Macrodosing: Arian Foster and PFT Commenter - The Past and Present of Bloods and Crips (ft. Glasses Malone)

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

On today’s episode the guys take a look at the history of the Los Angeles Gangs and the bloods and the crips. They’re joined by American rapper and former crip member, Glasses Malone.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/macrodosing

Hey, macrodosing listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon music. Just like wondering, what would be an example of what they'd say to someone to join. Like, we're a great group of guys, like, we're bonded. I mean, I have some cold slogans, right? Yeah, I want to hear some slogan. Explain like it's a fraternity to Billy, and Billy's rushing. Welcome back to macrodosing.

What's up, Macrodotodians? It's Thursday right now. It is June 15th. And today's show is presented by our presenting sponsor, Three Chi. We love Three Chi. Billy, you love Three Chi, right? Love Three Chi. Arian loves Three Chi.

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We got Arian in Houston. We got the rest of us in studio here in New York. And we're going to have what I hope will be a great interview with Gladys. Glasses Malone. If you've ever wondered about the history of Los Angeles Crips, Glasses Malone is going to be on the show to discuss it with us. I'm very, very excited because, Aryan, much like you, I, you know what I've gotten into recently? What was that? I've been watching a ton of documentaries about drill rap in Chicago. Oh, it's interesting. A ton. I, yeah, just fascinating stuff. Learning about King Vaughn, learning about Tuka. The whole, the whole backstory and the drama. behind the scenes. King Vaughn, and I've never really listened

to that much King Vaughn before and I've started to. He was insanely talented. Just like a great storyteller as a rapper. Also maybe one of the biggest pieces of shit ever. Like a serial killer. Yeah.

So that was like a debate, right? It was a debate because one of the biggest documentaries was called a trap law or something by this dude like a UK who's obsessed with like American gang culture. So he does all. kinds of like videos on it, which is kind of weird itself.

Somebody needed to ask him about that. But the debate was like, is King Vaughn a serial killer? And if you go by the definition, somebody who's killed three or more people, then yeah, he was a serial killer. But I would put an asterisk in that because it's not the same as just killing people to kill people. It is directly tied. And it's actually kind of tied to what we're talking about today.

It's like, it's directly correlated with the environment in which they are raised in which drugs are involved, territories evolve, and social clout behind those kind of things are prevalent. So it's like an environmental factor in which I feel like if he was raised in the suburbs, I don't think he would be, I don't think he would murder anybody. But again, it's a hot take, but I don't, I don't. maybe not but he also got like an insane amount of joy out of killing people and of like celebrating how he killed them and like going over the top almost like he was an internet troll that also killed people in real life well it's it's what exacerbated the chicago drill scene was making music and uh expressing detail about how and who you killed right it's what exacerbated that entire Chicago War, but the war was going on before the music, right? And so social media introduced an entirely new aspect of it in which people were more brazen about admitting it and doing it

in a way in which it taunted the other side, which again put more, you know, fans in the flame. And so, again, I think if you take a lot of these. kid, I can't say to all of them. I think if you take a lot of these kids out of their circumstances, they don't kill people. But it's an environment and a culture that they grew up around to where it was normalized. And so I don't look at it like, you look at it. I look at it like they were doing it for a survival thing. Like if I don't get one of them, one of them going to get me.

And so that aspect is entirely different. I liken it to and I get a lot of shit from Republicans when I say this. But like, so that Great American sniper that we harrow. eyes, right? Chris Kyle. Yeah, he's a serial killer. He's a serial killer. He's killed multiple people. He was doing it in a war that was illegal and unjustified, and he was good at it and partly took joy in it. Same concept. I don't know if you take him out of that environment. Does he still kill? I don't know. But

he was in an environment where the murders were justified, and not only justified, it was Harold it. You know, like we, we, you know, he's an American hero, but he was killing people. That's like that line for the Sopranos where they're, they're seeing if all their kills, like, if they're going to get to heaven. It's like, no, it's war. We're like soldiers. And, uh, like, for example, there was a hitman for the mafia. Actually, Stone Cold based his character on it, the Iceman. Yeah. He was actually a serial killer that the mafia was like, oh, this guy's a serial killer. can harness that. Let's just make him one of our hitmen. Yeah. That's the different than that, but like the ice man would have been killing people whether or not he was involved with the mafia.

Yeah, I mean, what King Vaughn did in Chicago was like, yeah, you could draw a direct line definitely to, you know, sopranos or to the actual Italian mafia as well. And those guys are probably also part of their circumstances. Yeah, okay, we came up in a tough neighborhood in New York in the, in the 40s or whatever. And we did what we had to do. to survive with their families. But it's just, it's, it's almost like a reality show. If you follow with, with everything that they put on social media in that scene and like all the clues that they leave in, in their songs and shit, it does become, it's like

Vanderpump rules. Yes. Except just to the most violent degree possible. But there's a fascination that draws people in. Like, I didn't start listening that much to King Vaughn's music until I started learning about the person and about like what, what he did and what he represented. and then listening to his music and you're like oh shit this is like this is real life like he is almost like a wwe character come to life yeah i mean we i got did a lot of research into it when

we were looking up a young dulf the memphis rapper uh turns out young dulf used to ride around memphis and camo uh camo wrapped vehicles um yeah and uh we happened to uh pull into a memphis gas station one day on the way to L.A. to the Super Bowl in a camo-wrapped truck. And we turned some heads in not some great ways. But I started researching a little bit into that because he was killed. And, you know, I think we may have been looked at by some of Zops. And they're like, is this guy King Vaughn? And they see PFT and I walk out. They're like, oh. I mean young Dolph. Young Dolph, I mean. I got to mix up. Sorry. Yeah. people probably thought that we were young Dolph.

Yeah. Stepping out of that truck. Yeah. And they're like, oh, wait. Yep. It's these two guys. All right. So on this show, macrodosing, we've been beating this drum for the last two years.

Weed is too strong. Weed has gotten too strong. Bring back Mids. We miss Mids. I miss being able to smoke weed and then just hang out and enjoy my life. I don't want to have to smoke and take more than like two puffs. And then I have to sit on my couch for nine hours until I, I'm not high anymore, just staring at the ceiling.

I don't want to get anxious. Maybe this is a boomer take on my part, but there are people that agree with me. There was an article that came out yesterday that Big Pharma has now gotten involved, and Big Pharma is making a new drug called AEF-1117. And it's been tested to reduce marijuana's perceived positive effects, the feeling of being high by up to 38% by researchers at Columbia University. I actually, okay, I don't like the idea of taking a drug to make my current drug less strong.

But I would like to be, that's about the exact number. I would like to be 38% less high every time that I smoke. But is that number? Yeah. I read, isn't this to prevent addiction? It's, yeah. The physical addiction? It's also because weed has gotten too strong.

I think this is addicted to wheat? If you look at it, it's about, I know they say that weed isn't addictive, but anything is physically addictive. No, no, anything can, you can become like emotionally, I guess, depend on weed. You can become psychologically dependent on it. It's like how people get addicted to food. You can't get physically addicted on it. But no, there's chemical reactions to food getting you addicted, like sugar and stuff like that. That's a chemical reaction.

I wasn't aware of the chemical action of weed. I don't know. I'm not saying I do know. but I'm unaware of the chemical reaction that has addictive properties to weed. Yeah, I feel like weed is, I mean, we all know somebody that has gotten really, really into weed and weed becomes the most important thing in their life by far. Yeah, there's people who just high 24 hours a day. Yeah, it's not physically a really a bad thing. I know dudes who do that who are Grammy winners.

You know what I mean? Yeah, it's true. Very productive human beings, I'm just saying. Yeah, but. That's true. But there are also a lot of people that get. super high all the time and that's all they do and they don't do anything besides that so it's not like a one size fits all thing but um yeah makes this pill makes people 38% less high i again

just bring back mids give me some mids i miss mids me and mids were me and mids were cool nothing better like i i used to really enjoy getting slightly high and then going out with friends that was fun now it's like if you can you imagine just you know smoking an entire joint or tire blunt and then going out and just hanging out with your friends in a bar somewhere it'd be the worst thing ever and I'm sure some people like it some people enjoy it a lot I don't maybe it's me maybe it's a me problem maybe I I am the only person on earth that would actually like to take this pill although again taking a drug to decrease the quality of another drug that you're taking seems to look backwards they

have like percentages like like if you go to like dispensaries they'll have like 0.05 tachc or 3.2 or whatever the case of you know what I'm saying yeah they do but it's also an arms race so nobody out there is like making mids you know that's not like a popular thing piece or people are buying they want to make drugs that are they want to make weed that's stronger than the other guy to get you stronger it's like in uh if you go to micro breweries everybody's like well ours has like we call this the quintuple hopped IPA the monster IPA it's just we're gonna we're gonna fucking destroy you with hops yeah there's but like that's weird because that's just like flavor and no one's really upping the alcohol above 10% yeah because i think it becomes barley wine

at some point or it becomes classified as as not beer anymore and then you can't like sell it with a certain liquor license yeah it's like in c17 movies like breweries i think there's a lot of breweries that don't have full bars because they technically only sell beer yeah and wine and that like puts them in a different level of liquor license it's a different level to get yeah but i i just want to say, I'm in favor of bringing back mids. I hope science, I hope we don't have to turn to another drug company. I don't want to have to, like, go to the, that would be embarrassing trip to the pharmacy to get, yeah, can I have my pill to make me less high, please, because I can't handle it. We have a special guest coming on right now. I think I see him in the waiting

room. So let's, let's bring them on the show. This interview with Glasses Malone is going to be brought to you by Hey Dude. Hey Dude makes one of the world's most comfortable shoes that are so comfortable. They make your feet, and they make your day better. Right now, have an awesome offer. It's a kind of sale that only happens a few times a year from June 11th through June 24th. You can get 25% off almost everything at hey dude.com using dude 25. I own a pair of hey dudes. Billy, I know you do too. You know, let me, let me hijack this ad because I feel very strongly about hey dudes. If you're looking for the perfect shoe to get your father for Father's Day, look, I've already

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com. I just got American flag and camo ones. Nice. And now here's Glasses Malone. I appreciate you coming on, bro. You know, we didn't know each other for a minute, man. And we're doing an episode today on the history of L.A. gangs. And it's a fascinating history.

It's a rich history. A lot has a lot to do with civil rights and everything involved with black folks in this country. And I wanted to get your perspective on it in general because you're one of the most, I guess, intellectual gang members I never came across. I don't know a lot of these cats grew up with a lot of these cats and yeah I definitely got respect for your mental man but if you could just you know just give a little background like where you from like what you do and who you are man glasses of Malone pretty much just like a east side survivor from the east side of the 110 freeway primarily Watson Compton my whole life my mom's on the house and Compton my dad on the house and Watson had pretty much made my experience what it is. And so as I'm digging into like the history of, of LA gangs, man, you cool with saying where you from? Yeah, I'm from 117 Street Watch Crip, a.k.a. 7th Street Watch Crip.

Alright, from the perspective of like somebody who was active, right, somebody who was, you know, an active gang member out there, like, what do you view like the history of the gangs in LA and to what it has like evolved into more so like in well I guess it's two different perspectives the history and what it evolved into and like the height of it like in the 90s and then what it's involved into now and like what is the state of things today um I think when it in its earliest exceptions right um if you go back to the late 60s or early 70s it was a bunch of kids just kind of you know trying to make a movement inspired by obviously the Panthers and different ideas, but it was a bunch of kids trying to make a movement, you know what I'm saying,

and putting it together, you know, and it took kind of the people who society turned their back on and gave them something to believe in. Like most human beings, I realized, want to believe in something. We were just talking about this yesterday. So most human beings want to believe in something. So I think it gave them something to believe in, you know, other kids around that age, 15, 16, 17, 17, 18, 19. Um, probably in the height of it, you know what I mean? It was more like family and friend base. You know what I mean?

Like true gang banging was about the people you grew up with. Y'all trying to not just survive at some place, trying to thrive. You know, so however you went about earning economics, you know, whether you was stealing, robbing banks, hustling, selling drugs, whatever, you know, trying to thrive in the circumstances that wasn't really meant to thrive in. But it was all rooted in friends and families. Like if you go to the earliest beefs, you know, of these gangs, it's usually somebody family member that got killed. And that was propelling all of the, you know, activity after that, you know what I mean, that devastation losing somebody close to you.

Fast forward today, I just think more now is like a college fraternity where people kind of go from campus to campus. You know what I mean? Looking for somebody to accept them. Same thing that's driving them that drove them initially, the desire to belong. but in the height of it, it was like, these are the people you really grew up with. My older homies raised me outside of my mother and my father. You know what I mean?

Like, they raised me. The younger ones, I raised them. You know I'm saying? They was really my guys. They were friends. I know their mother, fathers, brothers, sisters, all their traumas, their issues. I know all of that.

So my care for them, that's what drove the passion to do anything wrong. You know what I mean? In their name, it was a passion for that person because we were friends. Today it's a little different. You know, it's really, it becomes the moniker itself, the name of the street or the name of the gang. And people walk in, think culturally, you know, hating another person or hating somebody that belongs to a different group is actually what it's about when that's not what it's about. I'm curious, snowglasses.

I'm PFT. Thank you for coming on the show. I'm excited to talk to you. I'm curious to know because from our perspective and maybe a lot of our listeners' perspectives, gang culture is close. associated with drug culture, with the war on drugs, the crack epidemic that happened after that. And that's how a lot of the gangs make their money. That's, you know, to a certain extent why a lot of them, you know, get elevated. But before that happened, when, when gangs were starting, especially in L.A., what was the business that gangs were in? Or was it mostly

just like neighborhood protection for each other? Or was there like any sort of a business structure to it at its very beginning? Well, it was definitely an oppressed sport initially, you know what I'm saying? So it wasn't a ton of opportunities. I mean, if there were great jobs around, most people probably wouldn't be gangbanging. You know what I mean? If it was like warehouse opportunities like it was, you know, my father was growing up, most people wouldn't be doing the same thing.

