ONE LOVE

I am just now starting to understand the difference in what money and power brings and the dilution we perceived as the reality of power.  All money comes with a superficial power it can change the mood of people alter one's morals and even in some cases build a small army. But the One power as explained in Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of time” is the ability to take your power and create miracles, things of pure magic and imagination. To take your money and not buy cars and women’s but rebuild a block that has been decimated by poverty and others twisted search for the same money and power that you possess.

The one power can take an empty fatherless home and feel it with hope and sustenance. Change a community of war mongers, pillagers and thieves to fathers, mothers and leaders. The difference between Money and Power is that the one power was created by money but is spirited by the moral compass and mind of its owner. Those of you who have simple views or are afraid to imagine will be never experience the one power because it was not made for the simple man. The very soul of the one power was meant to perform feats of greatness that cannot be mistaken. Larry Hoover has power but his accomplishment has shown that he has never had the one power; Martin Luther King’s one power is still prevalent, growing and changing the world today. To all my brothers with power don't be content with just power, elevate yourself, your community, and your power leave a magic ,a light that will grow and light up a society long after your internal light has dimmed. We are the “ONE”; one community, one people, and one love.

The inevitable change

It’s been many years since I felt the need to drive slow down Richards Street “five miles mph so everybody see me” “in Bun B voice” bumping “lay it down” with a 40 in my hand but what’s weird is that I never actually remember the change There was no drastic, drama filled, movie worthy event that made this happen. It wasn't at all like “Menace to Society” no shoot out, no epic “Brave heart Battle “just an man growing up. Here is the humor in the story my old man used to try to explain his Gangsterness to me in late 80’s and I would just shake my head “this old N**** wants me to believe he was Kenyatta out of a Donald Goines book or something” “I still crack a smile at this” but in his mind maybe he was, maybe in the minds of his friends and in the mind of his wife he was the Buffalo Soldiers, Bumpy Johnson and the Mack all rolled up in one and there lies the beauty in it all, you only have to be, what you need to be ,to who you need to be it to, to be you God bless you pops I miss your Gangster ass. For all of you who are reading this the inevitable change was me I learned being me, to the people who needed me to be me, is all I needed to be. It felt better than that Cadillac and that forty ounce the man pops created in me had no choice but to triumph. Now with commentary completed go get yourself an “OLD E” dust of your tape deck and bump Gin Juice too world blow up!!!!!

I thought we got in this sh#@ to get out this sh#@

I once heard a rapper say "I thought we got in this sh#@ to get out this sh#@" at that time I did not grasp that, that lyric would be one of the most profound statements of my lifetime. Some of you will never understand the importance and relievence of that statement but to my REAL G's lets address this. Lets do the math of hustling first, most of you make what a I.T professional ,lawyer or even the President makes but still live in the projects with no real worth. Lets say you made $200 a day and hustled only 5 days a week you would have made over 50 grand a year still living in the projects and driving a 20 year old box Chevy. Now for my 365 hustling, 5000 grand a week making to world blow up hustler that 260,000 is close to what Obama himself makes. So now that we got that clear lets talk about getting out. 7-11 requires that you have a net worth of 127,000 to be a franchise owner some of you on paper make that in a half a year but you choose to invest in a 5,000 car and put 20,000 dollars worth off work in it or you open a corner store to aid you in your hood take over. You got in the game to one day get you and your family out of the game. You have the ability to change the hood to add wealth to our income impoverished neighborhoods to employ the unemployable and to bring a hope we never had. I'm not trying to endorse any company in fact I suggest that you do your own research at http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/index.html and see what your money can do for you. I tell you this not to down or demoralize anyone but only to enlighten you and to get you to search for your way out.

