Were early 90s LA/NYC/DC worst den Modern day Chicago/Detroit/Newark

[BrothaZay]

The way people talk about Chicago Detroit and Newark nowdays you think dese are the most dangerous cities in US history

I wasnt born til 94 so idk how bad it was bacc den but i cant imagine it being worst den wat goin on right now, it jus dont seem possible

 

[Human Torch]

i was born in 90 and i Dont know about LA/NYC

but i know crack was heavy in DC in the late 80s early 90s. Even til this day i've never seen as many unks on random corners with that fiend lean like in DC. I can only imagine how bad it was in the early 90s.

 

[Ohnoits]

DC was bad enough to scare the white people to go back across the river. NYC was pretty bad, but I'm too young to remember much about it.

 

[Doobie Doo]

I was born in 81 in the DC and Rayful Edmonds had DC on lock with the crack game.

 

[Im Kemet Rocky & I like penis]

shyt dik but chiraq is fukking

 

[beanz]

nobody can tell you for sure unless they have lived in all those cities. ppl from each city will swear theirs was the hardest

i grew up in harlem during the late 80s/early 90s and i saw some pretty rough shyt. but im sure somebody from DC saw everything i saw as well.

 

[CashmereThoughts]

NYC was a scary place is the 90s it's a cake walk now.

Catching a buck 50 or being victim to the jux was an everday concern

 

[smokeurobinson]

I remember in Harlem and BX every block had a health store front that sold weed...no exaggeration.....it was literally every block. There was one Between 145th and 144th and 7th and then right across the street there was one between 145th and 146th. The BX was the same.....A few blocks from every train stop on the #2 had a health food front. As soon as you got off Jackson there was a spot next to the barber shop...Prospect there was a spot right on the same block going toward Longwood......Intervale there was a spot right next to the liquor store. The routine was if you saw a Health Food spot u automatically knew what it was. You'd go in and it would be some run down sh*t nothing like a legit health Food store...All the food would be old and full of dust because no one would really buy any food and the counter always had bulletproof glass full of Hip Hop stickers and you never saw who was behind the glass you just asked for a nick or dime threw ya money and then take ya goods and bounce. As a teen I would say to myself..."How is this allowed to happen?....this is so wrong" I would say that to myself as I was deciding which spot to hit up for smoke. I remember they sold Mickey Mouse acid on 116th right out of a bootleg sneaker store and this was a well known spot for getting tabs. This was around the years 94 - 97. As for the coke...Lets just say it didnt matter what age u were...u could be a kid with Catholic school clothes on but as soon as you stepped on any of the blocks betwee 146th and 155th on Amsterdam or Broadway....You were literally harrased by Dominicans trying to sell you coke. There was no staring you up and down....if you locked eyes with a Dominican wearing a leather coat in the summer on Amsterdam or Broadway....he wasnt staring you down...he was trying to confirm wether or not u were a customer. They'd let u know as u walked by that they had coke and wether or not u wanted some or even go as far as grabbing ya arm....and tell you straight up "Papi..I got de goood stouf" NYC was a sess pool for a good minute. Uptown Broadway was so corrupt...The Dominicans owned all the resturaunts....and phone agencys.....a lot of them were fronts. You go in a phone agency to make a legit collect call to Honduras or Peru and somebody would peep in ya window with a bag of good quality exotic weed. There was a movie theater on 147th and Broadway and they bought that shyt..You'd call to see what movie was playing and instead of Mr Movie some Dominican who could hardly speak english would tell u what was playing. The drugs were everywhere and it seemed so wrong yet it was normal to us. I stared noticing sh*t changing around 98, 99 when a lot of those fronts started to disolve Mayor Giuliani was putting his foot down. By the time Bloomberg came into office after 9/11.....NYC was changing to what we have now. . By 2001 the Dominicans weren't out there but they were fishing and baiting like the good ol days. And copping weed was reduced to going to someone you knew or hitting up locations where you had to pass money off and walk to ya goods like if you were copping dope.. I'm not gonna even talk about Times Square and how open the sex movie spots and hookers were everywhere like it was nothing....thats a whole nother story.

 

[King Crimson]