So it was very much a nothing else to do type of situation, not future looking bleak type of situation. So you kind of join the closest things with your partners. um yeah when i think so if i understand correctly because this is uh my older homies era like when when drugs came that became the first way they all could like multiple people in our community could thrive like and it was right there the opportunity finally presented itself and people jumped on it um that was all over the country when it came to you know poverty but um i think more or less is it's you know people some people work

Some people probably stole coats or stole shit. You know what I mean? People figured it out the best way they know how. I know they didn't want to be broke. I mean, if you look at what Tiki went to prison for, Tiki went to prison for robberies, you know what I mean? Minus the heinous end of the crime, which, you know, it was super debated, but it was really robbing people for money.

I think that's a good, like a historical perspective, like from, I expect what I'd love to hear from you, man, like Tuckie Williams. I don't know if everybody on a podcast. knows who he is or ran across it, whatever, is researching this topic. But Tuckie Williams is like a notable figure amongst, you know, Raymond Washington and all the originators of the original Crips in L.A. So from your perspective, how would you view, like, Tuckie's legacy and who and what he was

and guys like him? So right there's the shallow way we see it. And the shallow way I see it, you know what I mean, which is, these kind of mythical figures where they super buff, you know, strong, like they carved, they worked their body out. They may didn't have a ton of money and they grew up in hard situations, poor, you know, took you born in 53, you know, but he made his body look apart like he was going to demand respect no matter his circumstance.

And I think that's the main thing that I take from him. And then, um, personally I take from him, you know, when he finally gained consciousness this and a lot of his situations too, which is crazy because it's different today. Even when he went to prison for, it was three or four people, you know, in these robberies that turned into murders, but they were all on PCP, too. Most of these people are doing drugs. I mean, they're dealing with life's trauma the way they dealing with life's trauma. You know what I mean? Especially coming through that 60s, which was like a drug-induced error, like a lot of people was on drug, you know, hippie errors, a lot of people was on drugs in the 60s and 70s. So I think

they dealt with it the best way they knew how and whatever was closest to them they grabbed on to it you know friends family whatever and so much so for tooky with me it's like um i look at him like somebody who who decided like he was going to give respect from everybody no matter what no matter his circumstances um when he went through his trials and tribulations you know what i'm saying he still figured out a way to make something out of life of it i think that's how i look at crippling as a whole you know what i mean like you don't have to be a criminal well you definitely got to be down the thug to be a crib, but you don't have to take the route

that everybody's saying you have to take. Like, it's up to you. It's like, long as you stand up and be willing to do whatever it take to get justice, you know, that's what it's really all about, you know, to make sure you thrive. To me, growing up, man, around a lot of these cats, that's what struck me more so than anything.

And I felt, and I want to get you take on it as well, is like the social currency that comes along with being like somebody you don't want to fuck with, you know what I'm saying that social currency in those areas like reigns supreme and as you I feel like as you grow like so like when we was younger and you hear about you know Tucky Williams or what all the all the OGs or whatever the case may be like there's a certain amount of reverence that you have for them you know what I'm saying or somebody who put in a lot of work across whatever the way like there's a lot of reverence as you have but as you grow you realize

you was just participating in a lot of nonsense but I want to get your take like on that social And being in that environment and that social currency that comes with, you know, the violence in our communities, but how negatively from an outside perspective, it's like you're causing a lot of ruckus. But internally, how when you're in that environment, it can be looked at as reverence. So that's a dope take, right? Because it does come across at times like nonsense. And there are some homies that do have nonsense. but I think like the American way of thought you know what I'm saying like the American like so there's a cornerstone and masculinity right that I don't want to be

fuck with that's the wrong person to fuck with that's all men that's if you work at a business and a corporation and your employees fucking up you want to be that boss to be like you know you don't play with me and you get your ass fired so you know it trickles down even into the poorest and most oppressed places you know what I mean and it may be a little bit more primitive so it's physically you know explained but it's all the same um i think culturally in america even when i remember back being a kid watching ronald regan on tv talking about the dictators in libya and making this whole rhetoric of america is not to be fuck with of course that mentality passed through the most you know the poorest and most oppressed

places. You know, you may didn't have bombs, but you might have had hands. You might have had fists. You know, that was the mentality of America pretty much my whole existence and then even when I read throughout history, you know, that's been America's whole stance. So, of course,

it trickles down to every American. You know what I mean? It's going to trickle down to the, again, to the, to the, to the worst circumstances, whatever I got, you know, my, American pride is some shit. You know what I'm saying? It's one of the craziest things that make us, you unique as a country. We have a different sense of pride about how we carry ourselves. And it goes down

to the lowest places, you know, in America. You know what I mean? So fast forward, you know, 2001, you know, 9-11, you know what I mean? And somebody bombed, you know, these buildings and they fly planes into these buildings, right? And they fly planes into these buildings. America didn't say, hey, you know, we're going to have a conference. We're going to sit down. We're going to come up with an amicable solution of, you know, how we're going to express our self without violence. No, it was on drones, drones, drones, drones, Bob, kill, die, die, all the way to the point to where 20 years later you have a sitting president now that's on TV bragging about knocking something down, you know, killing somebody

that did something to them 20 years ago. So we'd be crazy to not look at it like this mentality doesn't pass even from the wealthiest and most powerful positions to the poorest in most oppressed positions. It's all the same mentality. There's no picture of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden holding the American flag and the Taliban flag tied together and being like unity. Yeah, we're squashing us. You feel what I'm saying?

Like, if that's the goal, like, that's why I think is weird to me because I don't quite understand how people, you know, look at it so crazy. Like, we live in this country. And back to your point that you were saying to, like, to, to, like, the, soldiers mentality. You know what I mean? Like, we all have that soldiers mentality, especially that generation of people. They have a soldier's mentality. You know, like, it's serious. You know what you're protecting, you're willing to die and kill for whatever because that's how my older homies were brought up. They were brought up, you know, their parents are Vietnam vets. Their

parents been in wars. So they passed that mentality. And yeah, these little dudes ain't going to war. My older homies ain't going to war for America. But guess what? they go on a war for 170th Street because, you know, little Jackie was around the corner and they'd jumped on little Jackie and shot him in the leg because they was all drunk. Yep. So that's why I wanted to get you on here because you just, you like, you get it. And you just one of the smartest dudes I came across. And so when you're talking about, when you talk about, I read this book and I always

bring it up in these conversations because for a lot of like, especially white Americans, right, a lot of white Americans can't fathom the fact that you'll say, the cats in our neighborhoods are fighting a very similar war that our soldiers are fighting across seas. It's about land. It's about territory. It's about respect. And those kind of things in the macro are viewed as brave, valiant. But in the micro, it's criminal when the same crimes that are being committed in our neighborhoods are also being committed overseas. Until we reconcile with that fact and have a little bit more empathy, it's going to continue, you know, to happen and transpiring the way that it does.

You brought up a very important point was what you said, to the soldiers mentality. And when you look at, like, a lot of those, like the Panthers and the Us organization in L.A. when it first started, a lot of them cats came from Vietnam War. It came from the actual war.

It came and organized in a way that said, we must protect ourselves. And you, that's the funny thing, because America taught them how to do it. They taught them how to, how to protect and train. And that's what, it's literally why the gun laws in California are so strict right now. It was because Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers in Oakland, they said, okay, we're going to arm ourselves. We understand our rights.

We understand. And they stood on the steps. Yeah, it was like, uh-uh. They got out of control. In the next month, legislation was passed saying guns, hey, we got to get away with these guns. So it's, it's beautiful to see you articulate it in a way that, that I've always seen it like, Cornel West, he just put in a bid for running for president. I don't know how I feel about it yet.

But I think it's a beautiful human. He had a book in 1992 called Race Matters. And he talks about all of this stuff. And this was in 1992. And he said the gangbanger South Central LA speaks the exact same language as George Bush. And he said this in 1992, right? I never read that. It's one of my favorite books.

But as gang life has as evolved, I also want to get you. take on this because very uniquely I have seen it other than maybe maybe some Afro beat stuff, you know, currently like from Africa, American, black American life has been monetized, whether, you know, the good or the bad aspects of it, they have found ways to infiltrate it, not infiltrate it, let it bleed into pop culture. And so, it has been so monetized across the spectrum. And so gang life in South Central LA spread across the country like wildfire. Partly do, I know a lot of cats who had a bunch of homies like move, you know what I'm saying,

and set up shop and other places. But for the most part, I think it was the idea. And I want to get your take on what is so fascinating about the Crips and the Bloods because there are global organizations now, not necessarily in your step. Yeah, it's not a Unistep, but the idea of what it was was so sexy to people that said, we want to have that. And so something that you were involved in from the very early age of your life that is very unique to your community has now been globalized and almost watered down. Like, I want to get your take on that. So this is where mainstream America could take responsibility, right?

because at one time it only could travel, right? It only could travel because somebody was going to another community to monetize it. You know, somebody taking drugs to Washington, you know, Tacoma, to monetize what's going on in Tacoma, the people there. It's like, okay, we're going to sell some dope right here. And, you know, hey, you guys need to get together and create your own organization to either get down in the program or to stand up again. the program. That's the only way gangs would move initially. You know, it was no other way for it to move. But America kind of got into this thing to where they wanted to serve up urban culture, right? So they made films, colors, you know what I mean, which is a police film

that loosely gives people an understanding about gangbanking, very loose because the whole film is rooted about the relationship between the older and the younger police officer. but if you show somebody the highlights like sports center you know of a culture highlights that shit look like crazy you know what I mean if you don't explain to somebody the the thick and thin of it and you say this is what it is and you simplify it that pure and you make it look that powerful oh yeah people want to get down fast forward you go to boys in the hood that's a movie about black fathers you know what I'm saying uh uh without a father, kids with a father.

The whole movie is about Ricky being raised, I mean, excuse me, Trey being raised by his dad, not his mom, and how it changed his life. Yeah. But if you give them the highlights

of Doe Boy, you give them the highlights of Ferris, and you see that, that's a very attractive thing for a young mind. You know what I'm saying? It's very powerful to see it, to see culture so packaged.

You show them Snoop Dog, you know what I mean? And it's like, it becomes contagious. You know what I mean? It's spread it like wildfire. So Hollywood did a really great job of giving people the highlights of something that's really, really deep

and making it surface. It's like watching baseball highlights on sports and you're like, oh, this game's awesome. There's so much action in it. And then you go out to the park window and you're like, wait, there's, I got to wait 30 seconds in between pitches, one homeowner game. It's a strike out. Yeah. No, that's interesting.

I have a dual mind about that too, though, right? So, like, there's a duality in that where I'm like, I do get that, the exploitation. That really started in the 70s with shit like Superfly, shit like that, right? And so I get the exploitation, what we were called the black exploitation of a lot of our cultural practices and norms. But in one sense, well, like I said, it's an exploitation because at the top, the most of the palms getting greased are not about community, right? But then you'll have a snoop.

You'll have, you know, a cube, you know, whatever case might be, who. Like, they transcend that and they tell their stories, right? Because the stories was going to get told either way. I would rather have it by cats who was in it than not. And so it also gave a lot of opportunity for cats around it. But again, it also. Sure. I get what you saying.

But I've always, I've said this to Snoop before and I said this to people around it. I'm like, Hollywood prepared the world. to hear Snoop dog. Snoop excelled at the role. I mean, Snoop excelled at the opportunity. Like, he became the most,

you know, coolest, like, that's creeping in a nutshell. Like, this really cool, smooth dude that's going to party all the time,

that ain't taking no shit. And you finally hurt it. You know what I mean? So Hollywood prepared the world to finally hear the voice of, you know, this American culture that's super contagious. And then Snoop came and fulfilled.

prophecy like Jesus, you know what I mean? God and Jesus. Like, like, like Ice-T set the foundation, right? Like God, a gangster rap. And Ice Cube is the Moses a gangster rap. He came and walked the trail and showed you as possible to walk in. And Snoop came and just fulfilled, you know, the prophecies of it all. Like, this is really it in all its glory. Same thing, you know, drug dealing in those films and Time magazine did with Nikki Barnes and all of these people, they did for Jay-Z. They set the stage for a black drug dealing, you know what I mean, a black drug dealer to come voice exactly the complete experience. So, I mean, like we just were saying with baseball, if you look at the highlights of it all and you're like, oh, these highlights determine how good this game was.

The score could have been seven to five, but it could have been in two innings. Yeah. You know what I mean? So watching the Angels and you're like, oh, this is the best team ever because they have Mike Trout and Shohei Otani on the squad. And then you're like, oh, wait, they haven't won shit in 30 years. Exactly. So I think that's the thing. So, again, everybody likes sorting their food until it's time to deal with high blood pressure.

I mean, everybody wants some seasoning. You know, season is dope in moderation, but, you know, some people really got bad meat, so they have to oversees the fucking food. So, you know, hence, you have these issues, you know, in America, you know, know, we look at it, now we complain about high blood pressure, but it was cool when you had that table salt on the table. And remember, some people got a seasoned bad food. Yeah. I mean, all these greens ain't flavorful like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

you got to add a lot of fucking salt and vinegar and shit to make this shit digestible. It's a great point. I, you know, that's how it is when you're looking at these films, like to some people, we're looking at these films and it's like, oh, oh, that's interesting. That's what they have going down there? That's crazy. And then you have some people be like, oh, this is how they dealing with, you know, their circumstances, or I'm on this. I'm with whatever they with. I'm curious to know, because you talked earlier about, you know, if somebody is trying to figure out sometimes they don't know what, what gang or what's that they want to be a part of. Culturally, as a complete outsider, this might be a dumb question. Are there cultural

differences between the Crips and the Bloods, as you see it in Southern California, in terms of like, what they represent, what they're all about, what their values might be. Is there something intangible like that, or is it all rooted in those original

beefs that have then grown and grown and grown and grown over the years? So, this is tough, right? Because there's an issue in that question. So, gang culture is not about beefing. That's just humanity. Human beings are going to find reasons to conflict. It's just what they do.

