1992

Yo, all I here about is the 80's this & the 80's that. At this point, the 80's have been raped, slayed & milked for all its worth. THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS ABOUT IT! Don't get me wrong, I grew up in the 80's long enough to know whats, what. At this fucking point, McDonald's and every other mother fucka in line has made out by doing something with the 80's. What I'm Trying to say is R.I. motha fucking P. to the 80's. Those days are long past us. Now I'm not saying lets fore get about the 80s, just that we should let it rest for a minute. The 90's have got no shine & let me tell you SON, the 90's was the bastard child of the 80' and hint of the 70's for some of us. With a mean lesson on life from my Mother who was an Ace in the mean streets of good Ol' New York, I was well prepared for a life in the hard streets of the 90's. Since I grew up with out a Mother & Father, I needed to fend for my self. The streets of NYC in the 90's was the meanest free for all you can imagine. I look back on that shit now and I just cant fathom it being the way it was or me doing the things I did. HOW THE FUCK DID WE GET AWAY WITH WHAT WE DID! Wait, not all of us did. Some are just coming home from jail now. Any way's, the streets were a free for all because of Dinkin's. He had to be the worst Mayor ever, but as a kid I loved it. It meant I got away with everything. The cops did not fuck with us as kids unless it was for real for real. Back then in the 90's I found my self always in the Vill. I met a bunch of other kids from so many different walks of life by spending all my time downtown. Although the walks of life varied, we all had one thing in common and that was not a very good home life. Some were drawn to the Vill and are circle of life just because we were just so bad. We did not listen to anyone, we took what we wanted and did as we pleased. The youth today have no clue how easy they got it. If you had something nice on and someone liked it. Guess what! Run ya shit money. If someone wanted your shit, chances were you were coming up out of what ever it was you had on. Shit was so easy to get over because of the lack of the technology then compared to now. Also because crime was so bad, lots of less shit slid through the cracks. As always, we were about 50 deep or more on a friday night walking up 6th Ave. to the Lime Light, along the way we stopped into a corner store and it just got out of hand. Normally everyone takes shit in a sneaky way where know one see you , but for some reason EVERYONE just started grabbing what they wanted and walked out. The store owner really could not do much. As we left the store, all 50 of us continued to walk to the Lime Light. About one block up from the store, the cops jumped out from everywhere like if they was the fucking S.W.A.T. team. They came out of yellow cabs, Ford Explorers and all kinds of other shit you could not imagine. I told my 2 friends to just keep walking like if we didn't know anyone cuz we were the only 3 white kids in the bunch, but that did not work. Next thing I know I get kicked in the ankle By some DT looking like a young Archie Bunker with a cigar in his mouth as he is pointing his service revolver at me. He tells me "hey kid where do you think your going, get against the wall over there". So I did as he said. The boys had all 50 of us on the wall and we were all shook cause half these kids already had a hand full of open cases. As I'm on the wall with my boys, were talking about what's gonna happen and what we should do with the shit we took and as we are talking about this, my man Sunny is dropping the Rollo's one by one on the floor. I decide to look down and I see all the fucking Rollo's rolling down the side walk right to the back of the Cops foot. Then the Cop looks down and says" AYE! what the fuck is going on ova here, who's shit is this"? Hearts dropped as it all unfolded, But nothing happen. The only concern was that the Store owner called the Cops saying he was robbed at gun point and that never happen. So we were all let go and on we went to cause more trouble. That was the 90's for you. Everything that happen in the 80's, pretty much happen in the 90's but more extreme. From steeling shit to graffiti to scams and schemes. My favorite shit was doing the 3 card Monte shit cause no matter which way you sliced it up we had suckas going to the ATM thinking they could win. Then there was the magic dollar. Thats a dollar with a long tail on it thats a strip of clear packing tape so that you can yank your dollar back out the vending machine after you get what you want. Like I said, the 90's was a free for all. This was a time when economically NYC was not good and the people ran shit in the streets. The best shit was Cops didn't go by a book. They went by being an Old New Yorker. Meaning they knew how to feel out a person and then take it from there. This day and age, the Cops just follow rules to the T and sometimes some people really do need a brake or deserve one. And now I hate the New York it has become. Its just a place thats so impersonal now. So with all that said. FUCK THE NEW, NEW YORK. R.I.P. NYC.

