He Taught Me How To Hunt Humans | Akasha Williams | Avalon Gangster Crip

  Akasha Williams opens up about being raised around violence, surviving street life, and the moment his life changed forever after being taught how to “hunt humans.”
In Part 1 of this powerful Indelibly Marked testimony, Akasha Williams shares his journey from childhood trauma, LA gang culture, Avalon Gangster Crip history, Kansas City street life, survival, grief, prison lessons, and the mindset that shaped him before healing became possible.
This is not a glorification of violence. This is a true testimony about trauma, survival, accountability, street culture, and the consequences of being raised in environments where pain becomes normal.
May your wounds become beautiful scars.
Guest: Akasha Williams
Episode: Story Pt. 1
Show: Indelibly Marked
Subscribe for more real stories, powerful testimonies, street survival stories, healing conversations, and documentary-style interviews.
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Dominique Kuykendall
https://youtube.com/@indelibleartsnetwork

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

We get in the car. We in a cutlass. They shot the car 75 times. I got shot in my back, in my head. I got shot in my left thigh, came out my dick, and I got shot in my left knee. My cousin, who was driving, he got shot like 20, 30 times. He got killed. A younger sister that's three years younger than me. And I had another younger brother, but he got killed. Yeah, so them is all of my siblings. Now, as far as my childhood was my parents around, they was and they wasn't. So uh let me think. So I was born in Arkansas.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

But I was supposed to be born in Los Angeles. But the reason I wasn't born in Los Angeles is because the 19th, I was born in '84. The 1984 Olympics was in LA. That was a flowjo and all of that. So from my understanding, of course I wasn't there, so my mom was pregnant. The LAPD went to all the different hoods in LA and was like, hey, y'all got to get y'all black asses out of LA. Because if y'all do what y'all doing now, when these Olympics come, we just gonna kill y'all and lock y'all up forever. So they told all the game, we're gonna give y'all a few minutes to get out of here. And then when y'all come back, we're gonna let y'all do what y'all want. So my pops left when my mama went to Arkansas. I was born in Arkansas. The Olympics came, went. He gave her some time, you know what I mean, for me to get a little older, me to get a little bigger as a baby. Then we went to back to LA. So when my mama goes to LA, this is when LAPD was already like, y'all can do what y'all want. We appreciate y'all's cooperation for the Olympics. You got to think crackhead, uh, AKs, Uzies, Max, all these different guns and all this different stuff here. This is like 84, 85. That's why you always hear people talk about 1980. I mean, uh, 1985, it was crack, because the police left. They didn't care no more. So my mama coming back out here, she thinking Eddie Murphy, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Hollywood. Did nobody outside of LA really know about Crips and Bloods and uh Serenos and crack. So when she came back out here, she was like 20 people got killed. It's probably like the matter of a month just around these projects they were staying in. So she hightailed her ass back up out of LA and went back to Arkansas. And that's how I was born in Arkansas. And then from there, it was a thing of where I went back and forth between my mom's and my pops. So wherever my mom was at, I go to school, I go to school there, but then as soon as school is over, I go be with my pops. So they was around, but they wasn't. Because when I go to LA, my pops out running around. You know what I mean? Yeah. Uh and then when I'm out here, I'm just basically going to school, then I'm running around. So like I know them, but I ain't never really been around them like that. Were you and your siblings close? Nah. Uh so my little brother that got killed, I really didn't even know him. He was a baby when I got locked up. And my little sister mom's didn't like my mom. You know how that type of, uh I was messing with him, you got my man, all that old type of stuff. So uh I never was really around her. And me and my older brother, we lived together because this is my mama's firstborn son. But me and him was never close because he's not the type of dude that I am. Like, he's like a he's like, I get money, mess with girls, and I don't want no problems. I'm like a grimy dude. I was raised different. So we didn't even like we don't even like each other. If we wasn't brothers, we wouldn't even Yeah, just two. If we was just two regular dudes, I'd be like, man, that nigga a pussy. And he'll probably be looking at me like man, that broke ass nigga always tripping. So we wouldn't even, yeah, we didn't even like each other for real.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

And y'all still don't talk to this?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Like really Yeah, I ain't talked to my brother since 2000. The year 2000. Yeah, I ain't messed up over it either.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

So which culture sticks to you most, the LA culture or the uh what is it, Arkansas you said?

SPEAKER_03 5:02

No, no, or so let me go back to that. So when uh so we was in Arkansas, we left Arkansas when I probably was like four or five. Okay. We moved to Oklahoma. So what happened was my mama met a dude from Muskegee, Oklahoma. A lot of people don't know it's a lot of pimping going on in Muskegee, Oklahoma. My mom was basically a prostitute. Not basically, she was. You know what I mean? She was selling pussy. So we go to Oklahoma. And what people don't understand about, when people, I'm a pimp, I'm a pimp. Pimps are very violent. They don't, you don't, pimps don't talk women into you can't talk a woman into becoming a prostitute, you have to beat her into it. So this dude is beating my mama all the time. My whole life has been rooted in violence. From when I was born, I'm in LA, '85, all the gang stuff is going on. To now it's domestic violence, watching this dude beat my mama all the time. And of course, he's beating me and he's beating my brother at the same time. So this is going on. Like he like burnt my brother, threw like some hot fish grease on it, burnt this whole side, almost killed. It was it was crazy. So uh one day we have a me and my brother have a mutiny, a rebellion. We like, man, fuck that. Where our mama is we never see our mama. You know what I'm saying? She's always somewhere. We never see her. We might see her in the morning, but at night we never see her. We didn't know it's because she's she's a hoe. She's out hustling. So we just like, man, fuck that. We want to see our mama. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the nigga take us to the hole straw. And while I'm I literally remember this, I'm probably like six or seven. I'm seeing my mom in a mini skirt. She was behind a factory selling pussy. And she just broke down crying. That's what fucked this pimping up. Because she broke down crying, like, why would you bring them here? I just remember her keeping, so why would you do that? Why would you bring them here crying? He walked off. Probably like two days later. My mom is like, Y'all want to move to Kansas. So I got an uncle that was uh, he messed with computers. This is IBM had the campus in Overland Park. So he's like some type of computer something. He did something with computers. Nigga had money. So my mama like, she wanna go to Kansas. So we moved to Kansas. We literally packed up all our stuff in the middle of the night, threw it in the car, and we escaped. And then we came up here and we stayed with my uncle probably for like a month, two months, probably longer than that. Then we moved to my neighborhood. I'm from the trays. We moved to 30th of Wayne. So, yeah. But as far as like you said, which culture had the biggest impact on me? Yeah, but when I but we we'll get back to that. Uh uh.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah, that's that's come back to that a little bit. Let's go back to Oklahoma. Yeah. Where you sing that. When you what how did how did you do you remember how you felt when you sing that, sing your mama back there doing that?

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Nah, because I didn't know what she was doing at the time. Yeah, you know what I mean. I didn't I didn't understand this till later. Uh, and I really don't mean when I'm in LA, because they got a street in LA called Figaroa, the fig, you know what I'm saying, or the blade. Yeah. And I remember seeing these, these, these bras on the blade, was like, man, that's what my mama was doing. That's when it dawned, I'm like, Mom, I was selling pussy back in the day. But by now, I done, I done been exposed to so much stuff, it really didn't, it didn't bother me. But then I didn't know what it was. But I knew when I was in Oklahoma, I was always scared. You know what I'm saying? I was scared of dude. I used to petrify the dude. You know what I mean? And that's a big part of the pimping thing. And that fear I had of him actually had an effect on my whole life afterwards. Now that I'm older and I can look back and analyze it, like, yeah, that shit changed a lot.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

And how long did you say y'all was in? Is it called Muskegee?

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

How long did you say y'all was there?

SPEAKER_03 8:56

I can't remember, man. Uh, it had to be like just a little over a year. Right. I'm gonna say about between a year and 18 months. And how old was you? When we got there, I had to be about five or six. Because when we moved to Kansas City, I was like eight or nine or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

So you was in elementary?

SPEAKER_03 9:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Do you remember what type of person you were in school? At that time?

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Nah, nah. See, but here's the thing with me in school, even back then, I've always stood out in school. Uh-huh. Not because I was hella smart or I was hella dumb, but because my birth name is Arsenio.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

So this is when this is when cuz is popping. Arsenio Hall. So yeah, yeah. So even all through school, I always stood out. But I can't remember. Then I just remember playing pencil break all the time. Pencil break.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah. I sucked. But yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Yeah, I just all I really remember going to school then was we was always playing pencil break.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Yeah. Uh was your mom did she name you after Arsenio? Or did she?

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Yeah, she named me after Arsenio Hall.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah, I've never heard of anybody else in life besides Arsenio Hall, named Arsenio. Yeah, yeah. That's different. How did that make when they was talking about, were they talking about your name, or they just was rooting your name like Arsenio?

SPEAKER_03 10:18

So here's the thing. I could fight my ass off. Like, like, like for real, bro. Like I can fight. Like I'm cold with my hands and my feet. You know, I might even kick you. You know what I mean? But all of that came from the fact that my name was a CEO. Uh-huh. So all during school, I don't know if they put this in the memo, because every school I went to did this shit. So like we can be in the classroom. It's funny now. But then when I'm nine, 10, 11 years, I hated that shit. But now I look back like, man, that was fucked up. You know what I mean? So uh and you know, because of comedians, I got a real good sense of humor. I got a I got a very good sense of humor. So a lot of stuff I can laugh about. But they'll literally be in school and they'll be doing roll call and they'll be like, Mike, here, Tanisha, here, John, here, Keisha, here. Arsenio. I'll just be sitting there like, man, I can't stand this shit. Everybody in the class, whoo, hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh, right. So now when I tell the teacher, hey, fuck you, bitch, stop playing with me. They'll just, they'll just call my mama and just tell her I cussed out the teacher. Because in their eyes, they wasn't doing anything wrong. You know what I'm saying? They just having fun with my name and shit. So when they'll call my mom, and for real, that's why I'm not close to my mom's, is because like I can analyze all of this shit now that I'm older. So when they'll do that, they'll call my mom. Them teachers, teachers used to be on sucker. I still don't like teachers to this day. So they'll call my mom's knowing she at work. Like, yeah, your son just slapped the shit out of a teacher, or he just beat up a kid, or he cussed out a teacher, he attacked the principal. I'm doing all of that because I'm the only Arsenio. So the janitors is Arcinio. And then I just so happen to have long fingers, you know what I mean? So the janitors is Arcinio, the, the, the, the, the, the chick in the cafeteria, oh, they're going to Rasinio. Everybody in the school. So when I'm getting into it with everybody in the school over my name, they calling my mama. And my mama's like, why everybody in the school messing with you? So everybody in the school lying on you messing with you. I'm not. I can't really, I don't have the mental ability to express it to her, like, yeah, motherfucker, you name me Arsenio. You goddamn everything. That's why everybody's messing with me. I'm the only Arcinio they know, other than Dude. And he's coming on TV every night. You know what I'm saying? So I'm trying to tell my mama, like, nah, they all be messing with me. She ain't trying to hear it. She just knows she had to come from work, come to pick me up, take me home, and now I'm getting a whooping. So that made me be like, you know what? Fuck you then. I ain't talking to you. Because you don't believe me, you don't care, you don't want to hear it. I wasn't old enough to be able, so I just shut down, like, not talking to her. You know what I mean? And then as time went along, she couldn't understand it. I couldn't explain it. But by the time I was mature enough to start talking, I kind of already was, yeah, I'm in the other side. You know what I mean? I already been turned out now. So ain't nothing for us to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

