?
-is at the local precinct level or higher up at state level?
-how exactly do cops and street corner drug gangs interface?

 

[Piri Tomas]

Do you enjoy any rappers who exaggerate about drug dealing past (Ross, Pusha, etc) just for entertainment?

Most rappers exaggerate how heavy they were in the streets/use other dudes' stories in their raps. I'm not a Ross or Pusha fan though.

 

[Piri Tomas]

Everything you wrote is exactly how i see it, except on the rappers not being in the streets

If you look around 96-98, that's when guys was coming home from being locked up around the early 90's, late 80's, and at the same time the drug game was drying up, that's when more real street people started getting into rap. 50 Cent is one that is a prime example because he was one of the first to get into it when the times changed. I heard about 50 before he put out music in 97. Cormega is another one. I remember when he first get out, he was at esso's with foxy brown, and he didn't even have a song out just telling people he was the one from the Nas record, and he was gonna make some music. A year later he was on Affirmative Action album, then putting out his own shyt. Nore was another one. There is more, but you get the point. Love hearing from people back then tell stories, it reminds me of the times.

I was making a different type of point. What I meant was that hip hop heads, like dudes who lived and breathed hip hop were seldom street dudes and vice versa. Being in the streets for real was a full time job, so you couldn't be up on all the new shyt because your life wasn't about anything aside from selling drugs.

There are definitely a few exceptions, people who were heavily involved in street shyt and then made a transition to rap. But notice they had to leave the street shyt alone to make that transition. Once you leave you're not a street dude anymore, you're a rapper. I did the same thing in my own life albeit not to become a rapper.

My whole thing is to move away from this idea that someone can successfully have a foot in both games. It's impossible, you either do one or the other.

 

[Piri Tomas]

1. How much were brownstone homes back then?

Real estate was obviously a different ball game in NYC back then. Not a lot of areas have that classic brownstone housing stock though. Two examples would be Bed Stuy/West-Central Harlem. In Bed Stuy I know for a fact that in '93-'96 you could buy a brownstone for 150K-300K. They now go for 8 to 10 times that price. In Harlem, the price was a bit higher.

Now in terms of city-owned buildings/buildings in disrepair that you'd have to re-model yourself, I saw people cop those things for 40, 50, 60K. But after making it suitable for tenants you'd probably be sinking in the cost of the brownstones that didn't require extensive remodeling.

2. What differentiated the legends like Rich Porter, Boy George, from the other dope boys?

Ruthlessness and focus. The game didn't choose the bosses, they chose the game. What I mean is that they didn't just become drug dealers to survive/because of a lack of other opportunities. They got into it because they were in love with the lifestyle, fantasized about rising to the top. Competition was so intense back then there were no accidental bosses. You needed to have a level of commitment and cold bloodedness that set you apart from the rest.

3. You said your girl said you were smart and for you to leave. But that’s a lot of money on the table you’re leaving that you wouldn’t make in a legitimate job.

The money in the drug game is good when it's good and nonexistent in bad times. There was no consistency. In my best stretch (about 9 months in '93-'94) I was making about 20K a month managing a dope spot. By the time I left the game behind in '96 I was making less than half that. Add that inconsistency to watching friends and associates get killed and imprisoned for the rest of their lives and you see how it's a losing proposition.

When I left drug dealing behind all I had was my GED, but I was an autodidact. I wasn't just reading Machiavelli or other shyt jail dudes read. I was devouring Economics/Math textbooks, history, politics, everything. I was fortunate to have someone at the time who convinced me that I could turn that type of intelligence into a life/career.

4. Do you know any successful dope boys from that era who didnt get killed or go to jail (and didn’t rat)?

I have answered this a few times, but very few, especially big time guys.

 

[truth2you]

I was making a different type of point. What I meant was that hip hop heads, like dudes who lived and breathed hip hop were seldom street dudes and vice versa. Being in the streets for real was a full time job, so you couldn't be up on all the new shyt because your life wasn't about anything aside from selling drugs.

There are definitely a few exceptions, people who were heavily involved in street shyt and then made a transition to rap. But notice they had to leave the street shyt alone to make that transition. Once you leave you're not a street dude anymore, you're a rapper. I did the same thing in my own life albeit not to become a rapper.

My whole thing is to move away from this idea that someone can successfully have a foot in both games. It's impossible, you either do one or the other.

