Latest / DISGRACELAND / 50 Cent Pt. 1: Police Raids, Motorcycle Chases, and a Nine-Bullet Wake-up Call

Transcript

50 Cent Pt. 1: Police Raids, Motorcycle Chases, and a Nine-Bullet Wake-up Call · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:13
Speaker 1: Curtis fifty cent Jackson are insane. He was a crack
0:18
Speaker 1: dealer before he hit puberty. He was convicted of possessing crack,
0:22
Speaker 1: heroin and guns just after his nineteenth birthday, and at
0:26
Speaker 1: twenty five he was shot nine times in the legs, hands,
0:31
Speaker 1: and face and survived. He survived because Curtis Jackson had
0:37
Speaker 1: a mantra that kept him going, that took all the
0:40
Speaker 1: fucked up fuel of his circumstances and propelled him to
0:43
Speaker 1: rise above, get rich or die trying. And he would
0:48
Speaker 1: get rich, but not from dealing drugs, from making great music,
0:54
Speaker 1: music that topped the charts, defined two thousands hip hop
0:59
Speaker 1: and spoke bluntly about American street life. Unlike that loop
1:03
Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show
1:05
Speaker 1: that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop for
1:09
Speaker 1: my melotron called Waltzing Priscilla MK one. I played you
1:15
Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to Maria
1:18
Speaker 1: Maria by Santana featuring the product GMP. And why would
1:22
Speaker 1: I play you that specific slice of West Side story
1:26
Speaker 1: flashbacking cheese? Could I afford it because that was the
1:31
Speaker 1: number one song in America on May sixth, two thousand,
1:35
Speaker 1: and that was the day of b for the rival
1:37
Speaker 1: hustler came back on Curtis Jackson by way of nine
1:41
Speaker 1: bullets in the World's Worst wake up Call, one that
1:44
Speaker 1: would change his life forever. On this episode Crack Cocaine,
1:50
Speaker 1: police raids, high speed motorcycle chases, a nine bullet wake
1:55
Speaker 1: up call in fifty cent. I'm Jake Brennan and this
2:01
Speaker 1: is Disgraceland. There was a little more than a gramma
2:34
Speaker 1: cocaine on the scale. To the dealer, the extra bit
2:38
Speaker 1: was negligible, but ten year old Curtis Jackson, the boy
2:42
Speaker 1: he would one day know as fifty cent, that little
2:45
Speaker 1: extra bit of blow was everything. The dealer stood in
2:49
Speaker 1: his bedroom in front of a stack of cardboard boxes,
2:52
Speaker 1: each containing a brand new pair of sneakers and a
2:55
Speaker 1: closet filled with fresh clothes, most of which still even
2:59
Speaker 1: had the tags on. Curtis could practically taste his envy.
3:04
Speaker 1: His sneakers were so old they needed tape to cover
3:06
Speaker 1: the holes. His clothes were handed down from his uncles
3:10
Speaker 1: and dated back to New York's disco era. But the dealer.
3:14
Speaker 1: Sincere he was cool to Curtis, older, wiser than flush
3:19
Speaker 1: with cash. He'd occasionally take Curtis shopping, bring him to
3:22
Speaker 1: the mall, buy him some new kicks, which was way
3:25
Speaker 1: more than his uncles would do for him. Curtis's uncles
3:28
Speaker 1: and his aunts, all eight of them, the family he
3:31
Speaker 1: shared a leaky roof with himself Jamaica Queen's did little
3:34
Speaker 1: for Curtis. His grandmother tried, his grandfather was indifferent, his
3:39
Speaker 1: mom was dead, and he never knew his father. The
3:42
Speaker 1: house was packed with people, but little else. Money, as
3:46
Speaker 1: it was with most of Curtis's neighbors, was tight. The
3:50
Speaker 1: house was cold, and the cupboards were missing any kind
3:52
Speaker 1: of food a ten year old would actually want to eat,
3:54
Speaker 1: and dressing up trying to look fresh for school meant
3:57
Speaker 1: raiding one of your unemployed uncle's closets, which meant you
3:59
Speaker 1: were likely getting your ass beat down on the block
4:02
Speaker 1: for looking out of style. Curtis watched as Sincere packaged
4:06
Speaker 1: the powder into five equal parts. As he did so,
4:09
Speaker 1: Sincere casually ran down the neighborhood drama for Curtis. Sincere's
4:14
Speaker 1: grandfather got kidnapped by a couple older guys from the
4:17
Speaker 1: block held him from ransom until Sincere paid for his release.