Loyalty

Today at work we had a red shirt day ( Don't Laugh). I honestly had forgotten about and had planned on wearing a red shirt. One of the young ladies approached me and said I'm to old for gang banging. She was insinuating that I didn't wear red because of my choice of affiliation. I initially laughed it off , but as I walked away I began to to think. Had I not wore red because of my allegiance to my family, was it a subliminal choice or was it a honest mistake. With further thought I figured even if it was out of loyalty whats wrong with that? You would never see a Kappa wearing a Q dog shirt or a Mets fan wearing a Yankee camp. Yea gangs have their negatives but for many of us They were the foundation of our values, our extended families, and best friends. They also taught us a sense of loyalty that no school,church or parent could teach us. I love my FOLKS and always will. I have matured and I have grown up, I realize that other organization's are not opposition but people who choose to walk a different path alumni of a different university of sorts, but that does not mean that I have to denounce who I am or turn my back on what in many ways helped me become the man I am. We are what we are, Gangsta, Lords, Breeds,Hustler's if this is what helped you become you rep that shit. Just don't forget to evolve it. Make it work for you and not against you. Make it benefit your community not hinder it. Make it something powerful, yet compassionate, discipline yet flexible. Make it your philosophy not your religion and make it something you would be proud to pass on to your kids.
LOVE TO ALL MY AFFILIATED !!!!!!!!!!

Who Cares

Last night I was thinking about things that shaped me and my manhood . I asked myself if I had maybe misunderstood these lessons . If their was any single moment that effected me to a point that I wanted to change my ways. I have loss friends to violence and drugs but none of those tragedies really changed the way I thought or made life choices. I have not loss one nights sleep over anything that has happened in my life. Thus far the changes I have made in my life has been only for show, changes to prove that I can change or changes that imitated the natural progression of a maturing man. Is this because my heart is cold or is it that I am emotionally inapt and dont really know how to express myself ? I have been willing to ride and die for things that were irrelevant in the big scheme of things and let issues that effect everyone around me just roll of my shoulders. I would be willing beat a man to death for calling me a bitch but not beat a politician to death for passing a law that effects my families well being. Am I just one misguided soul with know understanding of self or am I part of a generation that never learned to care ?

Days of old

My favorite line of all time is from the Otis Redding song " Sitting at the dock of bay".
The one where he says " I cant be what ten people want me to be so I guess I'm going to remain the same". I have made so many mental changes trying to be what society expects, my women expects, what my employer expect etc... that I find myself yearning for simpler days when the only thing I had to do was survive. True I'm make it more simplistic than what it was, but sometimes I really feel like I would rather dodge a bullet from opposition than deal with a man half my size half my age telling me what to do. Rules in the hood where simple and easy to follow.
Real life is not so cut and dry and is scary to many of us. There are know defined boundaries no chain of command. Its like the hood is a dream world perfect in many ways and flawed in others,it gave mea false feeling of security . I felt as if I was in control, that my grind controled my fate, but in reality I control nothing. I didnt learn this until I stepped out the hood and into the real world. I felt like I had been in the matrix all my life and the world around me has moved on and now I'm only relevant in a small 10 block radius I call the hood. I feel like one of millions of clones left to rot in a junkyard called home. It took me moving out of the hood and than looking back at it to see this . Through all of these ephinaies and enlightenments I still yearn for the days of old when my only worry was would I live too see tomorrow.

Last of a dying breed

When did it become OK to be a snitch and is there ever a time when it is OK to be one. Lately I have seen what I thought to be the realest of people tell on others to save themselves. Needless to say I lost respect for a lot of people. In one instance I was speaking to a guy who told on a friend he was in the car with. He had a 380 pistol on him and the other guy had about 7 grams of dope. The police tricked him buy telling him they were going to charge him for possession both items. In reality he would have probably beat the case in court. Instead he told on the other guy they both got about 2 years in prison and his telling only assured that the other guy would be going to jail also. His response was that he had a young son who needed his father and that he made the right choice for him and his family. I asked him was he thinking about his family when he jumped in the car with the pistol. So many people are willing to take penitentiary chances but when its time to pay the piper they would make deals with the Devil.