Poorest, wealthiest, it don't matter. You think all these countries with billions of dollars, they find amicable solutions. Nope, they're going to fight. That's what we're going to do. You know, you look at Russia and Ukraine, they're going to fight. You know, some of the brightest minds in the world, and they just can fight. That's all they're going to do. So that's a human being issue. So cultural, do I think there's a difference between crips and bloods today? Hell no. They're the exact same thing. In its inception, you know, crips were a bunch of ambitious people that would go around community to community trying to get people

to be down with their movement and the guys who had existing situations that stood up to them and said, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to be who we are became known as bloods. So I think in its inception, yes, there was a cultural difference.

It was kind of like the guys trying to bully somebody and the guy standing up to the bullies to a degree. I guess you could kind of frame it that way loosely. Um, is there any difference within it? No, it's the same shit. They all wear the same clothes.

The colors is just different. They all pretty much use the same lingo except some change different letters and the front of letters. So all the same thing because it's all rooted in the same type of poverty, same type of oppression and the way you deal with a conflict resolution. So, but I don't think, I think what you said, that's weird. I don't, I don't know how that works because I couldn't kill for a, because we're from the same community.

You know what I mean? Like that really wouldn't like I won't what would be my bond with that person to emotionally move me, you know, like, you know, I have to build with this person and develop a relationship. So if some stranger comes around that I don't know his mother and father and I don't know him, he got shot. I don't give a fuck. You know what I mean? Like I don't know where that shit is, you know, how they do that.

You know, again, that's that desperation and humans to belong. So, you know, you want to show that you. down. I mean, that's a whole different level of what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is, when I'm from, all my homeboys is my friends. Like, I really know their parents. I know they, I know they children. I know their grandparents in a lot of these cases. Like, we know each other. So it's one thing when you got to come back and tell somebody, mom, and dad, that they got killed and y'all was together. And then you don't know what that does to your mind and how you feel about it and how you feel like you want to go about getting justice at that point.

Bill, you had a question? Talking about the Crip movement that you were mentioning earlier, what exactly that entail? And what was sort of the ideology they were spreading, if anything? Man, them little dudes was 16. You know what I'm saying? So it's not going to be clear. But I think from reading it and talking to my older homies and talking to the older guys that's even before that, you know, because the Crip organ, it's not really one organization. Right. Bloods are not one organization. These are like, you know, different battalions in military services. Like some gangs are like the Navy. Some games are like the Marines. So in theory, they're all military, but they literally all are their own unique entity. And they find the likeness and the job that they have to do, like the military. Like a Navy person and a Marine person could be in the same place. And they, you know, culturally, the motherfuckers might fight. You know, especially the Army and Marines. They fight and shit. So, you know, same.

with like an Angels fan and a Dodgers fan. Like, it, you, you, you, it only matters when it comes to your love for baseball. You know what I'm saying? Outside of that, there's going to be conflict because the ideologies is going to be different. You know what I mean? They could be the same, but they're going to be different. You know what I'm saying? So it's, it's, it's kind of tough to, when them dudes started, they was 16 years old, you know what I mean?

And I don't know what great. things 16 year old human beings have done historically that are like fully detailed you know what I'm saying like I think it'd be just like simple idea and then it just get loose

yeah but yeah just it's tough just like wondering what would be an example of what they'd say to someone to join like we're a great group of guys like we're bonded

yeah I want to hear some slogan yeah I want to hear some slogan explain like it's a fraternity to Billy and Billy's rushing. For sure, they wanted to turn it into a machine, so their thing would be like the machine is in motion. Do you want to be a part of the machine? It's very much like military mind, like Uncle Sam wants you.

It's not deep. Just like joining the military didn't have a, at first, their initial sluggles like Uncle Sam wants you, that little man pointing at you, we want you. That's cripping. We want you. You want to be with us? You know, this is where it's that.

And then along the line, they start selling, you know, oh, we'll pay you monthly. But it started off as, we want you. You know, you want to get into this little funk with us. You want to go here and handle this business. That was the selling point for me and that one time. And then it started being like, you know, there was a pride about it, you know, representing, you know, your community. And then it became opportunities to earn, you know, as drugs came in the 80s. Hey, you know, we're making money over here.

You want to make money with us. You might have to get down. You know, you might have to protect the community. One of the greatest criticism I laugh at when people talk to me about gangs is when they say, oh, man, you're dying for, you don't even own no property in your hood and you dine for it. Most American soldiers don't own property. They don't just give you a house because you fought in the military. Hey, you sign up. You have a house now.

No, no, you don't. Motherfuckers be homeless. You know what I mean? So it's the same, think of it like the American military. Like, you know what I mean? It's the same mind state from back then to the same. now you know i mean it's the same mind state it's the same um recruiting methods it's not really they beat your ass up to see if you're tough we'll put you through six weeks of boot

count we'll kick your ass you know you heard stories of the hazing that be going on and shit my little brother's a marine he got hazed and shit motherfuckers ain't playing so they want to toughen you up it's it's all masculinity you know it's all masculinity And then a follow-up question, when you're talking about different streets and different neighborhoods, what were the numbers looking like just from, like, were there a hundred members of, you know, a brigade, as you're saying, or like, was it smaller, like 20? I'm just trying to get an idea. So, yeah, it's weird, right?

Because this is what makes it crazy. So on my side of town on the 110 freeway, there's a lot more gangs in L.A. It's a ton of gangs. I'm from a small neighborhood, right? A 117th Street might be 100, 150 people. It's not a lot of people. The gangs to the left of us, right, or to the south of us, is the Mona Parks. The Mona Parks might got four or 500 people.

The gang to the right of us is the PJ Crips, the Imperial Court, PJ White Crips. They might have 500 members. You know, you go to a hood that's right next to them. Another hood, they might have 100 or 80 members. The 10 lines, you know, which is on 100. the 10th Street in Wilmington, they might have 200 members. You know, you get down to the Grave Streets, they might have a thousand

members. So it's just different. You know, it depends. You cross on the west side, and these territories are huge. They can have, you know, 60s might have 1,200 people. A. Trades might have 900 or 1400 people. So

it all depends. No, China has more people in his military because they have more territory. You know what I mean? They have more people in their military because they have a ton the territory, you know what I mean, that people live on. I have a ton of people. So it depends on how big the community or the borders of the community is itself, because then you grow up in the culture that's being where that community or whatever that community is. Do you look at gang culture right now as having positive effects or has it reached a point? It sounded like you

were saying earlier, like, you know, there's a lot of nonsense that's going on right now. And they don't necessarily stand for anything. Do you think that there's still, there's positive aspects of gang culture so and this is one of the hardest questions right because i've been told that people think i speak positive about gangs and it's like i just speak the reality of it so gangs work for me great they shaped me into a man i wouldn't trade it in for anything taught me i could defend myself be on my own i don't need nobody's help i'm going to be all right some people if you give them power it fucks their head up you know they'd be messed up you know they be messed up.

They'd be totally distraught. You know what I mean? They don't know how to deal with such responsibility. So it's, it's not necessarily something that becomes positive. It's like family. It's having a family positive or negative.

I guess it depends on your family. Like if your family, you know, shit on you all the time, it's probably going to be fucked up and you're going to come out to the real world and be horrible. You know, but my, my homies were super, forgive me for sounding like this super nurturing to who I was. You know, they did challenge me and I had to stand on whatever I was and had to validate it through information or even at times physical presence to let people know that I could

do whatever we have to do. But I think it's hard to give human beings that kind of power. You know, especially somebody who I'm in a drag racing, a big drag racing guy. I've been drag racing since I was five years old. Like I'm huge drag racing. When I was 10, like having 600 horsepower was crazy. Like, you had to earn it. You know, you had to have $3,000 cylinder head.

You had to have like a great camshaft technology. You know, you had to have stern enough parts to deal with it. It was just a lot to earn. You know what I'm saying? Fast forward, everybody has a, you could finance a fucking hellcat. You could finance 900 horsepower. So it's like more motherfuckers wrecked the car. It's probably more wrecks.

California happening than ever before because didn't nobody earn 900 to a thousand horsepower so they horrible with it they mistreated they don't know how to deal with the power they don't get shit they are horrible and there's no way you should be able to finance 900 horsepower you that's the thing about how i came up and how gangbanger really is you had to earn power you had to earn respect you know and it taught you how to be a man so you didn't mistreat it today people are getting the power of all the shit that motherfuckers did without earning it. So guess what? They misusing the power. They have no

idea how to use it correctly, appropriately. Most of my older homies got jobs and careers. They take care of their families. They still very much, my homeboy Maddaw been driving trucks for 25 years. Right now, if you ask him, he's going to tell you from 7th Street Watch. My old homie pluck been driving trucks for 15 years. If you're asking right now, you're going to tell you he from 117th Street Watch trip. My older homie shady has been fixing motorcycles for you know, 15, 10 years.

They're going to tell you they from the community. This is not a question. So it's tough because human beings are not, you know, if you don't make them earn power or respect, most likely they'll misuse it. So gang bank could have a horrible, most times it does have a horrible adverse, you know, effect on people.

Yeah, I don't think that you're like giving an endorsement to gang culture. I wasn't coming out of, from that perspective of you saying that it was positive. I actually just hear you being, you know, saying this is the reality of the situation. And here's how other people might not understand it. They don't grow up around it. You are an acclaimed hip-hop producer as well. I have to imagine that in your work, you've worked with Bloods as a Crip.

My whole career. My career, my first start was from the game and Big Face 100 and then G-Ride. all the cedar blocks i didn't even know that my first record deal is with mac 10 and little wayne and birdman you know like but when you start to earn economics you know once you decide to pursue that you know you're going to have to do business with whoever in los angeles that's just you can't just get crypto dollars i want to i want to get you take on this man because um gangs on the west coast are was always different to me to gangs everywhere else for the simple fact that um there was a structure that i would believe like handed down from the the history of it so there's a lot of order um involved in it so like when i looked at like i got really into like these documentaries about uh king vaughn and like all this drill back music right yeah um i want to get your take on this because Because what struck me as odd as King Vaughn because the majority of cats that from all the neighborhoods in LA, cats would get on and you could correct me if I'm wrong.

But what I saw from the most part, they would put the hood politics way and try to do a little better. Like King Vaughn and those Chicago cats was like a different breed of gangs where it was like it wasn't ever really about which I was brought up on. And they brought the hood politics to the mainstream, which I feel like it's a little different. Do you feel like I'm reading that situation incorrectly? No, no, that's fair. That's fair. That's fair. But remember, one of one of the greatest, you were calling him a journalist, you know, they didn't bring it alone.

One of the greatest personalities in the fold of music today brought it alone. right, which is academics. Like the rappers, we wouldn't, like, rest of sure, West Coast gang members had issues. South, you know, street guys had issues. Everybody had issues still, and they still had them in the music industry. You just didn't have a personality who covers news and media reporting on it along the way. Like, the reason I was, like, I know people from Chicago and I knew about some of the wars, but I wasn't as vested as I was

as when academics popped on the scene on YouTube and started detailing the wars. You know what I mean? Daily, every day, multiple efforts a day. And I thought it was like brilliant to watch him report on what's going on the street. Like, you know, like Barbara Walters. Like, it was crazy.

I can't stand this nigga though, man. But I get it, you know, because it is somebody who's not necessarily from the streets. He's not from it. But that's what made the Chicago situation unique. You never saw that before. But I saw worse. You know what I mean?

Oh, yeah. No, no question. You remember in the 90s when they was, that hoopla over the media was about the leather jacket. And it was like all that leather. That's the same shit that academics did. Yeah. Except way more detail. Agreed.

It's because I feel like I know more reach than it did back in the 90s. Yeah, I know so much about Chicago culture and violence and shit. And I'm calling back to my partners up there And they're like, damn, gee, how you know about this? I'm like, man, I was looking at this little nigger on YouTube He was talking about the whole situation. And so I don't think it's a knock to them Because I do think they get a lot of stick

For something that's not their fault. You know, a lot of people think their music is about murder And blah, blah, blah. It's like, no, a knock to who? You don't think it's a knock to who? The brothers from Chicago. Oh, all of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not, act is just, act is fucking crazy. like I'm surprised that they ain't tripped with him he's just jet fuel yeah but I don't I'm surprised they ain't trip with the fact that they still endorse him that's why I don't have nothing to say it's because it's because bro they like this nigga because he he helped like he has a big following and and it's like Vlad that's why niggas keep going on flat any press is good press if I'm in the mix if I'm in the conversation I could use that to sell whatever I'm selling yeah but in a certain place and this I guess being a real crib like that shit just wouldn't matter like if you did something across

me like a vlad act did something across me i'm gonna fuck about they press i'm gonna slaughter them quick question like it ain't it ain't worth it just sheerly off a respect of what it represents but they endorse them so i really kind of stay out of the thought of it all you know i mean especially vlad i know vlad for real and real life yeah that's crazy like i tell you crazy stories about this crazy motherfucker but it's like a lot of people hear their music and give them stick you know what i mean they're just soldiers in a war So whether or not you understand why they're fighting, you know, that's, that's your problem. But very much, this is a real war that's going on where people are dying.

They're friends. People they grew up with are dying. And again, they're kids. Right. And they're doing pills. And they're doing drugs. Yeah. So they're not sober kids.

Yeah. That for some reason, a bunch of poor people got access to some of the greatest guns that I only bought as an adult. I had to get some money to buy some of the shit that they got at 15. These motherfuckers got AKs at 15. How the fuck can you get AK at 14 or 15? And they have them in Groves. Like I was looking at that drill movement first starting on YouTube and looking at little Jojo video and Reese video and cheap. And these motherfuckers got guns that I just bought at that time in my life because they were that expensive.

