Anyone Here Remember 80's New York?

[bogey_j]

was it really as bad as people say it is?

 

[DrX]

yup, i know a few older cats from the nyc crack era....all of them got gun wounds or face scars or stab marks or prison records or war stories about selling rocks

 

[Juggalo Fred]

80's NY hip hop

 

[Homer Simpson]

 

[Bugsmoran]

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

 

[TigerLord]

NYC Total Homicides

1988- 1896
1989- 1905
1990- 2245
1991- 2154
1992 -1995

2014 - 328

LA (County) Total Homicides

1988- 1320
1989- 1587
1990- 1768
1991- 1856
1992- 1919

2014 - 551

Chicago Total Homicides
1988- 660
1989- 742
1990- 851
1991- 928
1992- 942

2014- 432

Numbers should tell you what it was

 

[Idaeo]

there was broken glass everywhere. People pissing in the stairs...you could tell they didn't care. I couldn't take the smell or the noise.

 

[KravenMorehead™]

Not that old but subs. I was born that decade

 

[smokeurobinson]

I lived in the Parckchester section of the Bronx which in the 80's which was a cool place to raise kids at the time. But I was also going back and forth to my Grandmothers house and she lived in Harlem. Harlem had a diffferent vibe because it was more grimey but specifically where my grandmother lived...I pretty much knew everyone around my block so I had a "neighborhood" love to the point that as a kid we werent focused on being poor because we had great childhoods. This is what I remember....The infamous "Jukebox" was right across the streets from my grandmothers house.....This was also next to a very popular crackhouse which me and my cousin would always point and look at due to the traffic. Looking back It was bugged but to us it was normal because our side of the block was organized while the zombies roamed the other side(they were on our side as well but not as heavy on the other side) This was 145th between 7th and 8th and mid 80's. I remember every block had a store that was Black owned and the owners were usually old and when crack hit a lot of those stores started to get robbed constantly. This one old man who lived right next to my grandmothers building who owned a card shop got his head beat in and we all rushed to see him and he was all bloddy and as a 6 year old kid thats wild cuz u thinking "why would someone beat up an old man?" This old l;ady who woudl take me and my cousin to church got shot in the back......someone shot thru her window while she was sleeping and we went up there to asssist her and im like 6 year sold looking at a hole in this old ladys back thinking "why would someone shoot an old lady in the back?" Its hard to explain but even tho there was a real dangerous vibe in the Harlem night time air in the 80's.....it felt so dangerously alive.. Especially when u a kid and ya grandmother keeps telling you to keep ya head from the window because of a possible bullet flying by but u saw caught up in looking at the street cars go by that u aint even thinking like that. Its a vibe that definatly left when the 90's entered. When 1989 hit I was 11 years old so I saw the ill part of Harlem as a lil kid. But as a teen in the 90's I got more exposed to things. The 90's is when I started to see people getting killed and started getting into beefs and doing dumb sh*t in the streets,. I didnt really see all that extra wild sh*t as a kid......You just hear things here and there. As a kid we mostly heard storys from people older telling us what was going on.



As for the South Bronx...yes it was that fukked up. That line about "Broken glass....everywhere" and the abandoned buildings.....Yes, that was very normal in the South Bronx. Harlem had abandoned buildings as well with the whole "broken glass everywhere" scenerio too. It was ill cuz u stopped seeing those abandoned buildings in the mid 90's. Back then abandoned buildings covering whole blocks was normal but looking back as a grown up those were some real fukked up conditions.....But it was just normal to us back then.

 

[smokeurobinson]

One more thing. Times Square NYC. As a lil kid in the 80's I remember our class going to events and whenever we would pass thru that area we were told to keep our eyes straight while other kids would his and giggle cuz everywhere u looked was some type of XXX related operation. Even the newspapers used to have all the x rated porn showtimes and locations in the same section with the kid movies. Looking back it was crazy how the New York Post would advertise porn movies and porn theaters and grindhouses as the norm That too all ended when the 90's hit.

 

[mbewane]

I have some vagues memories, left there in 88, when I was 8...was there too early brehs

I remember some of the songs my older brother and sister was listening...Salt-N-Pepa, the Message still, Run-DMC, It takes two was in heavy rotation

 

[Knicksman20]

It was real bad. When crack hit our neighborhoods across the world but especially NY in the 80's it was a wrap. As a kid I saw what crack did to people & it messes with you if you've experienced it at a young age. The elevators in my building didn't work most of the time so we had to take the stairs smelling like piss. Stepping over homeless people to get up/downstairs seeing one of my friends mother giving a "job" for some rocks in the stairwell. You had some Jamaican or Haitan immigrants that were mercs or military on the run from their countries coming to NY & taking over drug rings in local areas & literally making our neighborhoods into war zones. Them guys played by a different set of rules where they were from & were ruthless. I got so many stories unfortunately about this & losing friends & people I knew

 

[Knicksman20]

In Long Island if you ever went to Amityville in the 80's it was crazy. There was spot out there called The Block. I'll give you an idea of what/where it reminded me. If any of you have seen The Wire & saw Hamsterdam that's what it looked like but less Hollywood. You went to The Block for drugs, guns & pretty much anything with little harassment for cops. I'm not even joking. Any LI Bruhs from that era will tell you the same thing.

 

[Bugsmoran]

As for the South Bronx...yes it was that fukked up. That line about "Broken glass....everywhere" and the abandoned buildings.....Yes, that was very normal in the South Bronx. Harlem had abandoned buildings as well with the whole "broken glass everywhere" scenerio too. It was ill cuz u stopped seeing those abandoned buildings in the mid 90's. Back then abandoned buildings covering whole blocks was normal but looking back as a grown up those were some real fukked up conditions.....But it was just normal to us back then.

That's wuts up...


I been to Ny plenty of times as a kid...
when I think of the BX I always remember Rza dissing the Boro for sum reason


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