PaperEnterprise
It's the inner strength..
Thats why I asked player.
Survived Early 90s Drug Game in NYC AMA
- Thread starter Piri Tomas
- Start date
Thats why I asked player.
What made you get out? What did you learn from that life that you still apply to everyday life now?
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Devil Plisken…CMS
Veteran
Who was the most honorable person (by criminal standards) you dealt with?
Was there anyone you secretly were on pins and needles when dealing with due to them being nuts?
What was your fondest hustling related memories? A particular vacation? New car? Buying the bar out at the club?
Was there anyone you secretly were on pins and needles when dealing with due to them being nuts?
What was your fondest hustling related memories? A particular vacation? New car? Buying the bar out at the club?
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How did the Dominicans push the Ricans out of NYC so fast?
Did you have any black dudes in your crew?
Did you ball out at Jimmy’s Bronx and take hoes to city island?
Did you have any black dudes in your crew?
Did you ball out at Jimmy’s Bronx and take hoes to city island?
Piri Tomas
All Star
I got out because my girlfriend at the time believed in me and convinced me I was too smart to be a drug dealer my who life. Had my GED at the time, no felonies, and decided that college was a real possibility.
There isn't much in terms of practical skills. I had to learn how to be passive aggressive in my current field. You can't hit someone in the head with a baseball bat when they undermine you in my current world. I guess just general toughness and not taking things too personally. People will always operate out of self aggrandizement and avarice no matter where you find yourself.
Piri Tomas
All Star
No honor among thieves, that's a general principle anyone thinking of getting into the hustle game should keep in mind. The guy who put me on when I was 13/14 was a good dude. Everyone on the East side knew him to be honorable, not greedy. He was killed by his own man who he fed and clothed... That's just how it was.
In '93 my whole crew went on a vacation to PR. We were on the beach, hit every club in San Juan, and New York hustlers got a lot of love over there for the all the designer shyt we had on. It's a blur because we were all a little enpericados and drinking rum like it was water, but that was a good memory. Everyone young as hell just enjoying our riches (actually burning through them)
Piri Tomas
All Star
Whole crew was mixed. I'm Afro Rican, but we had black Americans and very pale Ricans who hustled with us. In the Bronx/on the East side ethnicity was never a big deal. Out of towners or even Brooklyn/Queens people can't fully appreciate the way our street life was mixed. There were no gangs. Now if you hit Rikers, it was a different story.
Yes to Jimmy's Cafe, no to City Island. Back then if you were making money in the streets Manhattan was where you took your women. City Island was for the working man.
Piri Tomas
All Star
The Dominicans didn't push the Ricans out. They were the connect in the coke game, but Ricans didn't let them touch our dope markets. Ricans never joined the crack wave like that.
As for city demographics, the economy in PR was improving in the 80s/90s so the migration from the island wasn't really happening anymore. IF anything people were moving back to escape dirty ass New York. Also a lot of us got pushed out do to gentrification/lower cost of living. Dominicans keep coming because there is always need for low skilled workers in the service economy in NYC, same reason why tons of Mexicans continue to flood the city.
Fukwatutalkinwatisaylaw
Superstar
What was the sound track to ur life at the time did ur fam know or care u was in the streets @Piri Tomas
Piri Tomas
All Star
I wasn't hired muscle, I ran spots for bosses. But we all had to muscle up when the drama came, you couldn't avoid the violence/beef back then. Hired muscle meant a hitman, contract killers, dudes who were actually paid just to hurt/kill people.
Got robbed all the time, mostly by our own people.
In terms of confrontation it depended. You can't fight every battle, that's how a lot of lives were lost at a young age. But if you paid for your spot and it was yours, you couldn't back down.
Piri Tomas
All Star
Investigation of financial crime wasn't as intense back then. Unless you were a major player and you had amassed a fortune it wasn't hard to put things in other people's names
Indiglow Meta (R$G)
Ultra.
So you were there for the wild cowboys days?
Body packing or internal?
Body packing or internal?
Piri Tomas
All Star
When I first starting hustling it was Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, we all liked that fly shyt. By the time I left the streets Nas, Wu Tang. It was a terrible era, but we were around for the golden age of hip hop, the conditions created that music.
Came from a very messed up family environment. It's not that they didn't care, they didn't have the ability to do deal with their own demons and struggles long enough to put effort into keeping me off the streets.