And that lasted all the way to through Kansas City, too. Like when you got Kansas City. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

So, but the thing of it is, is people that know me like outside of school, they all call me Bird. My mama calls me Birdie. Where did that come from? I don't know. So it's always been a joke. My name's always been a joke. So in my hood, it was Birdie. But then certain people would call me Bird. You know, it depends on how they feel. If they're feeling jokey, they'll call me Birdie. Because that's what my mom and my aunties all them be saying. Uh but it just regular, just moving through day to day, it was Bird. So in my neighborhood, it was never Arsinio. So it was never the jokes, it was never any of that. So when I go to school, it's Arsenio. So the whole time in school, yeah, yeah, my name was the joke. But then when I got like into high school, it was a conversation starter. I got a lot of pussy behind being Arsenio. Like, you know, like, yeah, that's my pops with the dead to be dad. You know what I'm saying? Like, for real.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Like, yeah, I don't fuck with that nigga.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But in elementary.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

You said you didn't fuck with him? Yeah, that's what I tell people. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Like, man, nigga knows Cineo Harley. That's my pops. That nigga dead to be dad. I don't fuck with that nigga, man. Oh my god. You serious? Like, yeah, so what's up, dog?

SPEAKER_02 14:41

You know what I'm saying? I'm glad the internet wasn't around at that time because you done had people looking at him crazy. You know, take care of your name.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

This part is right now, like, I knew his son. I was a teaching son, he a piece of shit.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah, one more thing I don't want to miss back in the Oklahoma thing. Moving, leaving old dude. Did he make it? Was it easy to just leave him like that?

SPEAKER_03 15:05

He didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

He didn't know. It was literally like he went somewhere, and we hurried up and put some stuff together, put it in the car, and literally left in the no transfer of schools, no nothing. Come on, y'all, we gotta hurry up and do it while you're gone. Shh, and hopped in the car. It was like an escape.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

So with all that you then took from Oklahoma, now you coming into Kansas City with the fear of that dude on you, but it's probably off of you now. But is is anybody feeling the brunt of that when you get here?

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Alright, so so that's why I said that fear had an effect on me. It had a permanent effect on my life, and this is why. So it's crazy because it literally used to be like every Wednesday. I don't know what the hell happened to me on a Wednesday, I can't remember in Oklahoma. But every Wednesday, and I remember this now, I have a nightmare about him catching us and doing something to us. Literally every Wednesday, I had this nightmare. And I used to be scared, and I was so fearful that I done actually tried to kill myself a few times. When I'm like nine, ten years old, I like hung myself from a closet. My mama done found me hanging from the little, the little beam you put the hangers on and the thing. I tried to cut my wrist a few times. So my mom, then you got to think when I'm going to school, they playing with my name. I'm worried about this nigga. Uh I was I was psychologically, I was emotionally messed up. You know, I had mental health issues when I first came from Oklahoma to Kansas City. It done been a few times I done tried to kill myself. Mama gave me a, had me go and see therapists, psychiatrists, and all that shit. But I'm a kid, so I don't really know how to take to that. Yeah, verbalize this or express this type of shit. I just knew I was scared. Uh and the written the permanent effect it had was when I signed up to be on this gang shit, the fear was gone. No more nightmares, no more fear of this nigga. Because I knew now, nigga, I'd kill you, or my big homies would kill you if you came around. So there's no more fear. And that fearlessness is still with me right now.

unknown 17:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

I ain't been scared of nothing since I was 11 years old.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

When you so when you went to therapy and stuff, were you able to at least tell them about the dream today?

SPEAKER_03 17:33

I didn't tell them nothing. Yeah, I ain't tell them nothing, man. Because I looked at them as the police. Yeah. And I was from a kid, I was raised, don't talk to no white people, don't talk to the police. So, yeah, I didn't tell them nothing. So they didn't know what was going on. So they couldn't go back and tell my mama nothing. Nobody knew what what it was.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Wait, your mama is the one who told you to it took you to therapy, right? But she was telling you not to talk to the white people? Nah.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

No, she was so my mama's telling me to talk to them to get some help.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

But I'm like, I don't trust white people like that. You gotta think. I'm so all my life, every summer, I go to LA. So when I'm in LA, I'm around gangbangers. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm around gangsters. All my people is gangster crips. So I'm around them. And they're giving me this gangster shit. So when I come back, I'm around my mama, she's taking me around these white people. I'm like, man, I ain't, I don't, I don't talk. I don't talk to white people. It's like snitching. You know what I mean? So I'm not talking, and I'm not talking to her because when I try to talk to her about the people messing with me in school, she don't want to hear. She just whipping my ass with extension course, whatever she can get her hands on. So I'm not talking to nobody about it. I'm just really just dealing with it.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

So it's safe to say up until you got with your crew or your gang, you didn't feel protected. Because you said when you got with them, you started, you you wasn't feared, you didn't have any fear anymore. But before them, it was fear stuff from the dude.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

So it'd be fear if I'm in Kansas City. I go to LA, I'm not worried about it. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, it was a point where I actually got put on to the hood. But by birthright, everybody in this area already know he's a crib. You know what I mean? But it wasn't until a certain time that I actually got put on. But when I'm out here, I don't, I'm not worried about that nigga. That nigga can't come out here and do nothing. My uncle will kill that nigga. You know what I'm saying? But when I'm in Kansas City, because it's just me, my mom, and my brother, and he done whooped all of us. Oh, I know he can whoop all of us. You know what I'm saying? This has been proven. We can't whoop this nigga. And together collectively, we can't obviously we can't handle the niggas. He was fucking all of us up and we was all in the house with him. That's when the fear really kind of kicked in.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Well, so when you get when you start to maneuver around here and get out into the street, what point was that?

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Kansas City, meme. Uh it was after I got put on and watched. But like I was running around like stealing bikes, breaking the houses and shit as a little nigga. You know what I'm saying? But like just being like active, I probably was like 12, 13, something like that. And to me, 12 or 13 saying oh, but I was a kid.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

It's pretty young. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I know a lot of people started nine, even seven years old. But that's 12, 13 is young. Yeah. So you gotta put on and watch, but when you come here, like seeing that we're not really gang culture like them out there, did you have to put people on here? Or what were they following your lead here?

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Nah, so here's the thing, right? The stuff out there is like hella militant. Yeah. Like, it's like hella militant. You know what I'm saying? And when I come out here, I see Crips and Bloods from the same hood. I'm like, what? You know what I'm saying? Like, when I got older and I'm conscious of this gang shit, I see Crips like, man, what is this what the hell is this? You know what I mean? So when I kind of started really getting out there around 12 or 13, as far as the gang stuff, I didn't even look at the gang shit out here like that. Cause it's completely, it's completely and totally different. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's certain niggas out here, I was like, ah, that nigga cripping up the park. You know, that's a that's a little thing we'll say. Like, he's cripping by the book, you know what I'm saying? Uh, or he's banging by the book, whatever side of the uh rag you on. It was a few people, a few hoods that I look like, ah, them niggas be cripping for real. You know what I'm saying? They know what they're doing. Them niggas be cripping by the book. Uh, but then the Lot of people, I'll be like, I don't know what them niggas doing. So a lot of niggas out and take serious. But there's a few hoods out here that I'm like, oh yeah, them niggas on their shit. Them niggas be, and then individuals, I'm like, nigga, remind me of my cousin, so that nigga this and this. But overall, as a majority, I didn't really look at Kansas City like with the with the gangbanging. Of course, you know, it's murders, it's all this old rah-rah shit going on. But just as far as just strictly gang banging, I didn't look at it like that.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

And you being from the motherland and then coming here, did you like mind your business when it came to them not knowing they shit? Like you didn't really tell them, like, hey, you should do we do it like this out here.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

Nah, I never did that. Nah, nah, even when I got locked up, I wasn't. I wouldn't know. Now, like, like my little crew, yeah. Yeah. If you around me, I'm like, look, we're gonna do this, this, because I'm going out here, I'm getting a hell of an education. You know what I mean? So as far as like this gangster shit. But I never was just like, oh man, you niggas, nah, I'm I'm too chill for that. You know, I'm a real humble dude and I'm very secretive. A lot of people out here didn't even know I'm going out here for the they just know when the summer comes, I disappeared. You know what I'm saying? I'm out here, I got a whole nother name, a whole nother identity. I'm a whole different dude. Then I come back out here just like, ah, yeah, I was with my family for the summer.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

What did receiving that education mean to you?

SPEAKER_03 23:30

Later in life, it got me through all that time in jail. You know what I mean? Because I was so sharp. I just knew, I just knew how to maneuver, just just around wolves. But before me going to jail, it didn't really have an effect on me. You know what I mean? Because for real, like in my core, I'm really like a nerd. I like learning. I like going to school. Like, I literally go to school, of course, once the Rasenio shit kind of tapered off. Like I go to school, I sit in front of the class. I was never a class clown. I'm not the nigga skipping school, shooting dice in the hallway. I'm not the nigga smoking weed in the car, then coming to school smelling like weed. I'm not the nigga carrying guns in school. I've always been very good at uh how you pronounce it?

