They’re romanticized because of how young they were, how flashy they were, and because of rappers. Azie was in Mobstyle and basically them and Kool G Rap was the fathers of that mafioso drug dealer rap. Also the story with Rich lil brother made the news combined with Rich getting killed. That all hit Harlem hard. Nas namedropped Alpo then Cam was doing it in the CoC days, and Dame Dash made the movie. These nikkas big because of hip-hop. They wasn’t the biggest there was a bunch of crews just like them in Harlem alone. Those YTC dudes was getting it themselves like @Piri Thomas said in his AMA it was nikkas everywhere.
Alpo, Rich, and Azie money wise were lil nikkas if we talking about the history of Harlem drug dealers don’t think it had nothing to do with Harlem’s glitz. Nikkas got fly everywhere. Harlem is dirty and grimy too.