Growing up in Brownsville Brooklyn,NY gave me unique survival skills that i utilize in myriad facets of life. Brooklyn is the birthplace of many great people who have learned how to make "something from nothing" the main survival tactic of all survivalist. Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson,Norman Mailer,Isaac Asimov,Shirley Chisholm,Bobby Fischer,and Eddie Murphy to name a random few. But Brownsville has a unknown stardom of it's own with people as random as Moe,Shemp and Curly from the Three Stooges to Ralph Bakshi. Riddick Bowe ex-heavyweight champion used to live in the projects across the street from my crib. All these people have overcome the hardships of poverty in brooklyn to become superstars.
My neighborhood in particular was one of the roughest parts of NYC besides the south bronx(Birthplace of RAP!). I remember playing outside as a kid and hearing dudes fighting and then POP! seeing one of them drop to ground from a gunshot. All the parents would scatter trying to collect their kids and get in the house or scream out the window "Boy get in this house now!!". I remember just staring at bodies laying on the pavement slowly leaking red kool-aid wondering if they were gonna get up. And then being snapped out of it by my mom yelling, " Boy don't make me come down there! get your ass in here now!!". I believe this desensitized most of us in the same way a war vet comes home from iraq. Learning how to deal with random violence without succumbing to complete P.T.S.D is definitely a skill needed in the hood.
I mean the very next day we played Skelly on those same streets with a light tint of crimson like nothing happened. I saw alot of things i probably shouldn't have seen by the age of 13 like a couple having sex on the park benches late at night when me and my homies sneaked off the block to go play late night basketball. See a number one rule when your young is always stay on your block after dark so your moms can see you playing or a neighbor might parent you, it was definitely a "village" that raised me.
Another time we rode our BMX bikes to another area called Seph Lo which is a projects about ten blocks away from my crib. That was when i saw my first stabbing. These two dudes were arguing about some money when another dude came up behind and stabbed one of them. We bolted out of there as fast as we could as we heard the crowd of bystanders yell "Oh Shit Sun!!!". I mean i know people watch world star to see fights but it's nothing compared to a front row seat. While we were riding back to our block a group of ten kids rolled up on they're bikes and started yelling at us "Yo come here!!!", Me and my friend Enz knew what was about to happen so we sped up. It was only 6 of us so we were out numbered and not on our block which is a big nono. Kids rode in big groups so they could steal your bike from you. We sped up but one out of our group got caught up so we had to stop and help him. I mean you can't leave ya boy caught up cause then the next time you get caught best believe he gon leave yo a$$. We skidded and turned around and by the time we got back my boy Len was getting hemmed up by some bigger kid like 16 years old. Hemmed up BTW is when someone grabs ya collar with both hands like in the old B&W movies and stares at you like they gonna eat ya face off. "A yo let him go ni$$a " I yelled at the older kid. His name was quan and the only reason i know was because about 2 years later he was in the news for getting murdered by a rival drug dealing posse and i remembered his menacing face from that night. "mind ya biz yo before i take yo $hit too!!", he said looking at me like a hungry pitbull. "Naw yo it ain't going down like dat...wahsgood?", i said getting off my bike and walking towards him. I knew it was fight or flight and flight wasn't an option. He smiled at me" Lil ni$$a got heart" he said as he smiled to to his posse. He released Len and said"throw ya joints up den" walking towards me with his hands up in a boxing stance.
At this point i was trying to be brave but at the same time this 16 year old was 4 inches taller and 40 lbs heavier and i was like dam what did i get myself into. But one thing you can never do is show FEAR in the ghetto. I put my hands up and walked towards him and we began to spar. He caught me quick wid a left to da chest and i stumbled backwards , i caught my breath and faked low and went high and caught his cheek wid a right hook he stumbled back a little and smiled" Oh word sun??!!" he rushed me and tackled me to the ground and began pummeling me and then everyone jumped in and began fighting! After about 3 mins of getting my jaw tapped i flipped him to the ground with me on top and began elbowing his forehead...i saw Superfly Jimmy Snuka do this on WWF lol.
He began to bleed or maybe it was my lip from when he was snuffing me but i kept smashing my elbow into his forehead until he passed out. My boy Len was astonished and started saying "yea sun...you outed him!". After another 5 mins of scuffling passed with the rest of the group the popo(Police) came cause we heard Boop! BooP! from they're siren. That's when we all scattered like roaches when the light turns on. All of us went different routed toward our block to mix up the cops. I was out of breath riding as fast as i could leaking blood on my handlebars for about 15 mins until i felt i lost the popo then headed back to my block where i saw the rest of my crew waiting in the street in a circle laughing and passing a 40oz of old english around.
Old E or 1-800 old english is a malt liquor sold at every bodega in the hood for 2.00$ with no I.D. needed just tell them your uncle sent you to the store lol. I rode up and gave everyone five with a half hug...our way of a hood handshake and grabbed the 40 to swig it. "A yo man you dropped dat ni$$a Quan sun...dam he was out." one kid said passing me the beer. "Word sun dat ni$$a was laid out sun hahahaha, you did some old wrestling move on dat ni$$a hahaha!!" some other kid said while laughing. "A yo fam good looking out, dat kid was beasting on me and ma moms would've killed me if i got my bike tooken "Len said as he gave me five(handshake,a pound,etc). " No doubt sun i gotchu." i said with all the confidence of a boy who defeated a giant. " A yo where Enz at?" i asked passing the 40oz to the next kid. We all looked puzzled at one another.