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Compartmental.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Yeah, gotcha. We know where you're at. So I've always been good at that, right? So once the Arsenio shit tapered off, I'm going to school. I want to learn. I have a passion for learning. I love learning. I love reading. You know what I'm saying? So I sit in front of the class, I do all my work. They give us homework. I literally leave, be sitting in my car, do my homework. While I'm sitting in the uh the uh parking lot of the school, knock it off real quick, put it in my glove compartment. Because I know once I pull out this parking lot, I'm on street shit and I forget to do my homework. So when I come back the next day, I'll be like, damn, I got it's right here. So I always been good at that. Just like when I'm in Kansas City, I tone it down as far as like the rah-rah shit.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

When I go out here, it is, yeah, I'm a whole different dude. When I'm in school, I'm a whole different dude. Just like it's people that know me now on the streets would know how I was in jail. And then other people would be like, ah, him? So I just know how to be who I need to be in the moment.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Yeah, but your people here knew you as a street dude, right? They acknowledge you as a street dude?

SPEAKER_03 25:36

I don't really have no people in Kansas City, right? It was just really just me, my brother, and uh, and my mama. Now I got some third cousins, some fourth cousins, but I don't really know them like that. But as far as like my mama, my brother, yeah, they knew, because they already done seen me trying to kill myself. They already done seen all this. They like, yeah. My brother, like my little brother messed up. My mom be like, my son got mental health issues. We just kind of just leave him in the in the backbone somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah, after seeing that's why I asked you that. Like, uh, did they know you for being a street dude? And because I wanted to know like what that put on them seeing you uh being smart in school, but you said you didn't have very many people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

So, all right, so I got so it's a story, right? All right, so it's a story in my life. So I get locked up in this spot out here called Ozanel, right? And mind you, boxing is my favorite. I don't like team sports. I don't like depending on nobody else for my win. I like boxing is my favorite sport, and then tennis. Where tennis comes from, I don't know, but I like playing tennis. I like watching tennis. So when they locked me up in this little group on mind you, I got the mental health stuff going on where my mom would put me in spots to try to get help. I was supposed to be in this spot for 30 days. Within that 30 days, I probably done whooped about 10, 11 niggas, right? Not on no violent crazy shit. I just like boxing. They had basketball, football, soccer, tennis, they had all these different sports to play. I just like boxing. So I'm just knocking niggas out. They in my weight class, I'm gonna start a fight with them and put my hand and put my hands on them. Boom. I'm not doing it out of no anger or nothing, but my 30 days turned into nine months. You know what I'm saying? Because I just keep fighting. And uh they thought it was something wrong with me. So they actually thought I was slow, and then I'm not paying attention in class, I'm not doing the work, none of that. They like, man, something wrong with her senior. We're gonna give them an IQ test. They give me an IQ test, right? And now, if anybody, I don't know if you ever seen it, but when you take an IQ test, it's not arithmetic. It's like it deal it's dealing with puzzles. You know what I'm saying? So it's the difference between education and intellect. Education is what you've been taught. Intellect is what you've been endowed with from birth. So they give me these puzzles, and it'll be like make a red square with a black, I mean with a white background. I hurry up and do it. Or make a red cat with a white tail and a red and white background. I have to make it with these little puzzles. So it comes back. Fucking IQ is like 140 something. So the whole time y'all thinking I'm slow, I'm not paying attention. This is this shit y'all teach me. I don't care. It's it's beneath me. And then me fighting is just because I like boxing and I like boxing. Why? Because it's an intellectual challenge. Because you got to be moving and thinking hella fast. If a nigga hit you hard, you're like, oh shit, I can't let him do that again. So you got to think hella quick, like in microseconds, of how I can stop this fool from hitting me like that again. So, yeah, so then nobody really know I was that smart or intelligent.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

How did they treat you after that though? After they seen that IQ. Who people? No, yeah, the people, the older people.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

Ah, they still didn't know. I'm around, I'm telling them uh uh I'm in a uh a group home. So people on the street didn't know. The group home knew.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, like the people who made you because they thought you were slow. The people who made you take the test.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

All right, so here's a story about that. All right. All right, this is a funny story, it's hella derogatory and shit, but it's funny. So, so after they find out I'm hella smart, right? They put me in a class where they're trying to figure out what am I what is what am I good at?

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 29:40

So they find out I can write. I've been writing. You know what I'm saying? I've been writing since I was a kid. I was writing poems when I was eight, nine years old, as soon as I really learned how to write, writing short stories and all of that, right? So they like, ah, you can write real good. And then Ozinam, Ozinam is in Martin City, Missouri. Ozinam had a little newsletter, a little newspaper back in the day that the kids would put together, and then they'll connect it with Martin City, and it'll have different little stuff in there or whatever, right? So they like put Arsenio as the editor and the publisher of the newspaper. He probably like the smartest motherfucker in the school, and he can write real good. We never knew that this nigga, he's hard. So they'll have me putting the newsletter together, whatever. So one day a teacher or somebody was like, Senior, won't you write something for the newspaper? I'm like, all right, bet. I never, I was just putting it together. So rewind, I'm in O's now, I'm a badass. So I'm hanging out with birds of affair at the flock together, hanging out with all the rest of the badass little niggas at the school and shit. So we used to have this joke we used to tell each other, right? This is a true story. We had this joke. It's hella, it's it's hella gay now. It's a big pause. But we was kids, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. So uh we'll walk up to each other, like, hey man, you know the vein, and you'll be like, who? Dave, who? Divane on this dick, nigga. You know what I'm saying? And this is the joke. We we'll we'll tell each other this joke every day, all day. The teachers is hearing it, the staff members is hearing it. I'm taking it. We'll we'll get in trouble for this, right? All day. Hey man, you know the vein? We'll yell it all the way across. Hey, you know the vein? What the vein on this dick, motherfucker? You know what I'm saying? So when they tell me to write the story, I write a story about a black superhero named Divane Williams, right? So, and in it, I'm literally talking about, I'm talking about my my John, talking about my dick. And I'm describing my dick in the in the story, right? And when it's he's fighting crime, he gets hard and he shoots some white shit. I can't remember that would go. I can't I can't remember exactly. I just do, but I I know I know I know when he got mad, he got hard and veins started popping out of his neck and his body and shit or whatever, right? And his head got big. I can't remember. I fought I wish I could find that head.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

His head got big, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

So I wish, I wish, I wish I could find that shit, right? So uh when I put it in the newspaper, all these teachers and staff members is coming to me like, Arsenio, we love the vein. We need more of the vein, whoop-de-woop, whoop-de-woop, right? So it's a lot of cute women that worked at Ozin now. So now all these cute staff members that we've been lusting over, like, hey Arcinio, we need the van. Like, uh, you want me to come with some more divine? Yeah, come with more of the van. Me and the rest of little bad asses, we die. This is the funniest shit to our little bad nigger rich asses in the period, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Well, they hearing them say this to you. Yeah, they with me.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

They like, Rosinio, we want more divine. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna give you the van, I'm gonna give you the van.

SPEAKER_03 32:53

Like, yeah, I love the vein. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So eventually, they probably don't know why they y'all laughing so hard. So eventually somebody snitched on me, like, hey man, y'all know he's talking about this dick. And now, because they done they done heard us cracking this divane joke, they like, hold up. That's the little joke that these little niggas be talking about, Divane, Divane on that. So now they go back and they read it, and now they're paying attention, like that's nigga talking about this dick. We done put this shit in the newspaper on the street. He done made about four or five different stories. We've been applauding it. So one day they call me to the principal office. It's like my mama, some mental health caseworker bride, uh, the principal, my teacher, they got me in the rooms, all these white people, only black other black parts, my mama. And they got to look like, nigga, if we can lynch your black ass, we'll hang you. I swear to God, we'll hang your black ass, boy. You just embarrass the shit out of us. So I come in there, I'm sitting down, and everybody talking crazy. Senior, that was the my mama just crying. She like, what the fuck is wrong with my son? He wrote a whole thing about your dick, boy. You nasty. So everybody's mad, right? But I had a teacher named uh Ms. Jensen, I think that was her name. Older white chick. She was a self-proclaimed white panther. A lot of people don't know that there was black panthers and there was white panthers back in the day. Yeah, so she's a self-proclaimed white panther or whatever, right? So she's really into black culture and unifying black people, white people. This is my uh teacher, because once they found out my IQ was high, they put me in her class. And me and her was like real cool because she allowed me the room to be creative. So everybody talking about me, you know, and we're gonna we're gonna lynch this nigga when his mom ain't looking and all of this shit, right? So while then when they finish saying what they saying, she's basically like, all right, listen, Arsenio needs to get in trouble, but we have to acknowledge the fact that this dude who a month ago we thought had a learning disability is actually a literary genius that fooled adults where we didn't even know what he was talking about. Yeah, it was derogatory, but we have to really acknowledge that and we have to push that. So my little badass, yeah, I'm a literary genius. They just look like if you don't shut your fuck out, just all right, man, my bad. I tried, I tried to rub with it. So I got in hell of trouble. They took me off the newspaper. But uh after that, I end up getting put into a program to go to KU. So what I would do is what they would do is I'm in the group home from Monday through Friday. And then on Friday, when school is over with, a van to come pick me up and take me to Lawrence, Kansas. And I stay in the dorms, and then I do like some English and writing classes with kids that went to uh KU over the weekend. So that was like how that changed for me. That they put me around older people, you know, some of older kids and shit. And we used to go back and do the writing stuff.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

That's exactly what I was thinking, though. I'm like, bro, you gotta acknowledge the story was created to get y'all to think it was real. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's probably the best story to hear. Like one of the best. It's at the top. It's at the top. I say that. When it comes to that group home setting, though, uh, besides the boxing and all of that stuff, what what was like what was it like being in group home?

