Harlem Used To Be Different… We All Ate Back Then

Añadido: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Yeah, man. I want to give a a shout out.

[00:00:02]God bless Janice. Janice passed away a couple days ago. You understand what I'm saying? And she was like a major a major player in Harlem, man. We all grew up together and everything.

[00:00:15]We all we all grew up together, you know, from kids from childhood from when we was like 8 years old and everything, you know. It's a sad thing and it's a sad hit. It's a big hit for us in 116th Street cuz that's what what that was our girl. So, you know, I want to just shout out and let let everybody know she's never going to be forgetting forgotten.

[00:00:39]She's not going to be forgotten in my book. And and a lot of other people, she had like five sisters. She ain't forgotten. She had a lot of homeboys.

[00:00:50]She's not forgotten. Everybody know about it. [ __ ] is sad, man. to hear how she passed. She passed, you know, but she passed in a good way, man. God gonna bless her. God taking her straight to heaven. You understand what I'm saying? And I loved her with all my heart. You understand what I'm saying? I mean, we was family. Every Sunday I used to go over their house and eat right in 116 [ __ ] between Lennox and Sarah because that's the block. That's the foundation right there. and she's one of the foundation of the truth that when we was all getting money and everything like that, she used to make us laugh and everything. And she was a beautiful young lady, man. And uh you know, I'm just want to say it's a sad day. It's a sad day amongst us from 116th Street. Everybody sad is behind that, man. You know what I'm saying? I'm sad. So that's why I'm doing this thing on her. You understand what I'm saying?

[00:01:48]I'm doing this on her so she could get the light she needed. So she won't be forgetting be forgotten. She won't get uh like her legacy would never be forgotten. Her legacy wouldn't disappear and she had a lot of heart and everything. Everything was great about her. I loved her with all my heart. Now we going to switch over to some other girls. Right. Jackie Q. We had Jackie Q.

[00:02:17]Jackie Q was getting a lot of money in Harlem. Ask anybody for 116 between Lennox 116 between 8th Avenue and Manhattan Avenue. She getting a whole lot of money and everything. You understand what I'm saying? So it it is like a lot of women's man out there, man, that made uh a point in Harlem. You understand?

[00:02:45]saying to be reckoned with. When you see them people, you know they doing great things.

[00:02:51]They doing a lot of great things. Like we had Fat Sharon. Fat Sharon from the St. Nick Project used to come downtown 16 between 8 and Manhattan Avenue. She getting that money. She getting that quarter money.

[00:03:10]Getting crazy money. You understand?

[00:03:12]Jackie Q was getting crazy money. It was Jackie Q. It was the one used to go all over well. So when that thing happened with Noel, they kidnapped Noel and [ __ ] The [ __ ] was crazy. And Ignat was the one getting all the money for them for for Noel, her man. She was doing her thing. I was right there. I seen everything in my eyes. I remember one time it was an incident. It was an incident with the police. You understand? Say Ignite got at the police. You understand what I'm saying? and I did some [ __ ] and we ended up in juvie together and we went to court together. One side was for the ladies, the other side was for the men's. We bumped heads. Then we got Honey Bun. We got Honey Bun. Honey Bun, you understand? Get a lot of money with us, man. A lot of money. You understand I'm saying? Honey Bun, you know, she used to be up around us all getting crazy crazy money. You understand?

[00:04:10]saying these is the women's that we can't count out. Janice can't count out.

[00:04:18]You can't count out Jackie Q. You can't count out Fat Sharon. You can't count out um Jackie Q's sister Stephanie. I used to go with Stephanie. You understand what I'm saying? And them girls was hard hardbodied. They was dis she putting [ __ ] in check getting money, man. It was all about business.

[00:04:39]Everybody in Harlem was getting money.

[00:04:41]It was about business. If you ain't take care of business, right, you couldn't come on the block. You couldn't come on the block hustling. You understand what I'm saying? These are the major things that a lot of people don't talk about.