I remember in Harlem and BX every block had a health store front that sold weed...no exaggeration.....it was literally every block. There was one Between 145th and 144th and 7th and then right across the street there was one between 145th and 146th. The BX was the same.....A few blocks from every train stop on the #2 had a health food front. As soon as you got off Jackson there was a spot next to the barber shop...Prospect there was a spot right on the same block going toward Longwood......Intervale there was a spot right next to the liquor store. The routine was if you saw a Health Food spot u automatically knew what it was. You'd go in and it would be some run down sh*t nothing like a legit health Food store...All the food would be old and full of dust because no one would really buy any food and the counter always had bulletproof glass full of Hip Hop stickers and you never saw who was behind the glass you just asked for a nick or dime threw ya money and then take ya goods and bounce. As a teen I would say to myself..."How is this allowed to happen?....this is so wrong" I would say that to myself as I was deciding which spot to hit up for smoke. I remember they sold Mickey Mouse acid on 116th right out of a bootleg sneaker store and this was a well known spot for getting tabs. This was around the years 94 - 97. As for the coke...Lets just say it didnt matter what age u were...u could be a kid with Catholic school clothes on but as soon as you stepped on any of the blocks betwee 146th and 155th on Amsterdam or Broadway....You were literally harrased by Dominicans trying to sell you coke. There was no staring you up and down....if you locked eyes with a Dominican wearing a leather coat in the summer on Amsterdam or Broadway....he wasnt staring you down...he was trying to confirm wether or not u were a customer. They'd let u know as u walked by that they had coke and wether or not u wanted some or even go as far as grabbing ya arm....and tell you straight up "Papi..I got de goood stouf" NYC was a sess pool for a good minute. Uptown Broadway was so corrupt...The Dominicans owned all the resturaunts....and phone agencys.....a lot of them were fronts. You go in a phone agency to make a legit collect call to Honduras or Peru and somebody would peep in ya window with a bag of good quality exotic weed. There was a movie theater on 147th and Broadway and they bought that shyt..You'd call to see what movie was playing and instead of Mr Movie some Dominican who could hardly speak english would tell u what was playing. The drugs were everywhere and it seemed so wrong yet it was normal to us. I stared noticing sh*t changing around 98, 99 when a lot of those fronts started to disolve Mayor Giuliani was putting his foot down. By the time Bloomberg came into office after 9/11.....NYC was changing to what we have now. . By 2001 the Dominicans weren't out there but they were fishing and baiting like the good ol days. And copping weed was reduced to going to someone you knew or hitting up locations where you had to pass money off and walk to ya goods like if you were copping dope.. I'm not gonna even talk about Times Square and how open the sex movie spots and hookers were everywhere like it was nothing....thats a whole nother story.

Good post. There are a couple threads discussing old NY that this post would fit well into. I was born in 87, so I missed a lot of that era, but I love looking at, and reading, books about that time period. That being said, "Giuliani Time" was one of the best things to happen in this city. As hated as he was (and maybe he deserved it, idk), he really cleaned up this city. I'm only mad that Bloomberg took that city and sold it.

 

[Ooh Marty]

Chicago reached its height of violence from 1990-1994.

Modern day Chicago ain't got shyt on early 90s Chicago

 

[cleanface coney]

shyt dik but chiraq is fukking

for the most part Chicago is not a dangerous city at all

 

[Boogie]

Cities in the early to mid 90s was reaching 1000s of murders per year. Now it's half of that.

 

[H.I.M.]

Modern day Chicago/Detroit/Newark isn't half as bad as early 90's Chicago/Detroit/Newark.

And DC in the early 90's was in a league of it's own in the arena of crime & violence.

Avg. almost 3 times as many murders (per capita) as NY, LA & the CHI in the early 90's.

 

[smokeurobinson]

NYC used to look down on gangs. In the early 90's......NYC had crews.....the only gangs that were strong in early NYC was the Latin Kings.....The 5% influence was strong as well and was often referd to as a gang. Some of the territory that were drug areas were often refered to as "gang territory" by police. Till this day I say that 2pac and Hip Hop marketing is what help to influence the gang ressurection in late 90's NYC. I remember old heads in the early 90's talking about how Bloods and crips would never survive if they popped up in NYC only for there to be an epidemic that just came out of nowhere. My cousion did a 3 year bid and broke it down to me when he came home that the Blood epidemic was just a bunch of dudes alligning themselves up for 1) protection in prison and or 2) fronts to do illegal activity. He also told me that when they get bored they fight themselves there was no real structure. The gang epidemic brought no revolution to NYC all it did was introduce a gang task force and helped shape laws against poor people in the urban communities. I was so dissapointed at how none of the top NYC rappers ever spoke on it like the real heads from the early 90's did and then you had a few NYC rappers actually alligning themselves with the gang culture...Thats why till this day I give props to Saigon for openly saying what NYC heads once were saying about how the gang epidemic was a bad thing for NYC......Saigon was saying thix in like every article he was featured in in 2004 and 2005 even tho the gang influence was already here to stay. Then his boy Tru Life followed suit and no one else. The gang epidemic is not as strong as it once was going into the new Millinium because the hype bubble had busted. All those blood handshakes meant nothing when dudes started getting arrested and turning on each other.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Good post. There are a couple threads discussing old NY that this post would fit well into. I was born in 87, so I missed a lot of that era, but I love looking at, and reading, books about that time period. That being said, "Giuliani Time" was one of the best things to happen in this city. As hated as he was (and maybe he deserved it, idk), he really cleaned up this city. I'm only mad that Bloomberg took that city and sold it.

Bruh, crime started going down 18 months before Giuliani got in office.

And crime went down all over America at the same time it did in New York.

Giuliani is the most overrated politician ever.