SPEAKER_03 36:20

I hated it. I hated it. I hated all hated it. I just I didn't like it. I didn't like nothing about it. Like, what was some of the day-to-day there? Like some of the some of the day-to-day hatred that I had. Yeah, I mean it was just being there. It was just, it was just, so all right, let's rewind. So my grandparents is War Panthers back in the day. Like, if you go look at that uh 1965 Watts riot footage, my grandfather's on there getting his ass kicked by a cop.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

He one of the niggas that the dog gets bite and the cop is smacked. You know what I'm saying? That that ride kicked off on 116th in Avalon, that's right around the corner from the uh Avalon Gardens from the projects or whatever. So I was raised with that. You know what I'm saying? Even though my aunts, uncles, and pops, you know what I mean, they became gangbangers and shit, but a lot of people don't know. A lot of that stuff is closely tied, especially out there, because the police out there is like oppressive. So I was raised with that. Black empowerment, freedom, you know what I mean? So when I'm in these group homes, I'm like, man, this shit, nah, man, I need to be able to be free. You know what I'm saying? I can't, I just couldn't get jiggy with that shit. I couldn't, I didn't like it. You know what I'm saying? I don't like nothing about it. And they used to try their damnedest to make it cool. Like, man, you can't make me being in here cool. I don't care what y'all do, I'm not cool with it. I'm I'm uninstitutionalizable. Like, you can't make me institutionalize because I can never forget who I am. You know, you can't you can't break my spirit. So I never, nah, even when I older and I got locked up, I couldn't function. I can't deal with this shit. You know what I'm saying? I know who I am. You know what I mean? So, and a lot of that being locked up is one of their main tasks is to keeping you captive, is to get you to forget who you are. If you can forget who you are, then they can tell you who you are. Or they can give you a new identity. That's why they give you a number, or they give you this, or they give you that, they need to give you a new identity. Because long as you know who you are or where you come from, they won't ever be able to conform, they won't ever be able to conform you or completely control you. Yeah. And y'all can't ever get me to forget who the fuck I am.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

You so you say your grandpa was in the watch, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

What's why you start chuckling like that? Because they beat his ass, man. We used to sit there and watch, like, that's your grandpa right there. It was it was funny to us, but it wasn't funny. Like I said, I got a I got a I got a good sense of humor, man. It wasn't funny when it was happening, but years later he'll laugh up when that dog met the shit out of me, man. You know what I mean? So, but yeah, yeah, he was involved in that.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

What's some of the stuff he told you about it, like the the uh feel of that time?

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Uh uh he was just telling me like the police was just really like just hogging. So Watts has always been like where they keep kept the blacks and Mexicans, because that's all the projects is. So then they just start really clamping on it. You know what I mean? They was just his thing could be like, man, they was just dogging us out, man. And then when he told me about the riots, he basically was just like uh it kicked off because how the hell did that kick off? They was at an after hours or something like that. And I want to say the police are raided after hours. But like the after hours wouldn't bother nobody. They just went out their way to start fucking with them, and then one thing led to another. But yeah, my pops, I mean, I said my pops, my grandpa's really just kind of just he just wanted to ride. You know what I'm saying? He already was a ride going on. He stayed in the garden, he hopped in the car, went over there, and just jumped in it.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

Mm-hmm. Going back to you, uh the the you said you were stealing bikes and breaking in houses? Yeah, yeah. What got you started into doing that?

SPEAKER_03 40:27

Shit, other the other other little badass niggas in the hood was doing it. Like we're gonna go steal these bikes and go break in these houses. So you got the so I stay on the west side of Kansas. I'm west of 71. So my hood, our hood, is the last hood before you hit truce. And you know everything on the other side of truce is like, that's the money. So when we want to go break in the house, we're not breaking in Miss Johnson's house down the street. We going across truce, and we all by Westport and Crown Center, and all this is within bike distance of us. So then somebody came, like, man, we go over and break in these houses. It was a dude, I don't know where this nigga came from. You know what I'm saying? He wasn't from the hood, he just popped up a little nigga. But this nigga was like an expert in breaking it, this nigga breaking your whole house with a butter knife. And he showed us how to do it, how to walk along the walls because the uh detectors in the house, it only picks up certain space.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

The space isn't, it's not programmed or designed for the walls. So if you're walking along the walls, this little ADT joint back in the day, I'm pretty sure it's more advanced now. Yeah. But the ADT joint couldn't pick you up. So we'll just walk along the walls till we get to where we're gonna get. Because all you got to do is get around the little thing in the corner. You get around that, you can do what you want in the whole house. And this nigga used to literally break in people's houses with a butter knife. He gave us the game. We'll go steal a bike, shoot a cross-truce with a butter knife. And it got to the point the older homies from the hood was putting in requests. We breaking in houses. We kids. We breaking the houses. Literally, we'll break in your house. We're looking to see if you got an attendo and some porn. We don't care about jewelry, money, guns, none of that. We just want an attendo and some porno. This one porno. Yeah, this one. This porno is the VHS. You know it's a porno.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

You can look at the cassette like, man, that's a porno. You know what I'm saying? You don't got to say nothing, man. That's a porno, man. We gotta the homies are like, hey man, give me a such and such. If you still such and such, give me some such and such. Like, all right. And then we'll go over there and you know, and we'll just break in the house. We weren't even tripping over no money.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Wait, wait, wait, wait. When you say y'all was wasn't tripping over the money, I thought you were saying the younger people that you was with wasn't tripping over.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

No, no, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. The OGs just wanted porn too. Nah, them niggas won't shit. Nah, nah, they'll be like, they'll be like, you find some, they knew they wanted the shit that was valuable. They're like, oh, y'all find some guns, nigga. Bring y'all find some jewelry, some stuff. Yeah, some of them niggas was like, nigga, bring me some of the porn, nigga. You know what I mean? I think well the majority of me like, nigga, you find a good, nigga, bring it back. Like, all right, we'll get we we didn't care about no no no gun. We just wanted the video games and the you know what I'm saying, shit like that.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Did y'all start to sell in the video games and stuff after that?

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Hell no, I told you what's tripping over money. I mean, damn, y'all, how many do y'all need? Everybody in the hood needs one. You know what I'm saying? Everybody that's with us neither a PlayStation nor a Super Nintendo. Yeah, because let's just say we gonna break in this house, they got a PlayStation. And we get a PlayStation to such and such. Uh huh. Okay, such and such got a PlayStation at his house. We get a Nintendo, such and such got an Nintendo at his house. I got a Super Nintendo at my house. Uh uh, what was the other Dreamcast? He got a Dreamcast at his house. He got a Sega Genesis at his house. Gotcha. Whatever new game come out on whatever system. So we got somebody. It was a disorganized organization. You know what I'm saying? So we can go here and play PlayStation. And then some of the homies might have a Super Nintendo in the PlayStation. So we at his house all the time.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

And that never got shaky with y'all as far as like, um, you shouldn't have the PlayStation. I should have the PlayStation. Like, y'all never fought amongst each other.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Nah, we'll just go break at another house and find another PlayStation. If I wanted a PlayStation, because everybody else, like, we're about to go find me a PlayStation. And we'll literally probably hit damn near every house on the block looking for a PlayStation.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

They didn't never catch on in y'all.

SPEAKER_03 44:41

Like Yeah, I'm saying so eventually the police got wind of it.

unknown 44:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

You know what I mean? And there used to be literally was times where the police would be like coming through the hood with pictures of us on their dads, because you got to think. I my I my hood is the uh police station on Linwood.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

So the police, like you can walk out my back door and you can see the police station. You know what I'm saying? You go to the park, the police station is literally right here by the park. So we real close to the uh to the boys. So eventually they got wind, they'll come through looking for us, but they can't catch us. One of the uh, like Sun Zoo talks about in the art of war, you know the lay of the land. We knew the layer of the land. We knew if we ran through this house, it's a hole in the fence over here, or we ran through here, it's a lot of alleys in my hood, too. We can run here, jump in here, go here, run in such and such house. Because mind you, all of us is in the loop. We're still in shit. Y'all know our pictures, but y'all don't know where we stay. So if y'all catch us outside, we break, we hit this alley, hit this alley, and now we at somebody's house as a part of the burglary ring. And they like, all right, y'all cool. And then certain niggas' mamas knew what we was doing. So they like, shit, I don't care. That nigga just brought me a microwave yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 46:01

Yo, bro.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

What's she gonna do? Was she gonna be telling police we in here? Nah, because you know you on some earrings. So when we go break in this lady's house and we find these little uh sapphire diamond earrings, we gonna give them to you. But that was a part of like I was the leader of the little nigga crew. That was a part of my education from out there. Make sure everybody in the hood is cool with what you're doing. Yeah. So by me breaking in this house, the big homes like, man, give me this, give me this. All right, here. Uh different niggas' moms. Oh, well, if y'all see some, I know my microwaves went out. My VCR, all right, we got you here.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

The microwaves and VCRs was big back then, bro. Riding on a bike. We're gonna figure it out. We're gonna phrase.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

We're gonna we'll just put it and we'll just be going. Because now you think you put the microwave on your lap and on the handlebars, you holding it with your own, yeah, yeah. And you just pedaling.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Man, if I was a cop and I seen y'all just pedaling with a microwave. That's crazy. I never because you said y'all was coming from the other side of truth, right?

SPEAKER_03 47:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

And the cops never seen y'all.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

But here's the thing with the police the closer you are to the police, the less you have to worry about them. So the only time the police is coming past our hood is when they come into work and when they leave and to go out on their patrol. So when they see us, that means they either going in to work, they ain't a cop yet. They ain't on the clock. And when they drive past us going to where they need the patrol, they going out. This ain't y'all area. We going to where we supposed to be going. And we knew the shifts and all of that. So we knew when it was a good time. We we sitting there, we can watch when they change the shifts. When you see 30 police come out and 30 police go in, what time is it? 3:30. All right, that's when they change shifts. You know it ain't no police out while they change the shifts. And we'll just skip school and hit hit a whole block. It'll be so many of us, we can hit down there a whole block of houses and then just, but we'll never ride back as a pack. We'll ride to the spot, but then we'll break up. Then you go this way, you go this way, we're gonna go this way, and then we're gonna meet back up at such and such house.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

That's wild, bro. What's the most you done personally in one day? How many houses? Yeah, and what y'all doing is like day to day to day to day to every day.

SPEAKER_03 48:36

Every day. We're doing this every day. That was our whole thing. We was still school.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

And you said this was the white neighborhoods on the other side of the truth?

SPEAKER_03 48:45

Yeah. You so you got to think, all right. So let's just say, let me think of a street. So it'll be truce, Harrison. Let's just say we go on 30th and Harrison, right? Which is like a block behind truth. We can hit this whole block. Boom. And then a lot of stuff that we steal it, you're not even gonna really, you're not gonna really, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 49:07

Microwave.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

But yeah, I'm saying, yeah, that you will, you'll, you'll peek that. Yeah, but like, but it's not like we just hitting microwaves every day. If somebody put in a microwave request, they get in the microwave. You know what I mean? Uh so a lot of the stuff you wouldn't even notice that day. So let's just say if it's 10 blocks on this house, we hit all 10 blocks uh on this house, right? And let's just say only five.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Ten houses on the block.

SPEAKER_03 49:34

What'd I just say?

