Boyz in da Hood

During a soon to be drunken conversation in the pub a few days ago, we somehow got on to the topic of gangs and in particular, gang colours or signs and how ridiculous they can be.

About 11 years ago I was in Florida. One night I was walking down the street at Church Street Station, (CSS from now on,it's a street but it is called station for some reason). Back then this area was full of bars and clubs. It's avery long street and it is my understanding that one end of CSS was quite a rough area full of gangz, (I believe that is how 'G's' would spell it).

So I'm walking along with Vinnie Mac on my right, his name is Vince but back then Vinnie Mac would probably been his gangsta name, before I go on I should point out that, as Mr J has slightly dark skin, most people in the States assume that I am hispanic and quite often start speaking to me in Mexican or Chicana or whatever the fuck language it is they're using. I normally let them say everything they have to say before putting on the most cockney voice I can and saying, "WHAT?" lol.... so back to the tale... Me and Vinnie Mac were walking down the street this night heading to a nightclub, I was wearing the standard baggy jeans and an American football shirt and my fitted cap on backwards cos y'know, I'm a gangsta too like...




Parked on the side of the road was a car, the type with the hydraulic suspension, also known as Lo-Riders or Lo-Lo's, and sat upon the bonnet was an Ese with his two, (ugly), bitchez or 'hoochies'


This is what would be known as an Ese or a Vato...


Here's another one.


Vinnie Mac with his Bitchez in Da Hood

As I approached the Ese started staring at me, not in a good way, more of a "What tha fuck?" kinda way... of course this made me feel uneasy but I always think in any city you should act like you know what you're doing, so I kept his gaze fixed... well luckily for me, we walked on with no trouble and walked up to a bar, as I approached the door there was a giant man beast of a bouncer, unlike bouncers here in England, I found that the ones in the US know that they're big and could crush you so they're not unfriendly, ours are generally wankers who just need to feel some kind of power. So the bouncer says to me, "Can you turn your had around please sir?" I said, "Excuse me?" He repeated, "Can you turn your hat around please sir?" so in typical Mr J fashion I said, "Why?" and he said, "Sir if you do not turn your hat around you can not come in here, (and I might kill you)", ... ok that last bit's a lie but he did say I wouldn't be allowed in. Well I turned my hat around and in we went... this happened at other bars and at the night club.

So the next day we're at the pool bar talking to Rory the pool bar guy. Rory used to give us information about everything and so I asked him about wearing my hat backwards to which he responded, "Oh man, you do not wanna wear your hat backwards around there man, it's a gang sign in the area!" I was like, "Huh? What are talking about a gang sign?" He said, "Yeah if the wrong person saw you, you could get shot for that." Nice to find this out now as I had been in a 'Hood' area a few days before with my cap backwards.

I mean seriously, what? I can kind of understand, and I use that loosely because I think all the gang colour shit is stupid but I can kind of understand people like the Bloods wearing red or the Crips wearing blue or The LA Lakers wearing yellow and purple but wearing your HAT backwards? What is this gang called? The Hat Backwards Gang or THBG? "Yo man, I is a crip dawg, what click is you from?" "Yo homie, yo homie yo homie yo, I is from Da Hat Backward Gang! I is gonna pop a cap in yo ass biyatch!" Seriously? What kinda twat came up with that rule?

And you know, people actually get killed cos they wore the wrong colour on some random street, and these Gangsta's who OBVIOUSLY are rather unintelligent, feel like they're being "dissed" by Joe Shmo walking down the street in his favourite GAP t-shirt, just because it's not their favourite colour.

Unfortunately we can't just put this down to Yank from the hood thickness because now kids in the UK are copying them:

Excerpt from an article on www.timesonline.co.uk


"There seemed to be no obvious reason to pick on the teenage boy who was leaving the Tube station in West London. But within seconds he was being encircled by a group of young lads who forced him, at knifepoint, to take off his clothes before they allowed him to go on his way.


By the appalling standards of knife crime in London today this incident may not be classed as particularly shocking. Until you consider this: the hapless teenager was targeted because he was wearing a blue shirt. And in this particular sliver of London, this gang's chosen colour is, apparently, red. Wearing the wrong colour in the wrong territory smacks of disrespect - even if you were not aware of the “rules”. "

Ok kids these days don't really make the future of England look to rosey in general, most of them are filthy little scrotes that think they're bad asses anyway but starting on some random kid because he had a blue t-shirt on is just stupid. I think it's time for the police to hit these gangsta types harder. They like to play with knives and guns and wear their gangs colour so why not let them, round them up and ship them out to the front line in Afganistan. Why should our real soldiers be shot at first, stick these kids on the front line and let them shoot at a target that shoots back whilst wearing their new cammo gang colour. Then we'll see how tough they are as they act as human shields for are real heroic soldiers!

The Yanks should do the same thing.