From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism

My life was totally consumed by all aspects of gang life. . . .My clothes, walk, talk, and attitude all reflected my love for and allegiance to my set. Nobody was more important than my homeboys—nobody. . . . I was six years old when the Crips were started. No one anticipated its sweep. The youth of South Central were being gobbled up by an alien power threatening to attach itself to a multitude of other problems already plaguing them. An almost ‘‘enemy’’ subculture had arisen, and no one knew from where it came. No one took its conceptions seriously. But slowly it crept, saturating entire households, city blocks, neighborhoods, and eventually the nation-state of California.