SPEAKER_01 49:35

10 blocks on this house. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

10 houses on this block, right? Okay. So let's just say we hit 10 houses on this block. Five of the people in the houses realize this shit missing. They call the police, right? Uh four or five days later, the other file, hold up a minute, it's some shit missing. They call the police. So what does it look like when the police come to report that somebody hit this hood twice in a week? Nah, we hit it all in one day. And then we do the next block, or we might go down by Crown Center. We knew how to mix and match this. We got a whole vast, it's a lot of houses when you cross through. It's a lot, it's a lot of places we can go. And we'll just remember where we went and we wouldn't ever double back. Yeah, we did our share of stuff, but we weren't that good.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Y'all was smart because they were just organized organization, man. And you said, and you said y'all did get caught at a point, right? Nah, we never got caught.

SPEAKER_03 50:38

Okay, I thought I asked that earlier, and you was like, here you go. The crazy thing is, the one I caught a burglary, right, when I was young. And the crazy thing is, I caught a burglary for breaking in my own house.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Wait, what?

SPEAKER_03 50:51

That's the only burglary charge I ever had. I lost my key. My mama was at work. I broke in the house. We had the ADT joint. I don't care about the ADT joint in my house. I just come in the house, get the move. Next thing I know, the police is coming through the door. I'm like, hey man, what are y'all doing? Come on. And they lock me up. But when they lock me up and they take me to detention, they like, what was the address of the house? Such and such, such and such. Oh, that's the address to this nigga. I'm I was trying to tell y'all, man, it was my house, man. Only burglary case I ever caused you and juvenile, they don't they don't dismiss the charge. They just let you go. It'll still be on your records. You know when your juvenile. No, but you know your juvenile, your record closed anyways. So it don't even matter. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

Okay, once y'all stopped the what at what point did you stop taking from the houses? Like how long was you doing this?

SPEAKER_03 51:48

I'm saying we was doing it. I'm like 10, 11 years old. Okay. What's the transition? The truth? The truth. The truth of what the transition was? Yeah, I want the truth. I got shot and started killing people. So breaking in houses was like.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

Yo, you guys stop laughing at you making me laugh. I'm trying to stay serious.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Nah, I'm just playing.

SPEAKER_04 52:15

That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Oh no, can we run in? Yeah. Yeah, the truth. All right. Alright, we're back. The truth. Yeah, well what's well just paste it in. You can just tell the story, bro. Cause I ain't gonna be able to stop laughing.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

What? Tell the story.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

Yeah, yeah. You went from uh uh Robin kicking indoors.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

Yeah, I'm saying I'm saying to where butter knife indoors. The the uh butter knife indoors is crazy. I never I never that's a hell of a terminology, man. Yeah, I never looked at it like that. But that's kind of what we was doing. But uh now it was the window. It was uh use the butter knife. You know, you got the window, you got the little thing. You stick it through the little and then you just push the lash back, and then you just let the window up. Okay. They did, yeah. I don't know. I just know you stick it in there, you you push the thing over, and you in there.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

It's the funniest serious episode.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

You gotta pull up in that flip. Oh, okay, okay. But uh, so tell you the story of what now what did you transition? What made you transition from uh stealing boxing? I just I uh so the so the whole burglary stuff was just in Kansas City. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't do that in LA. Like you can't just you can't, for one, you can't just go from one area and go over to the next area. Like if you in LA and you think you're about to just go to Hollywood, or not Hollywood, but Beverly Hills or or or or something like that, or Baldwin Hills or something, and then just start breaking in people's houses. Nah, LAPD's not going for that. Okay. Because as soon as you bring your ass across certain streets and you got on certain stuff, what you doing over here? You know what I'm saying? Period. You got on some dope man, you got on some chucks, you got on some type of Nikes, you got a hat on, you got a uh any type of dicky, anything, and you ain't a Mexican with a lawnmower, they flagging you. You know what I'm saying? Like, nah, you don't get your, you don't supposed to be over here. It's hella hella racially divided. But uh yeah, I got shot. When I got shot, man, it changed everything. Oh, what? And that was in the summer, right? Because you would go to summer. So, so I don't want to say how old I was, because then I say the year, and then no, you know, like code cases. But uh, so like for my birthday one year, my birthday, uh I'm a Leo, my birthday in August. So all my birthdays, I'm out here. So for my birthday one year, my pops, like, I'm gonna have to put you on to the set. This is his birthday gift. You know what I'm saying? This is what he's been doing. This is what his brothers and sisters have been doing.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

So good gift for you. Um you like that as a gift at the time?

SPEAKER_03 55:25

Yeah, because my pops liked it. You know what I'm saying? You know, you little nigga, you like, oh my pops like it, fuck it. Gotcha. So they put me on to the hood, Avalon Gangsta Cribs. I'm Avalon. You know what I'm saying? So they put me on to the hood. A week later, I get shot. So I'm coming out of a liquor store, and I'm outside of a area, or so in LA, after the riots, all of the hoods and Watts had a uh a truce. When you hear about the Crippin' Blood truce, that started in Watts, right? So all these hoods and Watts, because Watts then was like the most active area, because these are all the projects. And it ain't nothing, there's no good part of Watts. I'm not saying that Watts is bad, but in the eyes of the media and the police, there's no good part of Watts. Everybody in Watts is in, is, is involved in something. You know what I'm saying? So out here, y'all would think it's comp to know Watts was that's where they shot Minister Society. You know what I'm saying? They shot Minister Society in Jordan Downs, which is not that far from the Gardens, you know what I mean? So um they have a truce, and to commemorate the truce, they started a football league. Like y'all hear about Snoop Football League. That's not Snoop's, that's not new. That's been going on since the uh riots. Okay. So uh, and then all these teams have played each other. So one year we had a football game, and I'm in a blood hood, and I'm coming out the liquor store. But everybody can come to the hoods for the, you know what I mean, for the football game. Like Crips can go to Blood Hoods, Bloods can go to Crip Hoods. We're here for the football game. So I'm coming out, I said some shit I shouldn't have said. You know what I'm saying? Uh, but I'm a kid and I'm just talking. Somebody says something, and I respond to how I would respond if we was in the hood. You know, I just I was just too lax, I was too comfortable. So I come out, uh, I see the niggas in my periphery, but I'm not paying them no attention. I didn't even know that they heard me. I always had a deep voice on my voice carry. We get in the car, we in a cutlass. They shot the car 75 times. They shot, I got shot in my back, in my head. I got shot in my left thigh, came out my dick, and I got shot in my left knee. My cousin, who was driving, he got shot like 20, 30 times, he got killed. His brother, who was in the passenger seat, got shot like 12, 13 times. He got paralyzed with that nigga cool. Now he can, he can, he can walk again. Uh so when I wake up, I'm in the hospital. You know, I got Tupac. You know what I mean? How Tupac had the bandage around his chimney? I got that. And I remember waking up in the hospital, and my uncle was standing over one I said is a he a crackhead, he a, you know, he's a junkie, but he's an OG gang banger out here. You know what I'm saying? He's a first generation alpha gangster crib. He's like a thorough nigga, like a lunatic. You know what I'm saying? My uncle was crazy. But the nigga was, oh, I never seen this sob, I never seen this nigga sober in my whole life until this day. So I wake up, I open my eyes, I look up. This grimy, this ugly nigga too, man. That nigga look like a crackhead, man. My uncle just hovering over me, man. And I was like, man, this nigga ain't even high. I didn't even know what sober. Boy, it's how young I am. I don't even know what sober means. I was like, this nigga ain't high. Like, nephew, we're gonna kill all them motherfuckers. I'm like, all right, uh, I go back to sleep. Uh when I finally get out the hospital, yeah, my uncle took me under, because his son, his son is the one that got killed. So when I get out the hospital, my uncle took me under his wing. And that nigga taught me how to hunt human beings. He's literally come get me. We get in the car, show me different stuff with guns, how to get up on niggas, all of that. This is what my uncle gave me. Like, nigga, you're gonna be a killer, nigga gonna die, yeah, yeah. I'm just like, all right, uncle, whatever. And we just sliding around. And because it's a war zone out here, I'm not, I wasn't the only nigga of that age getting taught that lesson. I wasn't the only nigga from my hood getting taught that lesson, because it'll be other little niggas with me. And I just remember my uncle when I first was in the car with the nigga, man. It's me, my uncle. It's me, some little niggas, my uncle, uncle in the passenger seat, his right-hand man who also be getting hyped, these niggas, they raise murder rates when they get mad. He dropped. Uncle turned around, asked us, hey man, what's the first rule? It's a murder. Uh we all say some stupid shit. I think one nigga said something like, uh, uh, don't leave a witness. Uncle slapped the shit out of him. Uh, this is not uncommon in LA for you to get the shit slapped out of. Niggas slap you all day when you're a kid, even when you get older. It's not looked at as a bad thing. Uh other niggas say something, slap him. I think I said something like, uh, kill all the witnesses, the nigga slapped me. I still got the goddamn thing around my head. I'm like, Uncle the bullet, you trapping. His right-hand partner started laughing, like, man, you about to kill the little nigga, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:46

The bullet.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:47

Because the bullet was still in my head. Bullet's still in my head to this day.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:50

You about to kill the little nigga, man. You know the bullet, go move.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

He laughing. Uncle, ah, my bad nephew. I'm trick. I'm trick, man. I'm sorry, cuz I'm sorry. So he's like, nah, dumbass niggas, man. The first rule to murder is make sure the motherfucker's dead. Like, kill him. Like people say it now, like, walk him down. That nigga told me that hell is ago. Like, man, you walk him down. You get over him, you make sure that motherfucker dead, man. You check and make sure they dead. So, like, when you look at the uh, like you see that video of Nipsey Hustle when he got killed, and then cuz kicked him in the face, that's an LA thing. You know what I'm saying? That's a that's a that's a gangbang thing. He making sure that the nigga dead. You know what I'm saying? Or is so close to death that he ain't gonna, he ain't gonna make it. You know what I mean? But uh yeah, that's why my uncle did me. I'm like, nigga, and I'm just with this nigga. And then so me coming back out here after that summer, like, man, that's I'm not doing that shit no more. I'm not, I'm a I'm a whole different nigga, man. Shit that I done seen, shit that done happened. Yeah, I ain't even I ain't even thinking like that, man. A bullet is either gonna do one or two things. Well, of course it can possibly, if you don't die. It's either gonna make you a bitch or it's gonna make you a beast. Period. Whether you're gonna be a beast like, man, I almost died, I'm about to just get hella money. Or you're gonna be a beast like I almost died, I'm about to just kill hella niggas. Or you're gonna be a beast like, man, you know what? I'm about to just get a family and just really push a hard line. That don't make you a bitch because you jumped out the game. Or it's gonna make you a bitch where you're gonna start telling, you're gonna be scary, you know what I mean? You just it's either gonna do one of them two things. It's either make you go become a hoe, or you're gonna go hard in whatever it is you choose to do. You know what I'm saying? I went hard in banging. Them niggas shot me, my uncle, like yeah, and he turned me out.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

