OLD NEW YORK 2015

     2015 Tryna hop back on that horse, with a new year should come some up grades in your life. Never sit stagnant. With that said, I know when I started this blog, I was a very angry person.

at the time I had a lot going on in my life. Life was full of painful moments, but with the right women in my life I was able to push forward and become a stronger man.

As you get older you should be growing as a person and minimizing the drama. Life is suppose to be easier as you get older, but it all depends on what you put into it.

     Its crazy to see my culture become so relevant in the millennium. I mean if you would've told me that this Polo culture & Graffiti would be as big as it is now I would have never believed it, just like if I wasn't there to see it for my self, my chilld... I wouldn't believe any of the stories I have to tell or the ones my friends have to tell. 

    As most know, I am from the UWS, but I have been in Brooklyn since 1993 so I claim BK all day Kidd. In the recent news, they were talking about the UWS. How mom and pop stores are disappearing because of high rents. They just can't compete with that corporate dollar. So ultimately these stores get ate up. So what has shaped the UWS much less New York are disappearing. Ultimately these stores are the essence of what New York is or rather was. It saddens me. Personally amongst others, they are erasing my past and childhood. I know I have it in my heart and the stories with pictures, but its not the same as going back to the old hood, going into stores and see people that have seen you grow up. Those are the people that are comprised as my family growing up.

     I see the similar things going on around me on a parallel level. For an outsider It can look foolish as hell even retarded and what Im talkn about is this Polo culture. But Its who some of are as people. It has put money on the table for a lot of us at times, allowed us to get fresh to death and show who we are as an individual and as a group. Its no different then the 80's. This is what was spawned from it and transformed with the time, but keeping that same essence of a true New York feel. Its amazing to see how this Lo Life culture has grown world wide and influence hip hop as well. Its great to see new people get on board who are genuine, thats what keeps the movement moving. 

     

     With the pro's comes the cons (and before I go further, Ima throw a quick side bar in here... In any culture or even in general, life & your job, people new to the game or to a position at work don't just show up and try to run things. You learn and build a place for your self along with a reputation & respect. You earn your way which is the honorable thing to do). But in real life you have groupies & frauds. So now that you can easily go out and buy what ever pieces to be a big time player in the game, you got frauds front'n like they been down for years with this new found respect falsely earned and some aren't even old enough to make that claim. That shit kills me. Growing up you had to earn respect & put that work in to be down in this culture. Shit if you was a fraud you found out real quick. You just got ya shit jacked. I can remember dudes get jacked for stupid shit like Jansport strings, now that Im older, what the fuck kind of shit was that. Ni99as got hurt behind that. Listen, like I said its great that you have new comers. It helps to preserve the culture and make it stronger and possibly open doors for some. But these new comers gotta play their part and the old timers need to put dudes in their lanes. At one point, not just anyone could throw claims with out putting in work. It just didn't happen that way and honestly I just don't see how it happens now. 

    Doesn't anyone have some sort of pride in them selves to just be them. Your a much better person that way. This day & age mother fuckas be living in a dream land believing their own lies & shit. Then you got your hand shakes from the fakes as my lady would say. Yo if I don't fuck with you, then that means I don't fuck with you. I can be in the same place at the same time & still be cool. Just you do you & ill do what I do, but fools be wanting to smile and take pictures with one another and call each other brother and sister. Then when your not there, they talking mad shit, throw subliminals on social media at one another. Just keep it real homie, you don't gotta like me and I don't gotta like you. Whats sad is that most of these type of people, if you took away their social status, they would have no life and be a nobody. Ill tell you this straight up, None of the social cirlces I run in define me as a person. I have defined my self by the trials & tribulations I have been through. Being true to who I am and putting in that work. I let my actions speak for it self. But what defines me most is the father I am to my children and the amount of growth in my life.

     When it comes to graffiti, the true essence is being lost. Growing up, we all learned from someone. The history, style and secrets were past along from some sort of mentor. Styles were past on along with knowledge to become a master of your craft. When it came to graffiti, notoriety was the end result of mastering your craft. First you had to learn how to make your own tools, where to get supplies from and how to execute all of these trades to only then go out and bomb. To get caps, you had to do a lot of walking, going to stores & pop tops. Paint, markers and stickers, racked. And now its all stripped away by companies taking that leg work out the game. O.G.'s still resort to the old methods,  but others can get what they need now at a store, fuck they even have spray paint thats made especially for graffiti. I mean for me, graffiti was all about the mission you go on and being able to execute a plan put together and the relationships that are built along the way.  These days you have people who just paint legal walls, the internet giving instant fame w/o put'n in work all tryna front. Its crazy, just like with all that Polo shit. Fools entering a culture under false pretenses and no work put into the game. Straight culture jacking. At least for my self, I feel blessed to have been apart of what I was, growing up. Shit was more stand up and honorable then the times today. With that said, Happy New Years. Make that new years resolution to keep it real to your self cause you frauds are not fooling anyone. 

     

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!