Yeah. These motherfuckers don't got no money. They got shoe strings for belts. They don't have no money. They ain't no D boys. but they got a fucking gun that cost $1,900. That's the real conversation. And didn't know older person give them that $2,000 gun

because I'm going to tell you right now, as a motherfucking crib, my older homies would not give me no motherfucking gun, let alone a gun that cost $1,900. And the Chicago old Gs ain't no different. So we need to really start questioning how did this huge influx of guns get to all of these poor people

when they can't pay their motherfucking bills? How do you think that happened? So there's a whole story about a train breaking right in the community and somebody went and stole them all. People went and stole them all, but they said the train breaking was not a coincidence. Yeah.

So I don't quite know. It's a bunch of theories, but trust me, you got to be scared with somebody 12 or 13, you know, got an Uzi. Yeah. Nobody 12 or 13 had no fucking Uzi. Oozie expensive.

I just got a Uzi probably last, probably like four years ago. Oozys ain't cheap, man. You know what I mean? These motherfuckers don't got cars, but they got AKs. There's a thousand-dollar fucking gun on the street. Billy, what were you going to say?

Asking about this academics guy for context, is this a YouTuber named academics? Yes. For a second, I thought you were talking about like academia, like someone from like professors studying this. These academics is, for the long story short, DJ academics is a, he's a vlogger who made his like bones. Really, he started detailing that whole beginnings of, yeah.

Yeah, of the Chicago, yeah, the Chicago drill scene. He started, like detailing that very day-to-day, like Glass said. And it expanded to YouTube and it blew up and guys like, I forget to do that the documentary that you saw, PFT with the trap lawyer with a detail, Kingvon, all this shit. So cats like that started catching on. And that's what's fascinating to me about what Glass touched on earlier was American media has done such a good job of, like, Disney-fine. Yeah, like they Disney-fine. that life, you know what I'm saying, it looks cool and all that shit. But like, so DJ academics is reporting on dudes that are actually getting killed.

And it's like, to me, it always enjoyed it. Like, I never got any kind of like, you know, him like said, but it's like, I don't know, man. I just, I just felt very disson. No, no, rightfully so. Vig feel the same way. A lot of people I know feel the same way. Right. But just to answer the question, it's just like, there's a bunch of those outlets,

like DJ Vlad, what we were just talking about. And for people that don't know, because a lot of our audience, I don't think, We'll know that DJ academics and DJ Vlad are people who kind of document a lot of urban culture. Yeah. And they package it in a way that looks very sexy. But they're like I said, they're really all people. Highlights, man. It'd be highlights of an experience.

And then if you're a kid, you're like, oh, I made it. I made it on DJ Academics page. And then that's like a feather in your cat. And you get the cloud. So you got to, so that drives people to do more and more crazy shit in order to get on and have your name be put out to a wider group of people. So it's like almost a snowball effect where it just keeps going and going and going. Now, is law enforcement also watching DJ academics? Yes.

And how does that impact? How does that impact how they operate? And how is there still sort of from what I picked up, you're saying there's a little bit of affinity for DJ academics because they wanted to be known? But isn't there this sort of snitching culture that he may be like, like are guys getting arrested because they end up on DJ academics? And if that's so, how do they keep support? it so it's like um okay so vlad or academics couldn't be snitches because neither one of them

are street guys like that's the first thing like snitching is reserved for criminals like if you were like a civilian you know like the news couldn't snitch you know what i mean like you can't go call uh uh uh what's the sister out here in l a um super dope sister love this lady to death. I can't think of her name. Doglagger. She couldn't be a snitch. Walter, you know, Walter Cronkite couldn't be a snitch. You know what I mean? So Oprah couldn't be a snitch.

Like, they're not involved in a life. So them reporting on what's actually going on is different. So they couldn't be considered snitches because they're not like in the streets, right? They're just media. They're reporting on the news.

to Aryan's point though it's like they can have a parade a feel of like they're cool with you like they are like you and that's kind of deception part that opens up different people to kind of incriminate their selves on platforms you know what I'm saying so they like like Takashi like where it's like oh yeah I'm one of y'all until it's time to go to jail

and then it's time for you to be accountable for what you did it's like no I'm not one of y'all. It's different. It was them. So it's a little disingenuous could be said that's going on. You know what I'm saying? But the reason people keep going is because the natural human condition, right, is the most primitive and basic instinct is to gain care, to have something care about you, to matter, you know, to matter. People want to matter. And these platforms have the greatest, some of the greatest audiences, you know, that have, you know, that the urban audience have access to, that the urban creative or the urban figure has access to. Vlad could be the

biggest thing somebody that grew up where I grew up at could ever be on. You know, it ain't like again, Barbara Walters, you know, ain't sitting down. That's just not, that's not happening. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, you can't just go on Fox News. It ain't like it's Vlad or Fox News or Vlad and Fox TV is like Vlad. You know what I mean? So people keep going because it becomes their biggest outlet to let people hear their story or hear what they have to say, to matter.

I mean, it makes total sense. I mean, we're in the aggregation business occasionally on the internet. And like people are always like, oh, I made Barstools on Instagram. Yeah. So, yeah, so then you just, it's kind of the same thing. You just keep pushing further and further. And you're like, oh, I'm on Vlad.

I'm a celebrity now. You guys saw me on Vlad. I'm featured on Vlad. So do they tend to submit themselves? Like, hey, I just, you know, did this hit in like tell, like, tell DJ academics. Are they self-sitting? Publicists, you know, publicists can submit for an interview. Academics and Vladke, you know, they, neither one of them are street, but they definitely can hear it.

They definitely have connections to people with their ears to it. So if something is happening, they can reach out to somebody publicist or to the actual product itself, the artist itself, and say, hey, man, I want to get you to sit down on my platform that has 10 million people following. Yeah, I want to get Big T involved. Big T, you have any question? He's over on the couch. I don't know if you can see him from here, but yeah, this is, this is going to strike you as a stupid question, but I don't know, and I feel like most people don't know, because when you see stuff about gangs on the news, it's over 99% negative. It's there was a shooting or there was whatever.

What is a Tuesday and a gang look like? Are there meetings? Are there, like, what goes on that's not? It's dope, though. It's funny. It's not a dumb question. I'm serious, though. Big T, I can't see you.

Yeah, Big T, I can't see you. But there's no such thing as a dumb question when we ignore it to life, you know, culture. So, yeah, yeah, I really, like, what does it look like when it's not the stuff you see on the news? What's the day in life on the Tuesday of a criminal? You know what's funny. It's the same day.

This is the irony and this is the thing that I hate about it. The same shit you doing. Motherfuckers sit around and watch sports. Somebody making some money. That's a regular Tuesday. Motherfuckers got a hundred jokes. Motherfuckers lying about the girl that they slept with. You know what I mean?

Maybe, you know, maybe something. Honestly, and he could tell you, there's not a ton of days of violence. again it's the news is telling you this so you're getting the height don't let me wrong 30 days out of 365 days that's to an american that probably would be crazy if you grew up in a suburb but where we from it's not as violent as you would imagine it's not always some shit happening you know me and for the most part it's the same thing it's a bunch of homies kicking it up you know maybe some homies is earning you know they out there getting their money you know maybe some homie went to work you know people got jobs and gang somebody went to

school because they got school. You know, it's all the same thing. It's regular life as usual until, you know, there's a confrontation. Now, this may be another stupid question, but what is the setting of where this is all taking place? You know what? It's not stupid. There's no such thing, man. Just regular, it could be inside of a house. It could be inside of somebody's mom's house. You know, she at work, and they're just in the living room, chilling, smoking, talking, lying you know for sure most motherfuckers talk longer than 10 minutes somebody lying you know somebody lying

so they could be on the curve like a lot of times we've been on the curve is there like a base is there like a a base where this all takes place or is it okay I mean forgive me because there some homies do got kicking its spots

like right there kicking the spots is completely different like they might kick it over here you know what I mean this day little area like my generation we grew up on corrosus so we would all always sitting in the dead end on Corrosis and just be sitting up there talking shit, making some money, listening to somebody lie or lying about what's going on every day.

So it's not, it's no different. You know, some homies got jobs. Some homies go to school. You know, some homies sit around all day and don't earn. You know, they really just be there, just be poor and broke, you know, even with the opportunity to earn money. Some people getting drunk, you know, trying to deal with whatever they're dealing with. So they're drunk.

Somebody might have smoked some PCP to deal with their problems. And you just function all together. So it depends. Everybody got different pockets in the community that they hang out. You know what I mean? I can see Billy just rolling up to his friends house and be like, oh, it's so nice outside. Can we have gang outdoors today?

We just go hang out outside. I don't want to hang out inside at the moment. Did y'all ever kick it when y'all was growing up? Y'all never just kicked it out in front of your house? No, we did. Of course, yeah. Same shit. Yeah.

I'm curious to know from your perspective when it comes to athletes that claim gang relationships or gang ties or they'll throw up like a sign on TV sometimes you see in the last few years has happened more and more. Have there been athletes that do that that have absolutely no gang connection whatsoever and they just like out of nowhere pretend because they think it makes them look cool? Hell yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure. And people know when they watch that. But there are also some niggas is from it. That's the problem. Yeah, and it's like, that's not as crazy because even having a bunch of money is not like the same as being a respected member of the community. Right.

You know what I'm saying? I don't know what it. People crazy, but for real, like it's something about being a respected memory of a member of the community. So it's easy for me to tell one athlete, you know, oh, man, you ain't never been over here, but then maybe the athlete that got him feeling like he one of us, that happens in the community every day as well. It'd be some dude that he was hanging out with one. one of the other homeboys, because one of the other homeboys is in jail for six months. And he was in jail waiting for six months. He'd come home talking about he's one of us.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because he was with Motto for six months. You know what I mean? So it's, it's, it's, uh, it's not really an organized thing. That's why I laugh when people want to charge gangs with Rico. It's not organized enough to even get that kind of respect. Yeah.

That's funny. It's a lot of confusing. I was reading your, your Wikipedia page a second ago. Oh, real quick. This is actually a very important point because a lot of gang history and issues in our communities are directly related to conflict with police. And the origins of conflicts with police in South Central Los Angeles are for our races. Just point blank period is no way to describe it. And so those interactions over the years have grown, you know, to a culture.

It was like, I don't, I don't really like police officers. Like, I'd have never, like, I'm sure that they're, I'm sure there's great cops out there, but, like, my interactions of them when I was younger, like, they were assholes. And this is how I viewed them. And so it's like, it's, I mean, like, I'm not going to go walk by a police officer now and I say, fuck the police. I'm just, I'm a millionaire. Like, you know what I'm saying. But, like, I understand, like, if I didn't have what I had, like, that we would otherwise them, just like they would otherwise us. And it's crazy for me. They're just like the competitive. Like, I'm like a cowboy. You know what I mean? And they're just like my competitor. they like competition trying to stop me from earning i don't have hate towards them they drive me to be better i'm just no honestly i swear to god that's really the truth dude it's just how we are you just just how we're trying a lot i get i understand i never heard like i look at everybody like a tool you know what i mean so shit some of them you know we can do some business you know but right boss you know you make me a better deal of it yeah i grew up in the time man when i when i was really doing my thing and everybody could testify

that knows me or you could call people and ask me, you could call some of these police. I just had that edge about it, man. I've really looked at it like, you know, we are in competition. I am trying to earn you are trying to stop me. Like, I'm coming out the backfield. You're the line. I'm running right through it. There's no personal

feelings. I'm not ever going to I don't have lyrics saying, fuck. I don't have nothing. You literally are just going to get ran over if possible. That's hilarious. That's just for me, though. Yeah. I like that. So, yeah, go ahead. Well, I was going to wrap in a sense because it's like, like you are much more than just the gang member. And I wanted you to come on here because you're one of the most articulate ones I've ever come across that that understands the history in a very broad and in a very broad and in a very broad and in nuanced context.

And so two part question, man. One, do you see there ever been solutions? because I know there was a, we're going to get into it in our episode when we talk about this, but like there was a peace treaty in the early 90s that was curtailed in part due to the police propaganda. But any kind of peace treaties amongst, like, I don't know nationwide, but it's South Central Los Angeles because that's your stomper grounds. You see any kind of, you know, kind of peace going on in the future. Is there any kind of optimism in that? And the second part of the question is like, you know, like, what else do you want to be, I don't, you don't want

to be known as a gang, maybe do, I don't know, but like, what else do you want to be known for? Because there's a lot more to you. And from the outside looking in, I get, if somebody say they're from somewhere, how there's a sense of pride and respect that comes with it from my stance for it. But for somebody who don't know you, that's never been around games, like, you're owning that shit. So, like, I want to get your, like, response to those things. It's crazy because I wanted to hear about that Wikipedia thing. So don't forget that. Yeah, I got it.

Okay. So the first question, the first part is, it's always been earning opportunities that have brought peace. If you want to tame, you know, if you want to tame, you know, a savage beast, give him comforts. I mean, the most savage motherfucker with comforts is just you would just take the gut right out of you. you know so um right now people are being you know gentrification they're being priced out of hoods you know what i mean but can they take that mind stay somewhere else if it's poor

and no opportunities possibly so um i think long as there's poverty and any decent level of oppression you're going to always have what we do you know you're going to always have people banding together to try to figure out and how to thrive in his life that's not suited for them to thrive in um who um who um what do i want to be known for i don't know i just it's not because you know i've never sat back and looked at my legacy in that way right like i definitely looked at my musical legacy i'm like okay i know how i want my music and my story to be told musically um as far as the brand myself. I just want to help provide information. Like, that's the goal. You know what I mean? To translate this street urban culture so that my culture doesn't go ignored.