You said you got shot in the penis?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:46

Nah, I got shot in my left thigh, my upper left thigh. And you know how that area like where your penis is connected, like to your body, it came out right at the top of that. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

That's because I've always been scared of that. Like when shots started ringing off, I don't want to get hit in my penis out. I couldn't imagine how that would feel. Like so I didn't even said that.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

No, I didn't even feel it. So uh I re I think this is what I think. I don't remember. But I think the first bullet hit me in my back. And when it hit me in my back, my whole left side went numb. I didn't feel nothing else. Now, this is kind of funny, but it's not funny. Right. I told you I got a different type of sense of humor. So I feel getting shot in the head, but I don't feel it like it hurt. I just feel my head jerk over, like and I remember thinking as I'm passing out, like, this nigga just shot me in the head. God, and I'm falling over. Well, I'm falling over fast, but it feels like slow mo. And I'm like, God, I'm about to die. And then I fell out. That's when I woke up and seeing my uncle. It's only funny because I can say it in the way you said it. No, I'm I'm telling you, literally, I I literally remember that when the bullet hit me, my head jerked like boom. I said, Damn, this nigga just shot me in the head.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

You don't put that in a script. That's hilarious, bro. That's yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll be after that, just knowing you got you you thought you were about to die.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:28

What was it like like right after that, though? Like I know your uncle did it, but I'm talking about going through the process of going to the hospital and all of that. Like your mind state.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:38

I really can't remember the hospital because the whole time I was in the hospital, I was addicted to morphine. So when I don't know if they still do it now, but when I got shot, they give you two buttons, right? It's like these little things you put in your hand, there's like a button at the top. One button is for the nurse, the other button is for the pain. And because of the way and where I got shot, they can't like have me laying flat down because I got shot in the back. So they got me at a crazy angle. And uh the nurse was like, look, when it starts hurting too much, push this. And it'll help with the pain. She don't tell me what it is. Like, then, you know, if you need the nurses, push this, you need us to rotate, you push this one. So it starts hurting. I push this button, right? And they got the little IV joint or whatever, and that morphine hit me. That morphine is the best feeling I ever felt in my life. I said, Oh, this shit here. Damn. So every time I feel even a smidge of pain, I'm hitting a button. But the button is on the time release. So my whole time in the hospital, I'm just watching this clock. Because I'm literally just counting down. Like, man, when this time's gonna feel this shit. So I remember asking, like, yes, on the time release, it only comes like every four hours, six hours, or something like that. I hit it and I just look at the clock. Okay, it's 1231. All right, so 12. So, all right, so at four I can hit it again. I don't give a fuck what nobody's talking about. I don't care. Pops coming in there. My pops. My pops came in there. Hey man, don't tell your mama, man. Yeah, man. Don't tell your mama, man. She ain't gonna let you come back out here. I'm like, all right. My mama didn't even know I got shots in 2015.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:24

Damn near 30 years later. You know what I'm saying? Uh so I'm the whole time, that's all I remember is me looking at this clock. Like, man, woo. And then I'm high and I float away. And you'll probably be high for about a good strong two and a half, three hours. You strongly high. And then it'll start to taper off. I didn't even want the pain to even hit. I'll literally be asleep. Oh shit. You know what I mean? So I really don't remember the hospital stuff. Now I remember like the last four or five days because they took me off uh morphine and put me on methadone. I hated that. I hated that. I couldn't stand that shit. This shit don't do nothing. I'm hitting the button. It's like, what is this? This ain't doing nothing. It's like, nah, it's taking you off your addiction to the other drug. No, bitch. I want to be addicted to the other drug. The fuck? I don't want to be not addicted. I liked it in my addiction. What the fuck? So I really don't remember being in the uh in the uh hospital. I just remember right when I got out the hospital, they had my cousin funeral. You know what I'm saying? My cousin that got killed, they was having this funeral. And then I remember being in the funeral, like, man, I'm about to terrorize these niggas. Like, I'm about to kill all these niggas. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm about to fuck some shit up. My uncle been in the hospital with me. You know what I'm saying? And he's been putting that shit in my head. I'm like, I'm about to fuck some shit up. Then you got to think we in this gang shit. A gang funeral is a whole different type of thing. You know what I'm saying? So everybody like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm about to fuck some shit up. You know what I'm saying? I'm about to really fuck some shit up. Because you hear it is you got a kid that just six months ago wanted to die. That was ready to kill himself. Now my uncle and everybody else done put it in my head. I done became a cripper. Now this done happened. I have a cause to live for. And this cause is gangbanging. You feel me? So if I didn't care about my own life six months later, I damn sure don't care about nobody else's. So all that was was a combination, was a hell of a mixture. Where you got a suicidal nigga that's got a mission in life. So yeah, I remember thinking that, like, I'm about to fuck some shit up. And I felt safe for my uncle because I knew my uncle was a professional shit fucker upper. So I'm with, like, yeah, well, my uncle, nigga. Then the whole hood in here, everybody in the hood, like, nigga, we going with some nigga, nigga, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:00

Like, all right.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:01

Yeah. It's that time. I'm about to fuck some shit. And then we got on our missions.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Oh, so you wasn't ever at a point, because he stayed there. So you wasn't never at a point, like, oh, tripping, nigga.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

I just got shot. I'm cool on this shit. Nah. Okay. That thought never even, yeah, nah. I never even thought that until you just said it now. This was like 40, so this is like 30 years ago. I never thought that. Nah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

Did that feel like a uh, I know a lot of people look at getting shot and going to prison as a rite of passage. Did it feel did you have some type of pride behind getting shot and surviving?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:37

Fuck nah. I felt like the biggest sucker in the world getting shot. Man, I let these clown ass niggas get the ups on me. Man, hell nah. That was not no rights of passage. For a long time, I didn't even tell people that. That was a that was a shame. Because I just feel like I'm smart enough to know how to maneuver. I ain't been shot since. That's my rights of passage that you niggas ain't been able to get up on me uh uh since. And I'm like, the only reason y'all got up on me there, because I just now got put on. I just y'all caught me early. You know what I'm saying? Like, if y'all would have we'd have had a little more time, y'all would've never been able to get the drop on me. When niggas be bragging about getting shot, I'd be like, man, I don't know about you, nigga, but I felt like a sucker. You know what I'm saying? I felt like a lane. Did I let these niggas get the drop on me? I'm like, ah, hell nah. I let these niggas get that off. Because you would never know if you got the person that actually shot you. Yeah. That nigga might still be out. He might see this, like, ah, that is that one little pussy. Yeah, that shit made me feel like a sucker.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

And you said uh that's what's it called? Morphine again that you get high on? Yeah. So when you when you going out doing your runs, you know, against the other hoods and stuff, and getting off, is that another high for you? Is it a high? Like, does it does it do something for you?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:02

Yeah, does it do something for you? Do you get addicted to that too? Yeah. I'm saying it never was like a a a physical. My thing was you niggas killed my cousin.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:14

Niggas almost killed me. And now it's a whole bunch of I'm in the car, a whole bunch of male testosterone. You know what I'm saying? It's a whole bunch of, yeah, yeah. And then I ain't gonna lie, man, it's the it's the it's the it's the influences. Like niggas that sit up here and try to say like music and movies and shit like that don't have an influence on them. I'm conscious enough and I'm I'm I'm real enough to know, like, yeah, that was a big part of it. Because fucking Menace of Society was shot in Watts. This is Jordan Downs. These niggas is Crips. You know what I'm saying? I remember being little when they was talking about they was shooting a movie in Jordan Downs. Then the fucking movie came out. I'm old. I'm sitting here watching, like I want to be old. And then we riding around listening to this killer game banger music. Niggas be lying. People be lying to them. So, ah, the music don't make it. It does. Music does something to you. Ain't no niggas listening to NBA Youngboy when they having sex with their girl. Nah, you listening to some slow shit. You listen to something that's gonna set the move. So if the mood is already aggressive, and now we riding around. I mind you, my uncle, oh, you know what I mean? So he's listening to James Brown and shit. Big payback. I don't understand this shit, but I just know this nigga keeps saying payback. You know what I'm saying? That's all I need to hear. It ain't like I'm riding around with this nigga and he's listening to like, you know, he ain't listening, he listened to that shit. You know those shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:50

Me hearing James Brown coming over the thing and the multiple flick. Listen, that's some crazy shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:57

It's the song, it's the song right now. This song like 10 minutes long. I don't know who singing. I can't never remember who's singing. But it's the uh, I don't care what those others do. Just be good to me. My uncle man. Yeah, I can't even say what we was doing to that goddamn song, man. But every time I hear that song, I get to crib walking and pop locking, get to thinking about guns and all type of crazy shit, man. And she talking about uh she wants to be in love with a nigga, but this was this nigga's murder music. This was the music he went on missions to. So when I hear certain stuff, I be like, oh yeah, that's that gangbanger shit right there. You know what I mean? But it was the it was the music, and then like I was like Old Dog, man, like how old watched the tape all day. Yeah, we'll literally just be sitting there watching Minutes of Society all day, repeating it, repeating it. And it got to the point where I'm like, I just don't give a fuck. Like, that's my favorite part of that movie. When old dog Kane and Wax is in the car and they about to go get on the niggas that killed Kane's cousin, and he like, man, I ain't killed no women and kids. I just don't give a fuck. I smoke anybody. That's that was that was yeah, that's how I was looking at it. I didn't give a fuck about no jail shit. The only thing with jail that bothered me is I didn't want to get caught and I can't keep getting on niggas. I'm not tripping over getting caught and losing my freedom and being in jail for the rest of my life. I just can't keep doing this. Yeah. I ain't gonna be able to get these niggas if I'm in jail. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:35

Did y'all have the Kane and Sharif type niggas around y'all?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:39

Kane and Sharif.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:40

Who do Sharif Sharif is the mother niggas? Yeah, like the dude trying to keep. You know, every hood got a good dude trying to like, well, what y'all on, bro?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