Emotions Of An Old New Yorker...

With the changes of time, NYC has left me feeling quite empty. Friends have changed along with the way NYC looks and there is almost no familiar feelings left of this place. I guess the only thing I have left to hold on to is old memories, pictures & a hand full of true friends that I have shared my growing up in NYC with. At least that cant be taken away from me. I have tried to except the way things are and that change is inevitable. 

The only problem is that I just cant buy into the BULL SHIT that surrounds me. Also by default of being an Old New Yorker, it is only natural for me to buck at the shit in life I just dont agree with and the way New York has become, its horrible. There is absolutely nothing left that can genuinely sooth me in away like the Old New York did. When I was a kid, I would ride the trains for fun and now that isnt an option. The trains are so impersonal compared to how they were as a kid. I use to love the way the lights went off & on and how the express would rocket through the stations faster then you could imagine. You know, as a kid riding the trains made me feel grown and in a weird way gave me a sense of feeling confident. Riding between cars, throwing crazy late night parties in the last car unplanned. Hopping the train was a gamble, but it was always an adventure. Almost a right of passage as a youth growing up in NYC. 

In todays world all the fun has been removed form New York. The Old New York had character with a heart & soul and a heart beat like no other place in the world. We were feared by many and at the same time loved by everyone. People were drawn to NYC for all the right reasons and that would be to make a somebody out of them selves. Man do I miss the edginess of the Old New York, the drab matte colors of NYC and the photos that preserve all of it in time. Something about it gave things a real feel for that time. It just made so much sense that pictures and things of color lacked that luster that things of money can buy you today. The drab went perfect with the burned down bronx and the rapid use of crack in a fucked up city that almost went broke. But through out all of this, New Yorkers didnt let it get them down. Instead all types of shit was born from the emotions that was invoked on a broke city full of talent. From all of these emotions, the Old New York that I know & loved was created. Since then, there has not been a movement like so. I feel like everything that has been created in the recent years will never stand the test of time. No new buildings are at a level worth land marking in the future, the music that is made now in 10 years people wont remember except for a few. Nothing on t.v. will be made into re runs down the line like the Honey Mooners or Tom & Jerry. 

We all have something or another we like to watch that probably are parents watched as a kid as well. Sign of the times right! A very sad state it is. I find my self wanting to move so bad away from this place they dare to call NYC still, but like a train wreck I cant bare to leave like someone that just cant seem to turn and look the other way. Still you have to see the wreck for your on eyes. I stay in hopes of somethings not changing and holding on to the little that is left. At one point & time, there was not a place I couldnt go with out running into someone I knew. If you grew up here you know what Im talking about. In the circles I travel in, we are the who's who & we make the shit go round for others. We as New Yorkers use to set the standards for others and Influence worlds away. Now outta towners come here and set the standards for whats cool. I just dont get the tight pants still & never will. I wish we could be in the 90 so I can hand out a couple of beatings to well deserved people. That was one good thing back then, you could have a fight with someone with the hands and the loser just excepted it and went about there way. Today, you just look at someone wrong and there calling the cops. Even the graffiti in NYC is not NYC. I would say more graffiti done now is by a non New Yorker which is sad to me. We really have let are city slip away from us. I dont know any more what Im fighting for, but I just cant seem to give up on New York or at least the New York that I once knew. Old New York will always live on through me, my heart and a few others. I will pass what I have to my kids and hope that it can live on through them. Instead of I LOVE NY, I now LOVE TO HATE NYC. Sad, but true. FUCK YOU!