I am a MOTHERFUCKER

[Steve]

Also when anyone starts doinig the 'I'm from the Bronx" or Philly, or Compton or whatever line, it tells me they don't have sh*t else going.

 

I learned that in junior high, when they started busing black kids to Pacific Palisades. The busing was voluntary, by permit. The new kids, claiming to be crips and bloods, were more likely Bill Cosby's neighbors from Baldwin Hills. Hard to take those guys seriously. Hell, our quarterback in 1975 was a black guy who drove a Dino Ferrari to school and his dad owned the Golden Bird Fried Chicken chain (many of his shops got burned down in the riots) .

 

I rode the blue line train (through Compton, Watts and Southeast LA) for many years. Saw bullshit on a weekly basis, but I don't remember any bloodshed. Rode it home during the 1992 riots (I was watching the outbreak of the riots at the Hamburger Hamlet downtown when the bartender suggested I might want to get on the road before the shit hit the fan:) and, apart from kids throwing rocks at the train from some projects in Watts, nothing happened. I later realized the train was a really safe place to be, because it was manned by LA County Sheriffs at the time and, from what I saw on television, there were no other cops to be found that night!

 

 

In college there were guys who tried to play that card as well. I knew right off the top that they may have been from there but they weren't 'from' there if you know what I mean. One from Chicago who would talk all this southside Chicago, Lord Disciples bullsh*t and talked sh*t to a few of us I said '..then what the f**k are you doing here? Gangsters aren't majoring in Marketing in college'. I never was or claimed I was ever one of those guys who was gangbaning. 99% of those guys were nerdy bookworms who never hung out on the corner. I was very lucky. I had a lot of older brothers who looked out for me as well as their friends who were pretty tough. I always tested well and they made sure I didn't get in trouble. If something was going down I was told to stay the f**k out and not get involved. My brothers had to kick my ass once in a while to keep me from the wrong crowd or situation. I resented it at the time but I'm so thankful now.

 

I was also an athlete and that helped a whole lot. I had a ready excuse not to get involved.

 

I also knew Italian guys who tried to play that 'I'm connected' role as well as if they were part of the mob. They may have a relative or someone involved but they were no more don Corleone than I was.

 

I also had a very good friend that worked for me at one time and stayed with me for a while when he was going through a divorce who was Irish, from Dublin. He knew one guy in LA from Ireland who he despised. The guy was trying to act as if he was some IRA connected guy to seem cool to some LA folks and the guy was realy from Cork. As far as away from N. Ireland as you can get.

[dave32]

 

In the background of the clip, the movie 'The Mack' was playing. EVERY guy in my area and pretty much every black guy I know my age and older (and most of the younger ones) have seen that movie. Classic '70s movie about a pimp. Many rappers took pars of that in songs, videos, etc. Richard Pryor was in it.

 

 

I've seen The Mack a couple times. It's still sampled heavily today. The Chemical Brothers love to use it.

 

I miss Richard Pryor. He seemed like a harmless, self-deprecating and funny guy on stage --> but his actual life was tormented. Guy went through a lot of shit and still left an impressive body of work. I don't even know if I would like him in person or not (many said he was an a-hole)... but I do miss him.

 

RIP.

[Steve]

I heard a story that Pryor wrote a good amount of Blazing Saddles. He needed the money and co wrote a lot of it. Especially the racial references regarding Cleavon Little. I also heard its how he met Gene Wilder and they supposedly hit it off great and the friendship blossomed into their working together on few movies.

 

Pryor grew up in a whore house. Growing up in his grandmother's whore house wehre his mother turned tricks ahas to f**k up your mind. His grandmother beat him and he was abused. Could easily have been a serial killer with that baggage.

 

We played Richard Pryor tapes endlessly as a teenager while hanging out with friends. Friends would smoke pot and listen to Pryor.

 

As for The Mack, it truly is a classic. One of my fave lines is when he's telling his main hoe how big he will be. "I'm gonna be the new king! They're gonna be talking about like they talking 'bout Jesus!"...love that line as well as when he got Pretty Tony's bitch, China Doll. I must have seen that movie on VHS 50 times at my friends house. We repeated almost the whole movie verbatim.

 

 

[Boo Radley]

Dramatic footage, though IMO it's not quite clear-cut. From one of the videos, looks like the black guy was provoked to some extent:

"How much you charge me for a spit shine?" he's asked.

[gobbledonk]

yeah, but this shit can so easily go the other way. Its very rarely one-on-one in Oz these days, and the jackals only start something when they have the numbers. Knives, and even guns, make it a lot less 'attractive' to put a young guy in his place than it might have been thirty years ago - that, and the fact that the Samoans weigh 110kgs at 16 ....

[USVirgin]

Far be it from me to let a few lies or delusions get in the way of a good story.