Yesterday when driving back from fishing, burnt the hell up from the sun, and fishless, I drove past a huge cemetery. The cemetery was overcrowded with grave stones, big, small, fancy and plain. You could tell someone spent thousands of dollars on some of them, probably dipping into their savings. Others were modest – some were so small the names of the deceased could barely fit onto them. It reminded…
When I hear people speak about what they consider to be hip-hop or hip-hop culture or proclaim that they’re true “Hip Hop Heads” simply because they listened to, grew up around, or are familiar with Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, or KRS 1, I begin to wonder whether they were actually around when hip-hop music and culture began its journey and whether they truly know as much as they believe they know…
Approximately 9 years ago in April of 2000, my friend, we will call her Glo, and I were headed to South Beach to go see a friend of mines open up for the rap group Mobb Deep. Anthony asked me to be there early so that I could go on stage with them and help hype up the crowd. I knew I would be moving around a lot so I…
I begged and pleaded for a little sister for about a year and I was finally going to get her. Mom was pregnant by Mr Joseph Woods. Mom worked with Mr Woods at the post office. He was one of the best dressed, bald headed, pieces of shit you could ever hope to meet. He carried a decorated cane like a pimp, and wore flowery silk, long-sleeve shirts and snazzy…
Fishing became one of my favorite things. It was a peaceful way for me to escape from everything else going on around me. All I had to do out there was concentrate on trying to catch the biggest fish. In the summertime, Lady and I would get up at the crack of dawn and head to Alum Creek. Alum Creek was about five miles from where I lived and we…
I remember the night when Mom finally passed away. I say finally because she was suffering so bad that I couldn’t bare to even look at her face or into her sunken eyes. It was Christmas Eve and I was sitting on a customers lap in my neon/fluorescent orange outfit with the Swarovski crystals all over it, the top had really cute short sleeves and fit my fairly new Double…
I left the house bundled up like an Eskimo and headed to school. It was freezing cold outside and everything was covered in glistening, white snow. I had on my new, knee high, chocolate brown, suede boots with the rabbit fur-lining. I loved those boots. Mom tried to buy me what she liked to call “practical boots” which translated to big, ugly, waterproof, and especially ugly, what I liked to…
Marielito’s in the Midwest I was 16 years old when I met Marielito, and had recently moved back in with my mother because I couldn’t handle my stepfather’s idea of rules and guidelines. I was used to running wild and doing whatever I wished because my mother was more interested in her weird relationships with her various and assorted ex-convict/drug addicted boyfriends. At the time Mom was with her boyfriend…
Last night I was walking my dog right around the corner from my house. My dog spotted another dog and wanted to sniff it or whatever dogs like to do to each other. This particular dog happened to be in a yard with a fence around it. The other dog walked up to the fence and then my dog walked up to the fence for the whole “sniff” game to…
After Grandma died, everybody in the family went haywire. I never realized that Mom wasn’t really around that much, because I loved Grandma so much that it didn’t matter to me one way or another. Aunt G started drinking really bad. Aunt Mary started shooting Heroine. My favorite cousin Velt became a pimp. And me, well I guess I was left to the wolves. Mom got heavy into the church.…