[00:04:54]You understand what I'm saying? They don't talk about the women's. You know, they might had a good idea, Addie Bonds, and all that, but they don't talk about these uh dynamic women's. You know, for some reason, a lot of men's want to take the credit for their self. But if it wasn't for them women's, a lot of these dudes wouldn't have what they had and wouldn't been in the position they in. Because a lot of these women, they got out here in the streets and scrambled, meaning hustling like us men. And a lot of them hustle better than men's.

[00:05:32]You understand what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You got you got a whole lot of different women's from Harlem that was getting that paper, man. You got Angel. You got Black Angel. She had the dream the dream baby Sil. You understand what I'm saying? Some reason she got killed. I don't know why she got killed or whatever. She got killed. She was getting She had a whole tour of girls. She had a whole tour of girls getting money. All them chicks in Harlem was getting a lot of money. It wasn't no game. It wasn't no game with these chicks, man. So, we can't count these chicks out, man. We can't count the women's out of Harlem because they was the ones that was getting the money. Like my mother, my mother out of Harlem, 116.

[00:06:22]She's Spanish and she getting a whole lot of money. Whole lot of money.

[00:06:27]Sliding me with the uh the baby cabbage and got the package in the baby cabbage, [ __ ] So I'm telling you [ __ ] I was I was hustling in a baby cabriage, [ __ ] You understand what I'm saying?

[00:06:38]With a baby cabriage. My mother put the work on me, man. Yo, [ __ ] we hustling because it was survival in Harlem.

[00:06:46]Everybody had to survive in Harlem.

[00:06:49]That's why in Harlem, we fought so hard against the Italians to keep what we got cuz we ain't had nothing. And we not going to let these Italian dudes come up here in Harlem and take nothing from us.

[00:07:02]That's like with the numbers with Bumpy Johnson. Like you see the Godfather Harlem like 90% of that [ __ ] is real.

[00:07:10]They telling the story what was man just coming up there talking about he going to take everything for a tough from the blacks and everything they going to run.

[00:07:18]But then Bobby Johnson wasn't having that. He sat down with Lucky Luciano and Lucky Luciano said yo Dutch got to go.

[00:07:26]Dutch got to go. And then there's so much slick thing about Harlem.

[00:07:31]Slick thing about Harlem. Bumpy Johnson manipulate the whole [ __ ] to become Lucky Luciano partner. Not a worker, not a runner, a partner to Lucky Luciano. Lucky Luciano was one of the biggest, one of the biggest godfathers of the family five family.

[00:07:55]Matter of fact, he originated the five family. And you know, you had to be clever to sit down with him and talk to him. And they respected Bumpy Johnson cuz Bumpy Johnson was educated. He play that chess. And and the reason why the Mattis couldn't beat us cuz when you come to Harlem, you stand out. We know you up here for something. We know the backyards. We know the rules. We know.

[00:08:21]We know the man holes in in the train station. They couldn't whip us. So they had they had they had to hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We got to put this [ __ ] Doug Shooks in check.

[00:08:32]Plus, he was going after Dwey. Dwey was a big prosecutor that prosecuted, you understand what I'm saying? Lucky Luciano after they said, "We got to get rid of him. We got to go, [ __ ] You [ __ ] money." And that's when they had a big meeting. [ __ ] told, "Yo, Papa John so yo, I know I can't beat you, but you know what? The war going to go on.

[00:08:54]It ain't going to never stop. You going to have a lot of casualties and it going to be a lot of heat. So listen man, let's talk about Harlem's minds. That's number one. You're not taking that.

[00:09:04]By John said, "Let's let's let's become partners." They became partners. You understand what I'm saying? A lot of people don't understand the dynamics and the history of Harlem. And that's the whole setup of Harlem. The dynamic of Harlem, man. We stick together. But that l that unity and that unity and that love for each other in Harlem a lot of times right now these days it's no more love man. It's not like how it used to be man. We used to have mad love man.

[00:09:34]When we come outside we getting money.

[00:09:36][ __ ] getting 4 500,000 a month.