Yeah, yeah, we had some of them. Then nobody paid them niggas no attention. I'm saying somebody, somebody probably was paying them niggas attention, they wouldn't have kept talking. But I'm saying me and my circle, we was under my uncle.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:01

My uncle ain't trying to hear none of that shit. His son just got killed. You know, my uncle don't, he ain't trying to hear none of that shit. So we up under them. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I wasn't trying to hear that shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:13

Can you ever remember a time that y'all may have lost somebody who had nothing to do with the gangbanging part, but they was in the hood like big on sports or something like that. Yeah, that shit always be happy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:26

What type of effect did that have on you? That um so here's the thing with that. It depends on who the person is. If he's like a nigga that plays sports and then try to talk shit about the hood, then yeah, you know, we're gonna slide for the nigga. Well, uh, we really don't give a fuck. But if he like, let's just say like his cousins or something, is so from the hood out there means something different than out here. Like, ah, that nigga from the hood, that means you a part of what's going on. You know, out here, a nigga just stayed across the street for two years, like, ah, he from the hood. Like, nah, when you say from, that means you you you from there. You know what I'm saying? Because out here is three types of gang bangers, three types of gang members rather. It's gang associates, that's everybody from the hood, because everybody's a part of the program. Uh there's gang members, there's the niggas that got put on, there's niggas that's actually grips, these niggas actually bloods. But they just like he might steal cars or just do different types of shit. Then you got gang bangers. That's the minority of the minority. These are the niggas that's raising the murder race. These are the men and women that's on the front lines killing shit, doing all the rah-rah shit. But everybody out here is a part of them because it's the culture. If you stay in a 60 hood, even if you ain't a 60, you you a part of that. You know what I'm saying? You a part of that. So you might as well join the gang. Because when you leave and you uh on the east side or you in a uh uh a gangster hood, niggas gonna press you like you like you bang in 60s. And the same for us, you know what I'm saying? We gangsters. So if we somewhere over here around some in the hoods, them niggas gonna hold us accountable even if we ain't got put on to the set. So you might as well. You getting all the uh the bad shit without none of the good shit. But as far as that, if a nigga is from the hood, like his peoples is over here, he grew up over here, he hang out with us, you know what I'm saying? He be around us, like when we play football, we all trying to pick this nigga because he's the best nigga in football, then yeah, if something happened to him, everybody's tripping. Everybody's tripping. Even the people that ain't tripping is tripping. You might have somebody's mama who used to be banging 10 years ago come out of come driving. They shouldn't have done nothing to him. He was a good person. You know what I mean? So, but if like like a nigga that's just from the hood is already banging, they'll like, yeah, y'all go ahead. You know what I mean? It have a different impact. That type of shit get everybody involved when it happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:05

One thing that's always like um played with my mind is how somebody could go do what they do. How do they feel when they go lay down at night and then turn on the news and see the effects of what they did?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:22

Me, I felt sleepy. If I'm laying down, I'm about to go to sleep because I don't give a fuck. And as far as watching the news, there's been times we done went, and the thing of it is, is I'm not a drug user.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:36

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:37

I used to smoke my little weed back in the day, but it I've never been the type of nigga wake up smoking weed, get high all day. You know what I mean? So when I'm out here and I'm on this shit, I'm sober. You know what I mean? Because you high, you slipping, you slacking, you doing something wrong. If you high, you ain't in your right mind. So nah, I go high, go back, I go to sleep. Probably go fuck on the little girl or something. I don't, yeah, go eat. You know, so what y'all cook? It didn't, it didn't, like I said, I didn't care about my own life. So it didn't, it didn't, that shit. If I see it on the news, there's been time shit that happened on the news and I forget we was a part of it. That's wow. Like, man, put that shit out your mind. Go ahead on by your business. And then a lot of that shit out there don't even get reported on the news because it be so much going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

So, what you're not caring about your own life, did you, even though you wanted to avenge your cousin and all that, how could you care about somebody else's life? Like, was it really about avenging your cousin or was it?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:36

It was the it was the cause. Yeah. It's the it's the cause. So before the game bang and shit, I had no cause. Yeah. Like, what am I doing? Just wake up, go to school, what am I doing? But when they like, look, this is what we doing, we on this, we on this, man. I got a I got a purpose. You know, so I got a reason being. This is what we doing. And I don't give a fuck. You know what I'm saying? But the crazy thing is, is I got a I got a different type of outlook. Like I said, my uncle laced me properly. You know what I'm saying? RP ended up dying from a drug overdose, right? Well, my uncle used to always tell me, man, and as I got older, I seen this shit. I'm just like, man, don't be down for whatever. You know what I'm saying? He's all like, man, don't be down for whatever. So as I got older, I'm always hearing niggas say, man, I'm down for whatever, I'm down for anything, I'm down for whatever. And I'll be sitting there like, shit. Nigga, I'm not. You know what I'm saying? Like, nigga, I'm not down for whatever. I kill people that kill people. Nigga, I ain't not doing nothing to somebody to get up and go to work every day, nigga. That was always my thing. And I always told people later on in life, like, but I'm a motherfucking gangster. Even now to this day, I don't do nothing illegal. I don't commit no crimes. You feel me? Uh, I'm a motherfucking gangster. And I'm a motherfucking gangster, not because of the shit that I do. That shit don't make you a gangster, man. Committing crimes don't make you a motherfucking gangster, it makes you a career a criminal. And if you commit crimes for money, it makes you a career criminal. It's the shit that you don't do that makes you a gangster. That's what a lot of niggas get fucked at. That's the difference between a thug and a gangster. A thug gonna do whatever. Niggas do, I'm down for do whatever. Yeah, that's cold. A gangster gonna be like, no, I'm not doing that. That's why you had to have the turn back in the day, a homo thug. You never heard them say, oh, that nigga homo gangster. That's not a thing. You know what I mean? Because you could run around these streets all day, popping niggas, shooting niggas, and you get caught up. Is you not gonna tell on your partner? All right, nigga, you didn't tell. You ran around, shot all these niggas, you got locked up, you didn't tell. Now you hit the yard, nigga, with a life sentence. Is you gonna cur up? Is you gonna be a bitch? Or is you gonna stand firm on all that shit you was doing on the street? Yeah, it's about the stuff that you don't do. It's just certain shit I've never done. I never will do. I don't have no shame of nothing I've ever done in my life. Period. If I ever did something to you, it's because either you was about to do something to me. Yeah, either you was about to do something to me or you was fucking with me. Period. So yeah, but that was my outlook on it. I didn't have no qualms about doing nothing to it because these niggas do it. So yeah, every nigga that we done been involved with, that something done happened, them niggas was on there. Or we wouldn't even be thinking about them. We wouldn't even be tripping over there. Cause like I said, our hair is militant. Niggas literally have a list. All these niggas from this hood. We done got our intel. This nigga, this nigga, this nigga, this nigga, this nigga, this nigga, this bitch, this bitch, this bitch, this nigga. They got to go. Because these motherfuckers on this list got us on the list somewhere. So these motherfuckers have to go. Man, Miss Jenkins don't got to go. Uh uh little little little little Bobby, little eight-year-old Bobby, he don't got to go. He ain't he ain't a fucking threat to the set, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:30

Fuck them.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:31

We ain't tripping over there, but the motherfuckers on this list is active. While we writing this list, they making the list in their hood. So that's why I was never fucked up over it. Because them niggas would have did it to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:43

Besides your pops telling you not to tell your mama, um, did he have any other involvement like as far as pushing your mindset to further further down into the lifestyle?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:57

Man, my pops is a square from Delaware for real. So my pops is he's a crib, you know what I mean? He he avine too. But he's like, he's a gang member.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:10

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:11

He wears it, he makes it look good. That's how he bagged my mama, you know what I mean? He came to Arkansas, he had looked like Easy E, curl, Dickie suit, all this whole shit. But his thing is just messing with bras. So it'll literally be a situation where this is literally how my summers go. The nigga picked me up from the airport, uh, drive uh from the airport uh back to the hood, he's gonna give me the rundown on everything that's been happening. You know what I mean? So then as soon as we hit the hood, he's gonna be like such and such, and then wanna holler at you. Meaning, I gotta fight. So as soon as I get out of the car, it's like four or five little niggas. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta fade all of them out. We all gotta fight when lose a drop. Because they like, man, Kansas done made you soft. You know what I mean? So every time I come out here, we all gotta. I ain't fucked up over. I love fighting, you know what I mean? Then, you know, so I'm old now, but boom, we all fight. I wouldn't see that nigga again, it was time for me to come back to Kansas City.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:11

He'll be gone chasing skirts. But the thing of it is, is all my people stayed in the projects. So he's like, that nigga cool. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. I can just go from house to house. You know what I'm saying? If I got 30 relatives, that's a different house every day for a month. He wasn't tripping. That nigga go, I see that nigga coming down uh uh uh coming down the street. I go myself, so what's up, boy? Let me know when you're ready to go home.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

And that nigga gone. What now you eat today or nothing like that? That nigga didn't give a fuck about that. He didn't care about none of that, man. Say it what's up, boy.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:55

He didn't know. But he knew like that nigga cool. Because that's the culture out there. Like, you cool, especially if you're in the projects. Everybody's gonna make sure you straight, especially if your people been in the projects. Told you the 65 watts rise, my grandfather was in them. You know what I mean? So they've been out at least since the 60s. It's the 90s. Everybody knows who you is, even if you don't know everybody. Ah, that's such and such son. He from Kansas. That's all they know. Ah, that's such and such son. He's from Kansas, he's cool. He's from the hood.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:30

Well, you hungry? Yeah, come on the house. Because low-key for real, for real. LA niggas is country as hell. Like, like them niggas, they might not talk like it, but the culture. I niggas will just up and start barbecuing.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:45

The hospitality type.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:46

Yeah, nah. Oh, I ain't gonna say, nah, it ain't no hospitality. Niggas is territorial as fuck. You know what I'm saying? Then niggas is niggas be tripping. Even if you from the hood, niggas. Them niggas used to play a little game with us, so they'll pull up on us and make us bang the set. But it'll be the homies from the hood, like the older homies, they'll literally like pull up on you in all red while you walking down the street up guns on you. And like, nigga, bang your set. If a nigga ever say, so it's certain vernacular out there. If a nigga asks you where you're from, they might just mark you out. You know what I'm saying? Uh they might beat you up. You might get killed. It's a high probability you can get killed. But you might be able to walk away from this. If a nigga tell you bang your set, they about to kill you. They basically tell you, nigga, die with dignity because they already know you're a part of a gang that they don't like. So they're like, we're gonna allow you to bang your set one last time. So these niggas will pull up on the sh uh, nigga, bang your set. And you gotta say your name, your side, the set, and the hood in that order.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:49