You know what I mean? The problems don't go ignore. I want them two brothers up there sitting up there listening like, this shit ain't that much different than my life. The only difference is, you know, what we're willing to do. And I don't even think it's no different there. So my goal is to make sure that my community doesn't go ignored. You know what I mean? And doesn't just get frowned upon for something that's as American as Apple Pie. You know what I mean? Like I, that's pretty much the only thing that I consistently try to do with my life.

So musically, the films that I'm making, the TV shows, the content I'm making is to translate the street urban culture that we all come up into into people who don't know what it's like that are confused, that are ignorant. Like, you know, it was a couple of times that don't. know, you know what I mean? Like they're ignorant. They don't have any idea. So that's what I do. You know what I mean? So if I'm known for it, it's different. You know what I mean? I think that's something you earn just like being in the community. You earn the privilege of somebody been like, yo, he's able to translate what's going on where you're from to where we at.

So then maybe there's something that people can help with. That's a pretty cool thing to be known for too. To get something bigger than yourself that you'd rather be known for. That's admirable, I think. So I want to touch on this on your Wikipedia. page it does mention that uh you were invited to participate in the juggalo march on Washington in 2017 2016 2017 with insane clown posse who who was labeled a gang by the FBI the juggalo's yeah yeah they're they're gang so my real gang yeah my question was just going to be like do you fuck with the juggalo's and can you explain from your perspective what you think about insane clown posse their things man juggalo's ain't none but are crippers that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's

gang bang and brothers. It's the people that the world didn't want that they didn't take in and they band together and they made something. They decided to thrive and excel and, you know, ICP provides a soundtrack to that. Tech9 provides a soundtrack to that. So many different

people provide the soundtrack to the reject. You know, the people that America doesn't want. So I've always been I've been fucking with jugglers for 13 years. Like, ever like since we first start when i first got introduced to it i was like oh yeah these my people like we the same you know what i mean we the same hey so it was always good and it's crazy

it's dope because you know jugglers do come in all kind of racist colors size whatever blah blah by blah genders but it is dope to see white people that's going through the same struggle of oppression and poverty and to see how they deal with it and y'all motherfuckers ain't that different. That was like one of the greatest gifts I ever got from being exposed to ICP being on tour with Tech 9 is that. Seeing white people in the same

circumstances like, oh yeah, this shit is the same. You know what I mean? Motherfuckers is the same. It's a beautiful thing. It's awesome. It's a beautiful thing. Hey, before we let you go, man, I got to get your take on this dog. My man's Big T over there sitting on the couch. You can't see him.

I told him you might have an ally, but I We've never debated this part. Maybe. I don't know, though. I don't know. My man said Kobe was not a top 10 player of all time. He's right on the verge. He's definitely a top 10 player of all time.

All right. Hey, glasses basketball knowledge, I may tip my cap to him on that one. You know what I'm saying? Like, when I get into a basketball argument with this nigga, I'm like, hold on, man. Let me Google something real quick. Give me your top 10. You know what my singer would be?

You know, my secret be about all knowledge. It didn't start when I started looking at it. It started before I ever started looking at it. One thing I'm really good at is going back to the first beginning of it all. And then starting there and coming forward. If I could start there and come forward, I could build anything the way I want. So I'm here as a conversation. Bob Coosie number one is what you're saying.

For a long time, Bob Coosie, he was only in my top 10 for a long time. Wow. It might still be. No, no. Step, Steph moved him out of there and put him in the top 15. Steph finally got it together, you know, confirmed his greatness and made it work. But Bob Coosie is in my top 15. I feel bad for Bob Coosie because he's still alive.

And now he's almost served as like a punchline when you watch first take. You watch Undisputed. They're debating and somebody brings up Bob Coosie. And then everybody just clowns on Bob Coosie because of the area that you're playing. It's crazy to think the inventor of the fast break. The first man that could run fast in. dribble, dropping people with one in, but you know what? The human mind can't compartmentalize what it could have been like or what the skill.

People look at a buddy mom in a dope group chat, KD, Seth Curry, all these great basketball players, right? Couple trainers, couple really smart basketball minds. And they can't help but think to themselves like, oh, well, Bob Coosie, you know, if you put Chris Paul back in that era, it's like that's not how it works, right? You would have to think this Chris Paul. benefits from the evolution of years and years of watching basketball, being able to teach basketball, human evolution, all these benefits.

So you look at it relatively? It has to be. There's nobody playing basketball. You got one dude that could pass that's throwing no... Magic Johnson's game. His name is magic because of the Hardwood Houdini. Yeah, it's funny because I think it's more entertaining to me to just think about Kyrie Irving getting, you know, teleported back in.

time to 1950 and then watching him actually kill people on the football and double dribble on him every play aspect that's probably true yeah i got to get every play maybe like travel double dribble yeah i got to get in this last question uh yeah you've been raising your hand like i know first grade uh i was just wondering uh you touched upon earlier that uh you see a lot of these young guys in chicago with expensive guns and you mentioned a train might have been you know rig to break in the middle of the hood and something happened. Do you have any more details to that

where Billy wants to investigate? I would have to start looking into this. Somebody has to. Somebody, I think that's what we should be doing. We shouldn't be looking at a bunch of high and unsobered 50-year-old kids with fully automatic weapons asking you know, what's wrong with them? Well, they

15 poor and fucked up. You know me? I just was wrong with them and they high. How the fuck? Just go look at some of these drill videos. Go look at some of this shit. There's some serious hardware. That shit is crap. Man, I've been a gangbanger for 30, not

30, 20 plus years. Some of this shit, you've got to have some money to have. This shit ain't cheap right now. A Uzi is not cheap right now. Somebody who ain't got no money but got a motherfucking Uzi and ain't nobody. There's no older man

giving somebody their $1,500 gun. Some of these people You dig into this I'm looking into this Well I got my best man on it glasses Yeah we need to really get into that That's important how they get the gun

I mean I've been looking a lot of like A weapon smuggling and like Arms dealing in regards to the Russia-Ukraine war to see like where the guns Are coming from what's going on And like for that amount of military Hardware to be in Chicago That's not something quiet

That's not something quiet Yeah I can't help it I'm looking I'm like And this little Jojo rest of his soul's little dude that was coming up in the rap scene early on uh he i'm sure a is familiar with him but it's like he was in there with like a it was like a tech with a switch and i'm like that's about two thousand dollars and he don't got no money got a shoestring in his hands

no shirt on bad they can't even afford a haircut if even if somebody nobody would have gave you that gump i wish i would have went to my older homies and say man let me get your oozy for this video I remember the first time something happened to me. Let me say this story so I could. First time something happened to me, right? I got into it with somebody. I got my first gun at 13. I was a, the Compton body of 7-0.

Shout out to the 7-0s. And I know a lot of them at this point. But at that time, they started warring with all the black gangs around the community in Compton at my mom's house. It was the first one to hit up BK, C, K, Nick, and Killer. They was like, on. They was like, we're going to kill everybody around here. and me and my buddy were walking home, we were walking home, you know, we walked together because

we understood it was on at the time. They rode up on me, put out a gun, stuck it out the window, holes in the, you know, which ended up being a tech, had holes in the muzzle, blah, blah, blah. And they let us get away, but it was really frightening. So I got my first gun after that. Mind you, I have my gun for a while. Like everybody else is 22, 25, it gets stolen. You lose it. One of your friends stealing, because they feel like they needed more. fast forward I get into it with somebody last year high school I need a gun I go to my old homie I'm like hey man I need a gun he's like shit you better go steal your own first one like I stole mine goods expensive this gun was 500 dollars you ain't getting this gun people not just giving people guns

I think that's one of those things that are not being talked about they're not handing people's guns just because it's Thursday now if you have war and you're about to go on the mission I'll pass you this gun when you get back give me back the gun so when does you come back so So who, what entity do you think would be pumping these guns into the community? You know what? That's way beyond where I would even be thinking that. Like, I would have to really get into it. But you have to believe there's no way possible.

All of these little kids got this type of artillery. People were talking about it was 300 murders, 2,000 shooting. Where are they getting the guns and the bullets from these poor people? Where? They're not even getting no real street money. If they did, they probably wouldn't be shooting at people all the time. All right, Bill, you're on it. Billy's going to figure this out.

Stimulus. Man, I'm looking for that, too. Yeah, no, trust me, Billy's, I can tell when Billy latches onto something, he's like a pit bull. He's not going to let go. So, investigative journalism. Yeah, the investigative journalist. Go to all these neighborhoods with a press jacket on and just start in a me.

Where? Who's selling it? It was crazy as they will talk to you. They're going to be like, hold up. Look, Bill. This time got my first, they're going to start telling you. You're going to be like, oh, wow. I'm fucking around.

I had to grow my hair out a little. Well, I moved. I moved to Chicago. go, I got boots on the ground there. I might get some answers for you, but we can do some corresponding from there, right? All right, classes, thank you for joining us, man. This has been, it's been a good conversation.

I really appreciate it. Man, I hope you did, man. Always love tapping in my G. Hey, real quick, plug, anything you got, man. We got a pretty wide audience. I want people to be exposed to whatever. Just Google me, man. I'm so Googlerable at this point, man,

and you could just figure out which rabbit hole you want to fall down, man. Just Google me, man. It's good. Let us see it. All right, my jeek. Take care, bro. All right, see you, man. That was a great interview. Really fascinating stuff to say from our good friend, Glasses Malone.

And he's brought to you by Game Time. That interview is brought to you by game time. They are the exclusive ticketing partner of Barstool Sports, created by fans for fans. Game Time is a ticketing app, and it gets it. Gets it so it's so easy to score last-minute deals on tickets to sports, concerts, and shows. They guarantee the lowest price, too. We love Game Time.

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I can't wait to go to some daytime baseball games out in Chicago. It's going to be great. Game time is so easy to use. They've hooked us up in the past. They've sent us to games, and it is the easiest way to buy a ticket. Point blank. You get the best deals on last month. minute price drops, and you can share them seamlessly with your friends, with your family.

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Oh, yeah? This weekend. Good seats? Great seats. Awesome. Was it super easy to use? Yeah, cheap, too. Love it. Yeah.

What about you, Big T? You're going to see any baseball this summer? Yeah, first weekend that I'm moving to Chicago, the Braves are there. Okay, game time. Yep. Hook it up for a man, Big T. I'm sure they will. I'm sure you'll get a great ticket.

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All right, that was a fascinating interview. I enjoyed talking to him. He seems like a very cool guy. Yeah, this is a good dude, man. So a lot of the I think gang gangs and gang members in general get like a lot of you know, bad flat.

the crimes they committed, you know what I'm saying, the carnage that they cause, quote unquote. But when you know, when you know them and you meet them, you realize they're just people. And, you know, there's some heinous shit that goes on. But they just try and survive. A lot of cats just, that's the environment at the end. But a lot of them are really good human beings. Like the most, the majority of gang members that I know, good dudes. Where'd you meet them? I met him through a mutual friend, actually, who was a dude who was, I grew up around in San Diego, who was also a gang member, but I met him through him.

Did you ever get any pressure when you're growing up to join a gang, or were they just all supportive, like, listen, you got, you got something special going on. Don't mess with us. Yeah, the majority of cats that have, like, shit going for them, they don't, like, the smarter ones will be like, I don't want no part of this. Like, you don't, you don't get no part of this. Yeah, that's what MS-13 told me growing up when I was on their blog, and said, listen, I know you, I know you really.

like Papuuses, but that doesn't make you El Salvadorian, you know, go out, do what you want to do. Don't fall in with us. I saw you, I saw you talking the other day. You got podcasting potential. Yeah. It wasn't invented yet, but they knew. They knew. Yeah, they knew. Yeah, he was a, he was a very interesting guy for sure. Gave, gave me some good perspective to think about. Yeah. It's, uh, it's really, when you look at at how he was framing the whole like, okay, This is our neighborhood. We're going to step up and bang for our neighbors or friends or family. That's kind of how Europe was formed.

Just like countries are formed basically by gangs. Yeah. They have force. They have territory. They have land. They're protecting their people. They expand. They try to get other resources.

Yeah. Yeah. Eastern Europe is basically one big gang. I mean, the Balkans. Yeah. When Donnie and I were at the at the World Cup over. in Qatar and we talked to this guy from Bulgaria and I think we've talked about on this show a little bit

but he was like talking about how they all hate their neighboring countries in Eastern Europe but they're basically the same people. They just hate each other. How big is the Balkans compared to L.A.? Much, much bigger. Much bigger, yeah. I would say the Balkans region is probably...

The size of Texas? Yeah. How big is the Balkans? Probably a little bit smaller than Texas. What is the Balkans? The Balkans is a region in Europe that's above of Greece and to the right of Italy. It's like, uh, it might be, it might, left to Turkey. It might be Texas sized.

Bulk, size of Balkans. Size of Balkans compared to states. That's where, um, you would consider Yokage to be Balkan. Yeah. Yeah. They be balling in the Balkans. They, they do. Balkans be ballin.

They definitely do. Um, Big T. What'd you think of the interview? It was really good. It was interesting. Yeah. I liked your question. That's something that you don't, you don't get to ask many people. Yeah. Would you, do you clock in for work at the gang?

Yeah. Like, are there meetings? You have sick days? Yeah. There are meetings. They do have some meetings. You would have to. You know what's kind of cool? Every culture just has some type of element of a bunch of dudes just hanging out somewhere, like avoiding like women yeah yeah it's just like yeah it's just like yeah dude's rock

huh huh fast a fast i was gonna say responsibilities but yeah yeah women have the same thing though yeah they get their wine clubs their book clubs but it's more like the avoiding responsibilities women are much more proactive when it comes to their leisurely groups that they get together with like it's usually trying to do something to better themselves guys it's just like get away from any opportunity to better ourselves make ourselves worse that's what guys do we hang out i'm okay with that guys and groups outcomes usually not that good girls and groups they're trying to better yeah i'm okay i'm okay with that shout out women so california is probably the closest place in size to the balkans okay which makes sense with all the gang activity in california yeah

Oh, where did the Albanians fall if they were sitting in California, Billy? Dude, dude, the Albanians are Oakland. Yeah. 100%. Billy, Billy's had a thing recently against Albanians. It's not against Albanians and respect of Albanians. Okay, you have a healthy respect for them. Yeah.