Yeah, you're not doing both

 

[Alvin]

@Piri Tomas

I don't know if you answered this but if I was a civilian would I be easy food or just left alone? How many people in the hood were regular compared to the people who were slanging dope

How shytty was the bronx compared to harlem?

 

[Piri Tomas]

@Piri Tomas

I don't know if you answered this but if I was a civilian would I be easy food or just left alone? How many people in the hood were regular compared to the people who were slanging dope

How shytty was the bronx compared to harlem?

There were no rules back then, like I've said over and over again. There was a bit of a breakdown in society, everyone was strapped, looking to make a fast buck. So yes, civilians were victimized too. Men, women, and children were robbed in the streets. Women were raped almost with impunity in the hood. It was a terrible time for everyone. A lot of normal working people started arming themselves just because the environment was so wicked.

In the areas I lived/hustled (Spanish Harlem/the South Bronx) in most people were touched by the drug game either as users, hustlers, family in both categories. That said, there were a number of families that fought hard to keep things together, go to work, raise kids, maintain normalcy. I was on the outside of that contributing to the environment that kept them locked in their apartments, but I can imagine it was a very difficult time to be trying to walk the straight and narrow.

I feel like every hood in New York had the same issues going on at the time. You could swap East New York for the South Bronx for Harlem, etc. Pockets of the South Bronx had a very awful reputation all over the city. Willis, Brook, St. Ann's and Cypress around 138th were known as 4 Aves of Fear... The bulk of the murders in the 40th precinct probably took place in that tiny little section, atrocities were a daily routine. I spent time hustling there and I can't say I saw anything quite as busy in terms of street shyt in Harlem.

The Bronx in general had a terrible reputation for abandonment and neglect. Even though Harlem fell into a very bad situation in the 70s/80s there were still black elites living on the West side and on the East side not any elites but a lot of working people... The South Bronx was probably a bit more intense just because there were no "decent" sections.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

1. How much were brownstone homes back then?

2. What differentiated the legends like Rich Porter, Boy George, from the other dope boys?

3. You said your girl said you were smart and for you to leave. But that’s a lot of money on the table you’re leaving that you wouldn’t make in a legitimate job.

4. Do you know any successful dope boys from that era who didnt get killed or go to jail (and didn’t rat)?

The city was selling brownstones for $1 in Harlem at one point. That’s how shytty the area was. The people who were to scared to buy back then probably but hurt now

 

[Wise]

The city was selling brownstones for $1 in Harlem at one point. That’s how shytty the area was. The people who were to scared to buy back then probably but hurt now

Don't they go for 3 mill now?

I don't care how bad of an area. It's just a buck. I would've bought every single one

 

[Piri Tomas]

The city was selling brownstones for $1 in Harlem at one point. That’s how shytty the area was. The people who were to scared to buy back then probably but hurt now

That's actually apocryphal. City-owned brownstones in Harlem were never selling for $1. Even when the area was at its worst, people were entering into lotteries to purchase them (preference given to long-standing area residents). They were at least $15K down payments, sometimes a lot more. I'm guessing they usually went for 30 or 40K. That obviously doesn't sound like a lot of money compared to what they're worth now, but for poor people it was (and still is). Not to mention extensive work that would have to go in to making an abandoned building habitable after its only residents for a decade had been rats and junkies.

The city did do transactions with developers selling vacant lots for a token amount (usually $1) but that was a formality to call it a land purchase when in actuality it was a way for the city to privatize public land that lay undeveloped--it was akin to granting contracts to developers (post eminent domain)... The city didn't want to be the developer, this was in a neo-liberal period of putting urban renewal in the hands of big corporations/real estate syndicates that persist to this day.

While black and brown people could have done more, sure, a lot of us had our backs against the corner in that era there really wasn't any chance for people who could barely put food on the table to go out there and buy up/develop real estate. Anyone who says otherwise is writing revisionist history in an attempt to denigrate a beleaguered people with the chips stacked against us in all eras.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Don't they go for 3 mill now?

I don't care how bad of an area. It's just a buck. I would've bought every single one

I wasn’t alive at the time but this is something most adult New Yorkers who are aged 50 and up tell me.

So maybe O.P. is right since he lived throughout that era.

My mom and dad who are middle class always tell me how cheap the areas were but my mom even today still wouldn’t buy something in Bed Stuy or Harlem because they are still the ghetto to her.