[00:09:38]Believe me. Everybody was eating. If you didn't want to eat you didn't eat. If you wanted to eat all you had to do is come outside. So if if you wanted some money all you had to come outside.

[00:09:48]Everybody, man, was unified, man.

[00:09:51]Everybody was like helping everybody. We wasn't seeing nobody starve. You understand what I'm saying? Just like the kids in the block, the people in the block and [ __ ] You understand what I'm saying? We giving uh the women's money for their kids. We giving the old ladies number money. We buying milk and all that. So, we was an assets to the community.

[00:10:14]We wasn't We might have been destroying the community at one point, but we was also helping the community because nobody can't tell a [ __ ] to stop using what they want to do. I'm not I'm not glorifying this. I'm not glorified. It's all I'm telling you is history. I'm telling you what it was with history.

[00:10:35]You understand what I'm saying? in Harlem. How we was unified. How everybody how Peewee Kirtland and all them. Fat Shack and all them took care of the neighborhood. [ __ ] used to bring down trucks filler on Thanksgiving. [ __ ] you ain't got no turkey. We got a truck full of turkeys, [ __ ] Get it. Come get it. Come get it.

[00:10:54]It's out here. It's out here. [ __ ] giving away clothes, giving away toys for the kids, man. Harlem was that place, man. Harlem got history.

[00:11:03]Everybody around the whole world know about Harlem, man. Harlem is Harlem is that dynamic place where you would want to come up. At one point, [ __ ] was coming from the south to Harlem. It was one [ __ ] there was giving everybody some place to stay. Yeah, man. All right. Your your rent is such such s.

[00:11:23]And giving people a reasonable rent.

[00:11:26]people that comes up and want to live a decent life that were working with white people wasn't allow them to get apartments wasn't renting black people apartments. You had a black one black person, I forgot his name, one black person. He the one that rented to all the black people. He was the one that rented to everybody. Do your history.

[00:11:50]All you got to do is Google it. You'll find out his name. I forgot his name. I forgot the guy name. So it was a lot of help. It was it it it was a lot of help.

[00:11:59]You understand what I'm saying? And I'm going to drop something else on you. The Harlem Renaissance, the Harlem Renaissance didn't start with the M. It started in one of them brownstones.

[00:12:12]Everybody got together, put their money and something like that. Harlem Renis started in a house. It ain't started in no streets. It ain't started and afterwards we got the clubs and everything. And and and you had in the house when everybody meet up and out, you had intellectuals, you had hustlers, you had gamblers, you had all kind of type of people, but everybody was smart. You understand? I remember my grandmother used to tell her, "Son, my uncle, yo, do the measurements to put towel on the floor."

[00:12:44]That [ __ ] knew how to do the measurements quick. Bang bang bang. And the dude wasn't dumb people, bro. Dumb people, man. So [ __ ] never count out Harlem. Harlem is number one. Number one. You understand what I'm saying?

[00:12:59]Number one. Because a lot of smart people come from Harlem. Then you have a lot of Browns people came down from the Bronx to Harlem with us. You understand?

[00:13:10]I'm saying cuz the the Bronx and Harlem is like brothers. You understand what I'm saying? We like brothers. You understand what I'm saying? We we we had we have Bat Bat with the bat ears. You understand what I'm saying? Came down from from the bounce getting major money. You know why they put Bat on? Cuz Bat could play ball and Bat was cool. He don't run his mouth for nothing. You understand what I'm saying? We could go on and on and on. [ __ ] was hating on Bat. A lot of [ __ ] are hating on Bat.

[00:13:42][ __ ] drive [ __ ] cars started burn they cars up on Seth Avenue. [ __ ] we going to war. We going to war. But you know what?

[00:13:51]At the end of the day, people know who to pick to mess with. People know who to pick. They pick certain dudes because they know dudes is snap out that warfare. You understand? Dudes just want to get money laid back. You understand I'm saying? They ain't coming 116 to between L7 with that. I don't care what nobody tell you. You understand what I'm saying? Cuz when anybody came from down south, anybody came from anywhere, anywhere in the country, they stopped in my block. Fact.