I know a lot of Albanians. Which country do you disrespect the most? France. Yeah. Shut out. That's where Paul Gassal is from. Yep. It's southern France.

Southern Southern France He's from Catalonia, not Spain Okay, I want to embrace debate Somebody sent me this Reddit clip Of It's one of those like Embraced Debate things Or hypothetical situations

I want to know specifically Big T's answer to this question If you had to recite 90% of a movie And you would get $100,000 For getting it 90% correct What movie would you take? Fever pitch

Really? If you love me enough To sell your tickets I love you enough not to let you. Wow. I could, I for sure, 90% easy. Get it started. Off the top of the head or like while it's playing?

While it's playing. Like I mean, I don't recall every single scene right now, but as it comes up, I would. Like the opening scene is him talking about his uncle Carl and his mom puts him in the car with the uncle and is like, you take him somewhere. Then he takes him to Fenway Park. and then and he talks about how he fell in love with baseball and all this stuff Good fellas

has got a pretty easy first couple lines of dialogue yeah but it's also like three hours long I know that's the hard part but that's not 90% I know but you can be like ever since I guarantee I could do Ratatoo without a question no doubt

how does it start it starts of the they're zooming in on the TV and he goes So he goes I might butcher it But I'm pretty sure this is how it goes Everyone agrees The best food in the world is made

From France And everybody agrees that the best food in France It's made in Paris And everybody And all the best food in Paris Is made by chef Gusto And then But if it played

I could recite all that shit And then that's just like the little intro and then it starts it zooms in on some house with some gunfire and it zooms in and boom the rat remi he jumps out of the he jumps out of the window holding a big book which is chef goose gustose cookbook and then he goes this is me it's a parent I really need rethink my life a little bit he's like as you can see I'm a rat and being a rat isn't easy and fuck

now I'm kind of but I'm butchering lives but that's that's the that's a good one that's a crux. That's such a I guarantee I could do it while I was playing, though. I guarantee it. As far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. I think that's the opening line. Okay, so you've gotten maybe the entire opening line, correct? There was Joey Bats.

Mm-hmm. I would do, well, I was going to say Forrest Gump, but that's too long. I think this question means as it's playing. As it's playing. Yeah, as it's playing, I would nail Forest Gump. I mean, nobody could do it off the dome. They sent me to Vietnam. It's his whole other country.

Is that problematic? I'm doing an impression of Tom Hanks. Who's doing an impression of the kid who played young Forrest Gump in the movie. That's how the kid actually talked. And Tom Hanks sat with the kid and listened to him talk. You're talking about Haley Joel Asman? Wasn't that? No.

Forced son? No, not Forrest's son. Young Forrest. Oh, when he gets chased by the bikes. Turns out that kid had the real Forrest Gump. accent and he just sat there listening to him talk and that's how he developed the forest gum accent because it's supposed to be childlike yeah and southern and that kid was childlike and southern so he just imitated that kid the whole time mama was real smart lady you do a mean

forest go i know i think you've said it several times mom mama always said do the point to the point with shoes. That was a much be comfortable. Skinny. Skinny rain, sideways rain.

Big old fat rain. Big old fat rain. Dude, the point, he does the point, too. I don't know what it is. She's like,

I cut that grass for free. Lieutenant Dan said, we don't have to worry about money anymore. That was the moment. Me and my brother he saw is when he's sitting up in a hospital

Bay said, Lieutenant Daniel, what's some ice cream? Lieutenant Dan, ice cream. And then another funny one that I'm thinking about it, though, is when he gets in a fight with some dude over there because Jenny, y'all was chasing Jenny, and then it was at a Black Panther party. And he said, sorry to ruin your Black Panther party. He has some takes on him, bro. He did.

Well, perfect transition. black panthers into maybe our topic for the day so the black panther party they were around and then they tried to as we as we talked to glasses alone about they tried to exercise their second amendment rights to bear arms and then the government took away their weapons and said no you can't do that and uh they were instrumental in starting i guess the the advent of gang culture in California. Am I way off on that? It's a good start. Yeah. It's a good start. In the dissolving of the Black Panther movement, I'm seeing here that the Crips then

picked up by combining gangs and spreading. All right. So are we, let's talk about this accurately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get into it? Yeah. Yeah. How are we getting into it? So today's topic is the history of Los Angeles gang. And this topic is always, interesting to me because my father grew up in Carson, California, which is next door to Compton. And so, like, you hear all these stories. And then growing up in the 90s, the gang wars that was involved was a part of our culture. I'm sure you heard, you know, the East Coast, East Coast

versus West Coast beef and rap, what a West Coast beef, which is where, you know, my hip-hop influence and my influence came from was highly influenced by gang culture and gang culture and its origins, especially, like, you know, what they were political. sizes the Bloods versus Crips when it's a lot more nuanced than that. So the history of it is actually fascinating. I would invite anybody and direct him to a documentary called Bastards of the Party to kind of detail a brief history of it. And they do a really good job from the perspective of one of the dudes who was Athens Park

Blood. He does a really good job detailing and asking all to all. older cats that was there, historians of Los Angeles, to kind of compile the story of how it actually got together. And that documentary is almost two hours, so we ain't going to document all that. I just wanted to touch on some of the highlights of the history of it. So an important part of the story is how black folks were kind of refugee from the south, driven out of the south and migrated west because they were terrorized by white folks in

white communities that didn't want them there and what they found when they got there was the exact same shit um a lot of cities along the coast of of california um you could just look into the history of the cities it was a lot of the same stuff um but so you get segregated into these communities right and they were actually prospering if you talk to a lot of like african-american history professors people that studied this they would they would argue that desegregation was was very It wasn't good for the black community. It ruined a lot of the economic prowess that was there. So a lot of the, if you just think about it rashly for a second,

if we live in a neighborhood and you're only buying from that neighborhood. So if something's wrong in my car, I go to a mechanic. That's a black mechanic. I go to a black bank. I go to a black gas station, maybe not a black bank. But you go to, yeah, they did have black banks. You go to black everything, you know, laundromat, all that stuff. And all that money stays in that community so there's jobs, there's a lot of these things that when you desegregate, and there's a variable, a bunch of variables as to why it happens.

But a lot of these jobs start drying up in these communities, and a lot of these factory jobs, which is a big rise, which I'll all all elude to it a little bit later. So they had something called Central Avenue in Los Angeles, and it was a music scene with like jazz, nightclubs, stuff like that. And there was a chief of police by the name of William H. Parker. William H. Parker was a racist, which a lot of people was back then, but he, it's racism with, with power is, is a very dangerous combination. So he was the chief of police that literally used to recruit, uh, southern whites that had military background and were segregationists, uh, to, uh, to, to join a police force in Los Angeles. And so this is the beginnings of the Los Angeles police force that used to terrorize some of these communities.

And so as a lot of this documentation can be looked up, there was literally what they called the California Eagle, which was a black paper. It showed how when the integration started happening and how the tensions started to grow, how they would document, you know, this kid got beat up here, this kid got beat up here. I mean, kind of like they do now, but it was in the newspaper. And what is very rarely ever reported on is they used to have white gangs. They used to have white gangs that used to click up and go mess with people. They called them, what were they? Oh, spook hunters. So the white gangs was called spook hunters. So they used to call black folks spooks. And they used to click

a bunch of white gangs used to click up and they used to just go fuck with people and they had they had jackets and on their jackets it was a it was a man being lynched and and so a lot of the the inner city young youth they were like fuck this and so they started clicking up to protect and you listen to them talk some of these cats are still alive they listen to talk about you used to fight the white boys we used to go over to and a lot of places like compton um gardina inglewood these places that are notoriously black right now they used to be white They used to be white neighborhoods. But these white gangs would terrorize black communities.

Black communities started fighting back. And of course, police are involved in all of that. And it causes the racial tension to rise. Now, if you're familiar with just, I guess, segregation or desegregation in America in general, there's something that's a term that historians like to refer to as white flight so when a lot of African-Americans started moving into these neighborhoods a lot of white folks started moving out and that's how suburbs were created and that's why you hear a lot about inner city inner city is because in in the city black folks that's where everything was prosperous black folks started

moving in white folks they started moving out and that's like that's literally around this time This is when you have Board versus Brown, the Brown versus the Board of Education. We're literally there desegregating schools. And so that's where the populace are in white flights is because they're saying, we just don't want to be around it, around them. And so, and then if you're looking at detailed, the white population in L.A. County in 1950 was 93.4%. And then I think in 1980, it was all the way down to 24.6%. So it's a very real effect.

that had on on on the surrounding communities and then the economy right and then when you start to look at the race relations in general uh you start to think about things uh in a broad sense so there was um uh there were factions that started to build now this is all in conjunction with all the civil rights going on in the entirety of the USA and so you have all these landmark Decisions, Brown versus Board of Education, all of these things that are happening, desegregation, Martin Luther King, Civil Rights Movement, all this stuff is happening. But in factions, people start to organize, right? And the Black Panthers were very instrumental in a lot of black communities.

They had different chapters. They, I think, originally started in Oakland, right? And when they realized what was going on in L.A., they realized that we needed a chapter in in Los Angeles. And in, and in, like, you'll hear a lot of, like, right-wing people today say the Black Panthers were a terrorist organization. They'll say that shit all the time. I've argued with them, Tommy Lauren, all those guys, Ben Shapiro. They'll all say that there's a terrorist organization, right?

But they don't ever think about, maybe they do, who knows, but what they were, the Black Panthers were a direct, they were retaliatory organization for the, for the trauma that they were hoisted. that was hoisted upon them in their communities. So you have police officers who were trained and recruited to fuck with you. People getting arrested and high rates, all this stuff, just terrorized. And so they wanted to organize. They wanted to unionize. They wanted to bring forth opportunities. And so the Black Panther created a bunch of programs, free education programs, free breakfast programs, health clinics, like all of this stuff.

that is presumably anti-American because what ended up happening was J. Edgar Hoover put out a statement that actually said the Black Panther Party is the biggest threat to national security in America right now. So J. Edgar Hoover is on record doing this. And so as all these community organizations are starting to grow and seeing a lot of benefits from it, you know, as humans do, you know, there's different ideologies. that happened. And so I mentioned it with the Glasses-Balone interview, what they had the Us organization by a guy by the Ron Caringa. They were a little less abrasive. They were a little less confrontational. They wanted to more work on like the legislative side, which Black Panthers

did too, but they were just a little less confrontational. But they started to rival the Black Panthers. Now, infighting will always happen in any organization, in any organizational movement. And so that starts happening. And what has been documented. And what's fascinating to me about this entire thing is Jay Hager Hoover and the FBI initiated a program, which I think we've talked about on this episode, I mean, on this podcast before, which is Cointel Pro. Now, Cointel Pro was a legitimate federal operation to try to dissolve a lot of these organizations, specifically to Black Panthers. And so they found, and this is like all doc, like this is not conspiracy, it's all documented. They found documents of plans to infiltrate all of these organizations. And then specifically talking about the Los Angeles County ones, the Us organization and the Black Panther organization, they had conflicting views.

So they started running cross propaganda. And so what they did was they started fueling the fire of an ongoing beef between these organizations. There's a guy by the name of Bunchy Carter. Bunchy Carter was like the head of the Black Panther chapter in Los Angeles, who was heralded. They loved him. And they touched millions of lives and the things that they were able to do. Bunchy Carter was killed along with another Black Panther member in a meeting with the Us organization. Now, the FBI has came out and said that they didn't pull the trigger, but they definitely

facilitated ongoing feuds with both sides. They participated in the cross propaganda and fueling the fire to try to dissolve those organizations. Now, I think we should at least touch on redlining and the housing market because that had a big part to play too. We can probably honestly spend like an entire episode talking about redlining. But especially in California, you can look up old redlining maps of the city of Los Angeles. And you can see block by block, here are the neighborhoods that are marked hazardous. And those hazardous neighborhoods are primarily occupied by black Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, and like Italians. Those are those are the neighborhoods that were marked as being the most dangerous.

And then that was that map that the government created was put into policy. And banks would then use the redlining maps when they were determining whether or not they could give home loans to people that are trying to buy a house. Those are the poorest neighborhoods. Those are the ones that were considered hazardous to be in. And banks would not give loans to people that were trying to move into those neighborhoods. They also wouldn't give loans to people who were trying to improve the houses. If you were lucky enough to be a homeowner in that neighborhood, you couldn't go to the bank and say, hey, I've got a job. job, I've got credit. I would like to receive $50,000, redo a bathroom, redo my kitchen.