Did that happen to you? Uh yeah, niggas just did. How'd that turn out? You stepped up.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:52

No, no, these was niggas from my hood, though. These are my these is my cousins, uncle got you. They just testing to see like if. This nigga really niggas swerve up, nigga bang your set, and you'll hit it up and pull the mask down. Alright, nigga, and drive off. But you don't know if it's deal or if it's really, you gotta just go with it. Now, ain't nobody ever just uh an op just really pulled up on me was like bang the dudes would have killed me because I would have most definitely banged the set. And this is a high probability to kill me right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:28

Straight out of Compton. Yeah. When Cut would not, when Dude pulled up on the uh the bus, Compton Menace pulled up on the bus. I don't know if you've seen that when his uh kids was throwing signs out the window and stuff. Do it go like that too? Well do you remember the thing? He made the bus driver pull over.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:47

He pulled up, pulled in front of the thing, got on there and was like, nigga, open up the I eat Cribs for breakfast or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Will niggas do that? Yeah, yeah, hell yeah, niggas would do that. Them niggas, listen, man. Them niggas is serious about that shit out there, man. It's the culture. It's not even, it's just the culture. It's a it's a it's a it's a respect thing. Period. Them niggas when they when the little same ice cube that was on the bus and they chunking and they yelling hoods, and that's disrespectful. You know what I mean? But them niggas really gave a pass. They could have just shot the bus up. Then they just been looking silly. But like I said, niggas out there know, like the gangbang community is a small community. Even though LA is hella big, everybody knows everybody. You know what I mean? So when you see a niggas on this school bus chunking up signs and they saying these hoods, you're like, man, I don't know them niggas. Them niggas ain't really. Everybody know everybody. That's why when you can hear like OGs telling stories, ah man, such and such, that nigga was really like that. That nigga was everybody know everybody. Because like I said, it's real, niggas is really kind of country, but not like in a derogatory, demeaning way, but it's like like my people from Arkansas, my people from LA. I see a lot of similarities between how they talk, how they move in Arkansas, and how they talk and move in LA. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody know, ah, that's such and such. Them the such and suches. He one of the such and suches. They know the family names. You know what I'm saying? Because like you will have this whole family from this hood. They've been over here for generations. So when you say, ah, my name's such and such, ah, nigga, you a wooty-woo, you automatically know. Every every hood got multiple families that's been over there for generations. So then now you know by your family, your family is known for this hood.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:43

And it's a it's an honor thing to be like a little there, like there's a big shitty cuz and a little shitty cuz.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:50

Ah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot of times when you get put onto the hood, they give you a name. You know what I mean? And whoever you was running, so you can't just come out here and be like, man, yeah, I want to be from the hood. Niggas is like, yo, it don't work like that. You have to come up under somebody. Somebody will have to have taught you. You know what I mean? Somebody will have to have been breathing on you, giving you and bringing you around. Now, if you're born over here, then yeah, but it's still gonna be somebody that you're gonna grab, it's still gonna be one of the big homies that you're gonna just naturally gravitate to. And that's that's your big homie. Now, you'll have, that's why like it's certain little stuff that people say, ah man, that's my big homie, or that's the big homie. It's a difference. If I'm saying, ah, that's the big homie from the hood, I'm saying, yeah, he's the big homie from the hood, but he's not my big homie. He ain't the nigga that raised me, that taught me. My big homie is my uncle, my pops. Well, both of my uncles, my pops, even my auntie, because she was a crib. These are my big homies. I just happen to have the privilege that my big homies is my uncles and aunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:58

Yeah. Going back to your your pops situation, so he had his own spot. And did you stay there and just he was never coming home? Or because I know you said you was going to different places.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:12

Yeah, so there, but he got an apartment in the projects, and he's gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:17

Yeah. And you just stayed there by yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:20

Yeah, or somebody else might come over there, one of my cousins might come over there. Uh, whatever. It's just, yeah. This is this is it's it seem it might seem crazy, but it's not. Because it's so many people around.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:38

So it's not, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:40

So you was having probably women in and out of there at that time.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:43

No, I'm like, nah, 10 years old. Shit, it don't matter. No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I'm because my pause moved from LA uh when I was like 13 or 14, he moved to Vegas. So then my summers would be in Vegas. You know what I'm saying? He's trying to get away.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:00

But you was all over the boy.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:03

So your uh when he put you on for your birthday, right? Yeah. Did you have to go through the fighting process, getting jumped in process?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:11

That's the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:12

Uh yeah. Cause I know some, well, it from what they say, some people are just born in it and they don't have to go through that process and then Yeah, like I said, like I said, you got three types of people.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:24

You got the associates, the members, and the bangers. I wanted to be respected as that.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:31

Yeah, how did that go for you? Because they keep going until you you can't win that, right? There's no win.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:38

So here's the thing, they can't put their feet on you.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:41

Right? But it's your level of respect is gonna be determined by how long you stand up. So some niggas, uh, hurry up and drop on the ground. You know what I'm saying? Because you know they can't put their feet on you. So it's basically like nigga might punch you a few times, like, man, fuck it. He cool, he's on the hood. But now niggas gonna remember that. Like, man, when we put that nigga on, he was curled up like a bitch. But he from the hood. And like I said, niggas got long memories. You could be bagging for 20 years. Niggas like, yeah, when he got put on, he curled up like a bitch though.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:11

What was your pops and your uncle relationship like though? Seeing this one was this far over here, like he really on that gangbang and stuff, and really, and your pops is just like just. So my pops is like 12 years younger than his next sibling.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:29

Okay. He's the baby. So it ain't that's still, you know what I mean? My uncle's like that nigga uncle. So it was they dynamic, it it mat it worked out.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:41

Because like now my pops can go just chase all the little, because he had a thing for messing with bloods. You know what I mean? He had a thing for messing with uh with Daimu bitches, you know what I mean? That was his whole little thing. Because my little brother that got killed, his he was a uh Campanella Park Pirule, you know what I mean? And uh, because Compton right there, his mama was a black and Mexican uh Campanella Park bribe. My pastors had a thing for fucking blood bitches, you know what I'm saying? But he's able to do this because his older brother. And his older brother is cool with him doing it, because he's like, man, my little brother, you know, hitting all the little blood bitches. You know, they don't say blood, but I can't say what they be saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like hitting all the little blood bribes, man. That's cool. It's fun. The nigga gonna buy his business.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:28

Yeah, how did something like that? Because I've heard about that before too, hitting from the other set or whatever. Like, how do they even meet up? Where do they, you can't go up, you can't be over in their section, they can't be over in your section. Yeah, but you got to go grocery shop.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:43

You know what I'm saying? Everybody got the grocery store. Uh, you're gonna want to go out, you're gonna want to go skating. You know, skating was a big thing out there in the in the uh in the in the 80s and shit. You're gonna want to go to the clubs, you know what I'm saying? You're gonna want to go to Hollywood. Well, a lot of people out here, LA is big. You gotta think it's a whole ocean right here. So she could have been at the beach. Uh Pops could have been at the beach, you know what I'm saying? Could have met her in uh Hollywood somewhere, wherever. And just just bumped it in. It's like this the 80s. Everybody snore coke and partying. You know what I'm saying? Not to say to my pops who snored coke, I don't know, but everybody out is in a party vibe. Yeah. So it ain't hard to, and especially where you know where they're gonna be. All he gotta do is not put on blue. Uh, where them campanella is? Oh, I'm going. I fuck some of them bitches. And just go.

unknown 1:36:36

Never mind.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:39

Uh I wanna I wanna talk about your uncle a little bit. If uh did did he pass away while you were in prison? Yeah. Uh well, not really. We could just talk about it now. How did that that affect you, seeing that that's your big homie? And at the same time, you had his mindset of, you don't really well when he died? Yeah, when he was in his 80s, 90s.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:08

Yeah, how old was that nigga when he died? That nigga was born in like the 50s. Yeah, that nigga was old, man. He was like 70 something. Like I said, my pops is 12 years younger than his next sibling. Yeah. So my pops is what like 64 now. So if all of them would have been a lie, that means his next oldest similar would have been 76. Yeah, that nigga was old, man. And he died from an overdose. So it's like my uncle died how he lived, man. At least he felt good.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:41

See, that'd be crazy. That'd be crazy because they do the most unhealthy stuff and will last the longest. And here we are trying to eat healthy and do uh stay away from certain things.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:55

But here's the thing though, right? And this ain't me being funny, but this is gonna come out funny, right? Crackheads do a lot of running, man. They gotta they do a lot of fucking cardio. You got to think if you out here and you trying to get hot all day, you getting your steps in, man. What they tell you, nigga, get your steps in the fit bit. Yeah, crackheads, they getting they getting mouths, man. They getting mouths in, man. So yeah, cuz is a walking-running motherfucker, I guess. Yeah, good cardio.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:28

And a nigga like, man, that nigga over there tripping, right? I'm like, who that nigga not be tripping over here? Cuz something, something, something, something, bro. I'm tough, right? So I look over, it's a white nigga sitting in the, I mean, it's a black nigga sitting in the white nigga section, right? And he got on the hoodie and he just bent down looking hella scandalous and shit. So the homies keep saying he's tripping, he's tripping or whatever, right? I'm like, that nigga better not come over here, trip. So then his target comes in, he stabbed, boom. I swear to God, this is a true story, man. This shit is funny now. Every time that nigga stabbed him, man, I got less tough with every stab, right? So he hit him, boom, my foot came off the thing. Right? So I'm like, Marju, I'm standing like this with my foot on the stove. He hit him. I said, Damn. Right. He hit him again. My chest is kind of right. He hit him again, I'd have sat down. Nigga hit him again, I'd have pulled my tray in front of him. Nigga hit him again. I'm like this. By the time he threw, I'd have got my head down. Uh, and I'm like, cuz where the lala bury you at, man. Because only thing on my mouth, I gotta win this appeal and get the hell up out of here, man. I ain't even getting stabbed. Nick broke my whole spirit. I left that child, my back was slumped over. I done pulled my pants up and shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:40

This was all in the first day.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:42

Yeah, this is my first day in the uh old walls, man.