This is how I remember it. Early 90’s Harlem and BX. Convos from heads around the way consisted of “That Blood and crip sh*t can’t survive around here.” Bottom line, it wasn’t accepted according to the locals. Around this time the closest NY had to gangs was The Decepticons, Lo Lifes and a few other factions but the whole gang thing in NY was becoming an old school thing. Latin Kings were real strong around this time but that was always reduced to a “Hispanic thing.” NY had crews not gangs that’s how it was for a good minute. There was a small set of Rolling 30’s that sold crack on 140th and Lenox but no one took them serious(The irony is that now that location is Blood territory. ) There was word of Mob Pirus in Red Hook Brooklyn but they too were small. None of these small LA influenced factions posed any real threat.
Then around 96ish things started to change. It first started with lil dudes claiming red rags. Then I started seeing cats older then me claiming Blood. That looked off because it was the older heads who said that wasn’t a go in NY. Cops pulled us over one night on 7th and asked us if we were Bloods . “This isn’t LA” Is what I was thinking and brushed it off as the cops just fuking wit us as they do. Looking back they were probably serious. Word on the street was that Bloods were in NJ but this is NY right? Then in 1997 it was official. Bloods are in NY. What happened to all that talk about B’s and C’s not being able to survive in NY? In 97 I woulda put money on it that it was all a fad that would die out soon. I would lose that bet if I had to pay up in 2013. In 97 and 98 it didn’t take long to realize that this NY breed of Bloods weren’t really organized. They had slang but none of their make up matched how my cousin from San Dieago broke things down.
Hip Hop is supposed to be the CNN of the hood. So I was waiting for NY rappers to speak against this epidemic like the heads around the way did in the early 90’s. In 97 Rza made some weird analyzation on the song “A Better Tommorow” and The Killer Beez album some wu member claimed “Pirus took over his building” but that was it. In 99 Nas just mentioned that NY now had B’s and C’s and Jay Z said he wasn’t a B or C on the DJ Clue Professional 2 CD and that was it. Where were the NY heads that weren’t tolerating LA gangs invading NY? Soon in Hip Hop you had NY rappers affiliating themselves with Bloods. First ones I remember were CNN on the War Report album. They didn’t say it upfront but they hinted. Then came DMX…He to didn’t say it up front he just hinted as well. Kurupt would call him out for those hints when he had that lil beef with X in late 99. Then came Muder Inc who were hinting hard as well. Then came Dip Set who flat out told you they were Bloods. I was done. NY had an epidemic and the voice of the streets that I once remembered no longer existed. The only Hip Hop personality I remember speaking out against the “LA invasion” right at its height was Ed Lover when he was on Hot 97…That’s it.
Finally in 2004…..One rapper went against the crowd and became the voice that I remembered in NY. The voice that said we shouldn’t be tolerating LA gangs let along gangs period in NY. That was the rapper Saigon. He put out a song called “Color Purple” aimed directly at the kids in the streets who might be already involved or those who might lured into the gang lifestyle. The song goes into why one shouldn’t join a gang and then goes into why those already involved in gangs shouldn’t be killing each other . It was a beautiful gesture that went on deaf ears. This wasn’t some square saying all of this, this was an ex con saying these things so it should have had more merit with the kids in the streets. Coincidently that same year Snoop Dog had a song that was a Billboard #1 hit single called “Drop it Like Its Hot” that broke down how the crip flag is on the left side of the back pants pocket. The Snoop song was bigger then the Saigon song.
But this cat Saigon seemed serious about his stance. In 2004 he went on Hot 97’s Street soldiers to speak about the LA gang invasion in NY along with Jim Jones and a NJ Blood affiliate. Jim Jones was talking in clichés while Saigon was saying things from a realistic perspective that was so real Jim Jones got heated and left. Saigon was left going back and forth with the NJ Blood in which by the end they both agreed to disagree with their stances. And it didn’t stop their….4Korner interviews…Hood DVD’s This Saigon is still speaking against gangs till this day. He’s obviously serious. I had to then give props to this guy Saigon for being the only voice in Hip Hop to speak out against an epidemic that is affecting the Black community while these other NY rappers either act like theirs nothing happening or act as if they are down with the gangs.
In interviews Saigon would speak on how it was a bad look that the LA gang culture was just accepted by NY but his song Color Purple was more universal and addressed the gang problem as a whole in America. Tookie Williams before his death sentence would write Saigon a letter thanking him for atleast making such an attempt. A year later Saigons boy Tru Life would drop a song called “New New York” that also spoke on how it was a bad look that NY just accepted the LA gang culture.
Scapegoating his beef with Dip Set, Tru Life would use that opportunity to make manifest his “anti LA gangs in NY” stance, justifying his actions by claiming that Dip Set were bad influences for the kids and that they were wrong for marketing music that made it seem like joining a gang was a cool thing. As years passed and more NYC rappers would align themselves with gangs, Tru Life would become imprisoned and Saigons career would remain underground status but their stance against LA gangs in NY in the mid 2000’s is still commendable.
I remember having a convo with my circle in 2007 about ‘what happened to those voices in NY that spoke on how Bloods and Crips couldn’t survive in NY?’ Mind you this voice was and still is strong in NY. There are many NY heads who still look down on how that LA gang culture permeated NY. This is one of the reasons why I say Hip Hop is not a culture and that it’s just entertainment. It can’t be a culture because if one who has been listening to NY rappers from late 90’s thru early 2000’s as some sort of outlet to whats really going on in NY streets then the conclusion can be made that NY just accepted the LA gang culture which Is far from the truth. The “anti LA gangs in NY” movement in Hip Hop was very short lived but I applaude Tru Life and Saigon for being the only voices from NY associated with Hip Hop to speak on what a lot of heads were and still are thinking about the LA gang infultration in NY.
link on the hos in ya avi good brotha