You couldn't do that. They would not give you loans for that. So what ended up happening was those neighborhoods became poorer and poor and poor because most people didn't own their own homes there. And the people that did were then not permitted to improve their homes, which decreases property values as they fall into disrepair across the board. So it prevented generations of people from purchasing a home, from being able to purchase a home. home. And people who were lucky enough to grow up in families that had been established in the United States that didn't, that weren't subjected to those rules that weren't unlucky enough to live in a neighborhood like that. What happens is your great, great, great grandparents,

your great, great, great grandparents own a home. That house increases in value as time goes by, that money, that wealth gets passed down through generation, through generation because owning real estate in America has been the best investment that you can make over the years. It gives you stability as a family. It gives you something to fall back on when times are tough. You've got equity in your home. You can sell your home if you want to, make money off of it. You can take out a loan against the value of your home. You can get cash in your pocket if you absolutely need cash. But there's generations and generations of minorities who were explicitly denied that opportunity by the government to ever start to build wealth for their

family. So they were put into these neighborhoods, kept in these neighborhoods, and then people wonder why they start to feel like they have to rally together to protect themselves. Like it makes it makes sense. Yeah. And on and on top of that, literally you have a police force or police chief who was a known racist who would hire racists and and and and have policy in their departments to terrorize these communities. So on top of all of that, yes. Yeah. And that's a great point that that I just skimmed over the fact you're a thousand percent correct redlining had everything to do with the formation of these communities

on top of not only I got you one second Billy not on not only the top of that when white flight happens right a lot of the businesses are still in the cities so you need ways to commute back from the suburbs so what happened is a lot of these governments

took out contractors and they literally put highways directly in the middle of these neighborhoods which displaced people. And like if you were just to get displaced and you're living check to check, it's very hard to get back on your feet. But that didn't just happen in LA. That happened all across America. You can look at maps pre like Detroit, early 50s, all these cities. They literally used to just put like a lot of like like the 110 freeway or what Glass

was talking about. They literally just put that directly through a neighborhood. They don't care. They didn't care. And so all of that in the culmination with the societal factors, it's just never going to be a positive uh anyway yeah when you talk about um well a lot of people like to be like oh they're now they're saying highways they're saying highways are racist and like people laugh about it because in their minds it's like people are talking about like the materials the concrete the cement the fact that there's a road how can a road be racist but it's the city planning city planning can a hundred percent be racist yeah they call it environmental racism that gets scoffed at a lot. My sister actually wrote her dissertation on food deserts. Food deserts are a part of

that displacement and where a community isn't around a neighboring grocery store that has really good access to really good food. And so they're forced to eat junk. And so like those kind of environmental factors absolutely factor into the totality of what we would deem oppression in America. I know it's a hot topic in today's world, but when you start to look at the policies that have been implemented throughout our history, you can see the pattern in which it has developed from the policing to the redlining to like all of these things. The only logical conclusion is that is some kind of backlash, right? Everybody has to, would push back at some point. And I think these are a part of those communities pushing back in a sense.

the same fuck that we're not going to take it anymore right they might not even know the implications of why they was pushing back they just felt it right and i'm not going to discredit anybody that did but uh it's a very real thing when you feel that and when you're going through it and when your family's going through it. Billy what were you going to say? I was just going to comment quickly on uh remember in the OJ trial one of the police officers who was in L.A. uh was like a known Nazi and like just how crazy that the L.A. police department's been totally operating from its beginning is like a total like fascist type regime. We're talking about Mark Furman?

Yeah. The guy that was, yeah, they asked him, like, have you ever said the N-word or have you said the N-word recently? He was like, no. And then they had just like tapes and tapes and tapes. It was like his favorite word to use. It was wild how many times he said that shit. Yeah.

Yeah, but so, I mean, a lot of that, like you said, it, it led to the Watts riots in 1965. There was a kid. I forget his name. I didn't write it down because I didn't, I didn't even think about bringing up redlining all that shit. But there was Watts riots in 1990, I'm sorry, 1965 where I think some kid got pulled over for the cop. I think he said it was drunk driving. And but there was bystanders looking and they could just see it was like, you know, bullshit going on. And I think for like six or seven days, people just went crazy because they was just tired of the shit. And that ended up leading to the youth organizing, not organizing, communally getting together, thinking about how we got to do something.

And from that, from the decimation of the Black Panther organization through the Cointel program and the murder and assassination, which someone could call it assassination from Butchie Carter and all these organizations that were just dissipating. And they literally had a, I think it was like a four-hour shootout with LAPD. Now that I'm thinking about it. There was like a four-hour shootout with LAPD with the Black Panthers. And one of the guys who was militarily trained, trained the Black Panthers had to arm themselves. But a lot of cats got locked up from that. So the youth

is seeing all of this and on top of all the economic factors, you know, they band together and they, a lot of the cats in those neighborhoods, you know, looking for opportunities. The early starts of it had a lot to do with factory jobs being lost in trolls. If you like look at the history of Los Angeles County, there were factory jobs, all those cats. Like my grandfather worked for the city of L.A. for the entirety of. of me being a child, my dad being a child, this is back in the 50s, 60s, all those factory jobs dried up. They closed down, they went away, and they pushed a lot of those cats in those

communities out of the job market. And so people needed work, people needed to survive. And so what you ended up happening in the 70s was cats was, and this is what Glasses was talking about, was the media has a very big role to play in the um it's like a it's like a media is like in lockstep and and entertainment is in lockstep with what's going on in our in our culture right so a lot of these things can influence but a lot of these things are just representative of what's going on and so superfly movies like superfly what we call black exploitation movies like superfly would come out stuff like that. And it became less about community, right? And it more about I'm going to get mine. Like that was literally the mindset. It was like I'm going to get mine. I'm going to be fly.

I'm going to do this. That mindset kind of starts to permeate all over really. And in that, you know, you got a lot of bravado, a lot of stuff going on in that realm. And there's guys by the name of Raymond Washington, Tuckie Williams. I think there's one more. But those are the originators and giving credit for the uh or the origins of the crips and where they were just big dudes like big like if you type in tuky williams and raymond what they was big dudes and were just known how to fight they were just they just knew how to fight and so neighborhoods that were you know had problems with each other they would like literally just click up and go fight cats and so after a while they would try to recruit to try to grow the brand of what crips were and I think

originally Crips, it was community revolution in progress. That was an acronym. And so they even had, I think they sent a letter to the mayor or something like that. Because after the Black Panthers dissolved, this was like the organization and the union that they were kind of like thinking about doing. But it took a different spin. And so the mayor, I think if I remember correctly, the mayor sent a letter back saying don't use revolution because you know, that's loosely tied to the Black Panther Party and all that said, and they changed it to, fuck, I'm forgetting what they changed it to, unimportant.

So as, as Tuckie Williams and Raymond Washington, as they go about, you know, South Central Lake trying to expand their brand, which being the Crips, a lot of cats already had their own shit set up in their neighborhoods, and they end up saying, nah, we cool off that, we fighting back. And so they used to get into tussles and fight back and it became like a warring kind of environment. But no guns was being used yet. It was just like all hand-to-hand. Shit, it was fighting. And then that's how the development of blood started in LA was just in response to these crypt members running around trying to fight everybody or, you know, get them on board what they was doing. And, you know, sooner that a conflict ensues.

guns end up getting involved in the play and this is what I think we enter into the era of what I think is inherited now is what I would I would call like an inherited war and so this is what I feel like the the gangs of today thrive off of and the gangs I grew up on thrived off of it it's an inherited war and so with the origins of it looking back are very petty but when you compile everything involved makes sense but if you can imagine a lot like we were talking to glasses it's like a lot of these communities they grew up and with the sets that they from they don't it's a street it's a block it's a neighborhood that they from to where that's my guy it's my best friend this is my cousin we all live in the same place and we're worn with somebody across the way a couple streets down now they killed somebody in my neighborhood if you've ever dealt with death you understand how emotionally attached you get to that person now if you can have a if you can point a finger at why somebody that you love died justice is much easier served in your mind to somebody

who doesn't have the emotional capacity to deal with death and so what they call street justice is revenge and i for an eye it's not a new concept you know it's an old concept that's been going around for humans forever you take one of mine i take one of yours and this inherited war has spread right and that's we're just talking about in the 70s in the 80s you introduce the drug gang you introduce, the cartels bringing all of these drugs in our neighborhoods. And it wasn't just them, you know, it was all across America. All across America, drugs was being brought in to fund a war in South America. And they were profited off it, but also everybody in the neighborhoods was too, it was feet in the neighborhoods. A lot of these dope boys was getting stuff for kids. It was

buying cars, buying clothes. And it was the first time the neighbors had real prosperous money in a long time. Cats was making millions of dollars in the 80s, you know, all for this shit. You're killing your community, but, you know, they're eating, right? And so they had to deal with that emotional toll as well. And so you introduce money being in a fold. Now, these territories that are arbitrarily drawn mean a lot more because this is, we control this drug area, right? We control this is how we distribute our product. And then the war gets heightened.

And this is why you have that high crime spike in the 90s where mass. and massive amounts of cash was getting killed because of the drug war, the continued and inherited war that had been going on for a decade. All of these things accumulated really started taking a whole, I think, nationwide in the 90s, late 80s, early 90s, when rap really started getting its legs. Rap was, you know, made in New York. And it was like the voice of the inner city is the voice of the youth, which had a lot going on similar to South Central, Los Angeles, but South Central was the birthplace of gangster rap, right? That rap was new.

And that rap detailed, this is wild. They used to have, like, colors, like banging on wax back in the day. In the 90s, if you ever heard that, go check out, like, old banging on wax. It was cats detailing very similarly what's going on today, like in drill rap, what's going on in the neighborhoods, but they did it from a more peaceful perspective. Drill rap now is just more brazenly boasting about the shit. But they were still detailing the shit that they were going through way back in the day.

And so I think anytime you have an entertainment value to any kind of impoverished cycle, people glorify that. And I think that's what happened with gangs in general and why the crypts and you can find crips in bloods in London now. there's an allure to listen to music that you know they're talking about stuff that you only see in movies and it's glamorized and you're like oh this shit this guy is like he's out there actually like shooting people it's wild there's like a morbid curiosity to it and then people want to feel like they're real men like these people that they're listening to and then they start to you know adopt that as part of

their own personality and it kind of it feeds and spreads yeah and if you look at it we've always had a law for that in America. If you look at what is Billy the kid known for? Yeah, outlaw movies. Outlaw movies, cowboy movies, like these gunslinger type, we've always had in a law for blood. Bloodshed sells. Bloodshed is interesting. It's, it's entertainment. But it's when it's, when it's in collaboration with real lives and real people that are affected by it, that's when it's, it's a very dangerous, you know, combination. Then that's why I feel like gang culture and gang, I guess affiliation spread so fast was because there is an allure to it, especially when you're growing up and don't have anything and you see cats with the

nice rims and the cars and they got the girls and you don't have nothing. You're like, well, shit, I want to do that. You know what I mean? Like, there's an allure to it that doesn't always tell the other side and the other side is death in jail. Glasses was talking about how one way to unite Crips and Bloods or different neighborhood gangs would be. if there was, you know, a financial reward to it. Ultimately, if it can be good for business for certain groups to collaborate with each other, eventually they will make that decision. They'll figure out a way to do that.

There's another thing, though, that could unite that. That's just a common enemy. If you have a common enemy, then anybody can team up for a little bit and fight against that thing. Like if China invaded California, if their military came over and like Storm Long Beach, you would see the U.S. military, the national, Guard go down to Englewood and they would team up with like people in in in these gangs that had this weapon ring they'd be like okay help us fight in the streets and that would be that would

be uh the the beginning of a beautiful thing if china invaded pro china pft just to just just to make us stronger iron sharp as iron you know just like he said like if china came over here and started to police our streets then we would link up and we would defend our against him. A Japanese general once said that a mainland invasion of the U.S. would be impossible because there's a gun behind every blade of grass. Yeah. I'd love to

see Canada try to invade Chicago. Why would bring it? Bring it, bitch. The funny part is you mentioned is like in 90, early 90, like 1923, there was after

the Rodney King riots. So Rodney King, very similarly to the Watts riots was for people that don't know, was Rodney King was a victim of uh police brutality and it was caught on camera and so they literally pulled him out of his car and beat the shit out of him for like i don't know like 10 minutes they just was wailing on him he was but whole face swollen the light hitch you know look like from the movie hit he was just fucked up and that shit caused so much civil unrest so much so that there was a peace treaty there was there was there was cats in in all these neighborhoods saying

okay let's stop this shit and unite around a common enemy and that common enemy was the police and so there was a about two month period in l.A. where the gangs were unified but again what ended up happening was the police started spreading propaganda throughout the news and the media saying how it's nefarious don't trust it uh this gang still doesn't mess with like all of that same stuff that happened with coin tap but the media started doing that and the police started doing that And once again, they had no, and when you talk to them, the cast that went through it, most of them say, like, they was united for, there was, you know, a cause and they was with it. But after a while, they had no, like, real leadership and they had no goal, you know what I'm saying,

okay, we unite then what, right? And this is where thousands of different ideas could have been coming to the fold, but I just don't feel like it's, it's very profitable for there to be gangs in these neighborhoods for police officers. If there's no crime, these police forces don't get these budgets that they get. Crime is very profitable for America. War is very profitable for America. Now, I'm not saying that they cause it per se, but I think they turn a blind eye to a lot of it because it's profitable. And they don't really want to be solution-based because this is how they eat.

I strongly believe that. Interesting. a lot to think about yeah um go ahead no so just from my research uh there's some just on the how the inner workings of the gang operate they have their own sign language well not just flashing signs like literally like indicating like you know like identifying uh like enemies like if they're about to like it's very interesting reading like no not they use identifying who like like uh wiping your face identifies police in the area no no no not enemies what ops ops okay yeah good point good point uh i i have seen videos of kids that are in gangs doing you know they're throwing up

all sorts of different signs some of these kids are just if they applaud themselves to learning American sign language, they would be incredible on it. Just the manual dexterity real quick. It is like, Billy's like, you know, kind of joking a little bit but he's also kind of like, it it is like its own language.

Well, no, no, they even said it's, it's indicating in public quietly like certain things. Like, so this is for the Bloods in Virginia. I'm reading this report. And basically, like, for example, having their leaning on something with their leg up means that they're carrying a weapon.

Okay. I do have a weapon. I do that all the time by mistake. Yeah. And now I'm like, I do this all the time. Like I'd be a terrible, and I'd be accidentally signaling stuff. Aaron, I've learned a lot from what you've talked about. I'd like to share something with you.

You might not be familiar with about a fear that a lot of white kids have growing up. Is that, oh, I can't wear, I can't wear my. Red Washington National's hat because somebody might think that I'm in the Bloods. There's sometimes, sometimes it's like, oh man, am I wearing the wrong color? People will know that you're not actually a member of the Bloods

if you wear a Cincinnati Reds jersey in a neighborhood that has a heavy crypt population. They'll know, trust me. I listen to Nipsey talk about this one time. Nipsey Hustle, rest of peace. He explained it brilliantly. he was saying how it's like when you went to go on missions when it's like when dudes went to go catch a body right he said when I'm running around looking for somebody he said I see a little

Asian or Asian woman or you know he would he was like a nerdy white dude or whatever he's like he said they ain't not even on my radar he said he said the transformation had for him he says when I realized I was looking for somebody that looked like me and that was a very powerful self-realization from somebody who, and for those that know, everybody knows, Nipsey was one of the biggest street gangs in L.A. was rolling 60 Crips, and he was a part of that set. And so he was talking about his, you know, experiences and one of the powerful things that he realized, he's like, I'm running around, running around, looking for somebody like me. And that's how to identify. So to, like, what you were saying was like, they didn't really bother the other, I mean,

there might be some robberies and stuff like that. But, like, for the most part, this is why they say a crime is proximal like and why i have i i understand why people will call them serial killers and stuff like that but it's a very different it's an environmental factor that they're not accounting for which is they're not running around looking to kill people for fun just to do it or they get a kick off of it you know they get a they might get a kick off of the social clout that they get in in in in getting bodies you know you know stripes on your on your shirt notches on your belt he's not to be fucked with so that social clout that social currency is a very real motivation for a lot of these cats to run around and and gain that kind of reverence in the

neighborhoods and so like i i understand both sides but i just lean more towards like it's an environmental factor like a lot of these cats wouldn't wouldn't kill if it wasn't for the environment that they were placed in it's like world war one the christmas armistice when they started playing soccer yeah the germans and the english like they would be playing soccer if they didn't have commanding officers telling them to keep fighting. I think they, like, said, like, if you try to initiate another armist, like a commanding officer will shoot you. But something really cool, I don't know, just like how it's spread,

just reading about more of the history. So, like, the Crips were the dominant sort of gang until the Bloods were like, wait, we don't like these guys, like different groups starts unite together against the Crips because the Crips were the majority at that time. And from what I understand now, the West Coast is primarily Crips, whereas the Bloods have expanded

much more into the East Coast. It depends on the city. So, L.A. L.A. is predominantly Crips. San Diego is largely Bloods. I think in the North, it's just different. It's a different culture. It's not, it's not like,

it's not like Southern California. There are, there are gangs, but it's not the same. But, and I don't know the demographics of Crips versus blood and the percentage, but in Southern California, that's majority of the case. And the spreading of it, a lot of it isn't like, there are some cats who like older heads who went from L.A. and set up shop in other neighborhoods and other places. That did happen to where it's like you'll have like brims in another state or something like that, right? that did happen but the majority of the blood sets that are out there there's no affiliation with any sets from los angeles it's just they saw the lore thought it was cool we we are also

a neighborhood organization let's call ourselves a blood gang yeah one of the best marketing tools that the crips have had is the cripp walking grip walking is awesome you ever seen blood walk no what's that they have a walk i'm i can't do it with the marketing for for cripp walking is just so much better. Well, it was, well, it was, it was first, right? The biggest most known Crip in the world is Snoop. And one of the biggest, most lovable characters that you know is Snoop. Yeah. Snoop is, is by far the most famous rapper that has ever been. By far. Yeah. I mean, you see Snoop. Snoop is like on ABC. He's interviewing Martha Stewart and shit. Everywhere. He's a show with Martha Stewart. He's on, yeah, he's on Corona commercials. He's lovable. So I did a

podcast with Snoop, right? y'all should check it out if you ever get a chance um i did a podcast with them i sat down this was before like everybody had a podcast so it was like it was new and so he was like yeah let's do it and so we talked to him and like i grew up loving snoop and like i knew him of the snoop up today which is like he's on all these brands he's doing all these things he's moving he's a businessman but sitting down with them you forget he's a gangbanger from south central lost at long beach you from long beach and he'll tell you that and so like you forget until you hear he's like, no, he's from it.

He's from it. And so it's like, you really forget because he's been, and he popularized his, his neighborhood in a way that was like profitable to him. But so like that, you know, that Crip Walker shit, that's a way of life. A lot of them took issue when it got popularized, right? Like in Bloodwalking, I only know it because, you know, San Diego, it's not as popular because they're, like, the bloods that were famous weren't really from like, so like Wayne low wayne is a blood like but he's not really from l.A so it didn't really catch on like

like anything else like snook did snook was from that whole terrain so it was just different i'm watching a video right now blood walking there's you can find anything on youtube how to blood walk in 2021 dance tutorial yeah i have like what happens if one of these become like a ticot trend and like it doesn't like it goes viral it's all it was cripp walking was little bow wow was crib walking and like a bunch of crips took issue with it like because it was used to but like that was pre social media um well it was like during the youtube page but it was like it was before people understood like there is no what's interesting now as an older head watching this generation is like i think i said this before i've alluded to it like there's really no like the culture that

has developed in all of these different cities like new york for example right that culture is kind of going away. The culture in LA is kind of going away. Like all the culture of the subsets in the different regions in America is going away because the internet has brought everybody together intellectually where we all have a meeting place of the minds. And so

like I'll be up playing video games and I hear the same dialect from all these kids like you know when they talk shit like a bunch of white kids saying nigger I hear I'll hear what's famous like

I don't know. It'll be like a bro is really doing it like bro is it's like the shit that we grew up saying like all these white kids are saying now which was like not the case when we was growing up and so it's like it's wild to see the the mending of cultures and so much as you see you know uh so it's why like you'll see I was scrolling on my on my YouTube day and some short popped up it was like some Mexican kids who uh went to Chicago 63rd in St. Lawrence Street where this is who King Vaughn used to rival with and so they went to 63rd in St. Lawrence

and played King Vaughn's music in the middle of their neighborhood and I was probably late night now I bet nobody was out there but that's how fucked up the internet has people's minds is like you're going to choose sides and the beef that you had nothing to do with

and disrespect like King Vaughn like we was talking about he killed a lot of people from that street and from that gang and you're going to go you have nothing to do with anything and you're going to go in a territory and play this man's music

it's just stupid like you're dumb you're an idiot not from 63rd when he I mean undeniably when he says that in his songs like it does it hits it's a banger but you have to keep the context like you have to keep the context there are many people from 63rd that lost their lives in that war for sure yeah if

if it was if his lyrics were about like a movie right or if it were a soundtrack to a movie and he's talking about events that happened not featuring real people then you could listen to him and be like Yeah, then you like sing along to it Yeah, I hate the 63rd

I hate the 63rd Street in this movie In this context, not full Like if you can separate that from actual reality Yeah, it's hard, it's hard Because I mean, I think about being a mother That lost his son to that war And you always have to hear I ain't from 63rd or or smoking on

Tuka, rest in peace Like Tuka was a dude that died in that war And you had rappers that didn't have anything to do with that Be saying I'm smoking on Tuka It's just like mad, disrespectful, but that's the, that's the, the scary line when it gets melded with entertainment and reality, which is like, I couldn't imagine being like a mother. Yeah, that's wild. Tuka was 15. He was a 15-year-old kid, got shot up at a bus stop.

And then next thing you know, within a couple months, you've got rappers all across the country making fun of him dying at a bus stop by getting shot. And without even knowing that they're making fun of him too. understand it's just it's wow do you think foreign governments are backing different sides of street beefs like remember we're talking before about the the train that stopped and like look we we back different groups that are like having beefs per se yeah overseas but like contras yeah what what what if we have foreign governments backing you think Putin do you think Putin is like funneling guns like the 63rd that you choose it aside

Putin's supplying arms to the Gangster Disciples versus the black disciples In a rap One guy's like shout out Putin Yeah Keeping a stocked Yeah

I mean I wouldn't put it past foreign governments Or our government To do any kind of affairs Because like you hear glasses say It's like Guns is expensive Yeah And some of the guns that these cats have

It's wild So it's like could they be making some street money some dope money maybe i don't know but it's it's how much guns are involved and i don't know i i i like poking the conspiracy bear every now and there but i always tend to lead toward a sign of evidence i haven't looked up enough of it to to make any kind of determination but i just i wouldn't put it past our government we've done it before literally with other other places in in the world you get gang members being like i'm smoking on that It's a Linsky pack.

I mean, listen, I want to let Billy Cook on this one. I want to find out, I want to find out where all these guns are. Hey, you put you a little press jacket on and go to these neighborhoods and try to get to the bottom where the guns coming from. I'm with you, dog. I'd wear a vest. I'd get in there. But, I mean, imagine if the Ukrainian army starts making drill wrap about Russia.

I mean, they probably are. Yeah. They're very. They're very, it would, it would. It would probably be a little like, what's the national,

what's the language in Ukraine? Ukrainian. It's probably like EDM. That should be, EDM drill. Yeah, EDM drill in Ukraine. They're like,

those are hard people. Something I also read about is how the, that mass incarceration proliferated like a lot of this, the gang ideologies to just for protection in, in prison. And then when they'd get out, they would be in charge of recruiting more people. And that's what they're saying.

They're like two dudes met in Rikers and started like why the Bloods is so, there's so many more Bloods on the East Coast is because of that one meeting in Rikers amongst two Bloods from California. I mean, it could be. Like I said, the lore accelerated the spread of it. But also a lot of the things, like you would go, like cats would get locked up. And you literally had two sides Like prison

We actually we set it up We were gonna do it But something didn't fall through But we're gonna do an episode On prison gangs And a culture of prison in general Yeah Very similar

It's like when you go in there You gotta choose sides Because it's very race related And a lot of prisons Some prisons not so much But like a lot of these prisons It's race related So like you'll have white people

You gotta go with the Aryans You got you got black folks Who gotta choose BMF All these other all these prison gangs and then you get out and that's what you is and that's what glasses alluded to he's like some regular dude who was in our neighborhood he would go to prison or whatever and he came back and now he went to us six months later and so it's like it's a very real

dynamic of it as well um also like all those all those men like in the freest country in the world we have the most people incarcerated a lot for these drug uh problems right and so those are fathers right so when you have a bunch of kids with no fathers no guidance it's a problem this is uh yarmac the song's called called get up i found a ukrainian soldier rapper this is the first comment is greetings from polish kiev warsaw always together ukraine never give up we don't have to play more music who is who who is who was them cats it was like i try so yeah lincoln park they sound like lincoln part a little bit yeah hey what happened what happened to white people music man what happened to like like green day what happened to that man

niggas be like you know what I'm sitting in my room I'm so frustrated like that kind of shit what happens to that kind of music bro I think it got I got people too angry and against the system they all just post on Reddit now they don't write songs which stock 99 happened they said I used to fuck a green day right the fucking green day you fuck all that shit Metallica I used to fuck with all that shit white people don't make music later anymore Like a bunch of Metallica. Trap dude.

Yeah. I don't know what happened. I think it was like the record companies like realize that, you know, like one hit wonders were more like profitable than actually having like a maintained artist over time.

Stacey Oracle. Stacey Oracle stuck was one of my favorite songs ever, dog. I fucking love that song. I think I know what happened. I can't get out of bed today. That's show my jail. We got too strong.

We got to. It took away all white people's angst. We're too chill now. We just want to make, make those high hats tickle faster. Yeah, okay. I want to be Drake. Every white guy wants to be Drake now.

Just write songs about how you can't get a girlfriend. That's what we do best. yeah there's no more like and the thing is all the like all the new rock is just way too hard it's like okay dude it's like worship the devil type stuff I haven't gotten into much new well also it could just be that tell me that the new stuff that could be the case too yeah send me some some white shit that's popping right now

have you seen a five finger death punch I've not that's why I said send it to me yeah I got you I don't check for it Basically every song that you like You stop you stop listening new music When you're about 32 years old I only Yeah

I can't scream out to that music I still search You can't socially listen to a lot of this music I will If somebody If somebody If somebody at the gas station And they'd be like

Yo man check my CD out or whatever I mean they haven't done that for CDs But like I remember vividly like Being 30-something CD USB Here's my USB.

Let me check me out. I will absolutely check the guy out. I found a lot of dope. As a matter of fact, there's a dude named Westside Buggy, who's actually a blood from L.A. I found his video, and the video had like 1,700 views on it, right? It was just, and this was I was in the NFL, and I listened to. I loved it. I loved it.

I retweeted, you know, game most part. Now he's, like, signed to Eminem. I'm not saying, I didn't have anything to do with it. I'm just saying he's a talented as artist that I just found with nothing. Another dude who was on my last album, Marla, And Kraft, I found one of his videos when he didn't really have a big follow. And now he has like two million monthly Spotify listeners. So like, and I still do that I listen to who don't have any monthly listeners to that,

I love their music. I love I love artistic expression. I don't fuck where it comes from. I know I joke a lot of our white folks. I have an eclectic white library, Mexican music. I just love good music. I will listen to anything, though. I will listen to anything.

If it's good. You know what? EDM, that's what happened to white music. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Computers. I've just been looking through it. Yeah.

EDS. Yeah, you might be right, though. That's what happened. That's something I really have not got into, man. It's like, PFC remember this when we was growing up. It was like that rave shit. Techno. Cats would listen to that.

Like when they, yeah, techno, they'll go to rages. But there was one of those that was a banger. That, what is it, Zombie Nation, something 2000? Yeah. Oh. Oh. Oh, oh, oh. That was fire.

I used to love that one growing up. Yeah. All right. This has been a good episode. I've enjoyed the discussion. Yeah. I liked it. I enjoyed it a lot.

I guess we'll see you guys next week, nanodosing and macro dosing. And until then, I love you guys. Stay handsome. Stay gorgeous. Stay out of trouble. Are you getting perfectly the right amount of trouble. That's an order. Love you guys.

Hmm. Mm. Mm. Oh. Mm. Oh. BOR. BOR.

BOR. BOR. Thank you.