4:21
Speaker 1: A friend of Sincere's who ran a little blow on
4:23
Speaker 1: one of the blocks, his house was raided and the
4:26
Speaker 1: robbers shot his mother in the head right there in
4:28
Speaker 1: his friend's living room. Two other cats took to bank
4:31
Speaker 1: robbing in broad daylight, total takeover, as they called them,
4:34
Speaker 1: brazen raids at the local banks, emptying them of their
4:37
Speaker 1: safes and leaving bodies behind if necessary. These desperate moves
4:42
Speaker 1: were done out of necessity. Even at ten years old,
4:45
Speaker 1: Curtis knew this. Most of the young men in his
4:48
Speaker 1: neighborhood shared the same sense of desperation, desperation born out
4:52
Speaker 1: of a lack of opportunity. Jobs in South Jamaica queen's
4:56
Speaker 1: for uneducated men were basically non existent beyond making three
5:00
Speaker 1: dollars and thirty five cents an hour at a fast
5:02
Speaker 1: food restaurant. And where was the future in that, even
5:05
Speaker 1: if he could get beyond the indignity of wearing those
5:07
Speaker 1: stupid McDonald's visors and uniforms. Curtis wondered how his mother
5:12
Speaker 1: did it. She went her own way, left Curtis behind
5:15
Speaker 1: at his grandmother's and blazed her own path. She visited
5:18
Speaker 1: him infrequently, but occasionally took him into her world. Curtis
5:22
Speaker 1: couldn't believe what he saw Old South Road in Queen's
5:28
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Rick James huk a KHM blasting out of
5:31
Speaker 1: boomboxes and passing car stereos, little kids racing by on
5:35
Speaker 1: beat up bicycles, men and women hustling in and out
5:38
Speaker 1: of the local storefronts, and a steady flow of locals
5:41
Speaker 1: intent on grabbing Curtis's mother's attention. For quick passing seconds
5:45
Speaker 1: at a time, the locals would approach her, share a
5:48
Speaker 1: couple of words, exchange a quick handslap, and beyond their way.
5:52
Speaker 1: One after the other. People treated his mother with something
5:55
Speaker 1: that seemed like deference, and she carried herself differently than
5:58
Speaker 1: other young women her age. She was in complete control
6:02
Speaker 1: of her situation, a trait Curtis would later recognize and sincere,
6:06
Speaker 1: and one he would view his lacking in his uncle's.
6:09
Speaker 1: But what really made Curtis's mom stand out was how
6:12
Speaker 1: older men in the neighborhood treated her. And not just
6:16
Speaker 1: any older men players. These men were clearly on their
6:20
Speaker 1: own trip. They were different from anyone or anything on
6:24
Speaker 1: the block. They rolled up on the corner to talk
6:26
Speaker 1: to Curtis's mom and their brand new Cadillac Fleetwoods and
6:29
Speaker 1: Pontiac Bonneville's big sleds with lush interiors and white wall tires,
6:34
Speaker 1: fresh colorful paint jobs that blasted an unfair reflection back
6:38
Speaker 1: onto the ghetto streets. They'd step out of their cars
6:42
Speaker 1: with spit shine shoes, fresh press three piece suits, and
6:45
Speaker 1: perfect hair, hand Curtis's mom a brown paper bag in
6:48
Speaker 1: exchange for a stack of bills, and be on their way.
6:52
Speaker 1: Curtis noticed the way they treated his mother with respect
6:56
Speaker 1: as an equal. Two years later, Curtis wondered if Sincere
7:02
Speaker 1: was more like the men in the fresh press suits
7:04
Speaker 1: or more like his mother somewhere in between. He guessed
7:08
Speaker 1: it didn't matter, though his mom was gone dead in
7:11
Speaker 1: the ground, murdered two years back. So much for respect,
7:17
Speaker 1: the pain hurting away. A ten year old is incapable
7:19
Speaker 1: of processing, but it was quickly obscured by more pressing needs,
7:24
Speaker 1: like how to afford clothes that wouldn't get you beat down.
7:28
Speaker 1: As Sincere wrapped the measured cocaine into tinfoil, he explained
7:32
Speaker 1: the coming revolution. This is the last of the powder,
7:35
Speaker 1: he said. Curtis looked at him inquisitively. Why would Sincere
7:39
Speaker 1: stop dealing. He's clearly getting by your uncle's to be
7:42
Speaker 1: on the rock like the rest of the block. Next
7:44
Speaker 1: time you come see me this, he held up a
7:47
Speaker 1: bag of powder. This shit is dead as disco. It's
7:50
Speaker 1: all about the rock right now and forever. Curtis didn't understand.
7:55
Speaker 1: Sincere explained that Richard pryor motherfuckers didn't need to be
7:58
Speaker 1: setting themselves on fire, no more trying to freebase cocaine.
8:02
Speaker 1: It was all about the rock. Crack cocaine, crack two
8:06
Speaker 1: parts cocaine, one part baking soda. The scientific combination meant
8:10
Speaker 1: that less product was used and more profit was made.
8:14
Speaker 1: Making it even better for the dealers was the fact
8:16
Speaker 1: that crack, compared to cocaine, was highly addictive. As little
8:20
Speaker 1: as one hit and you were hooked, And that meant
8:23
Speaker 1: dealers had new customers for life, fiends who visited them
8:26
Speaker 1: multiple times per day for their cheap high. Right now,
8:30
Speaker 1: as they spoke, quote unquote, processing plants all over the
8:33
Speaker 1: city were buzzing with action. Apartments jammed with neighborhood women
8:37
Speaker 1: who to ensure no theft of the product. Were completely
8:41
Speaker 1: naked over long tables stacked high with many mountains of
8:44
Speaker 1: cocaine that had recently been turned into crack. They cut
8:48
Speaker 1: the processed product down from little bowlders into pebbles, then
8:51
Speaker 1: inserted the rocks into vials, then capped them for distribution
8:55
Speaker 1: throughout the city. The vials almost always had some unique
8:58
Speaker 1: quality to separate them from the competition. Blue Caps were
9:02
Speaker 1: popular in Jamaica Queen's The Blue Caps brand was synonymous
9:06
Speaker 1: with big, powerful rocks. They went fast on the block
9:09
Speaker 1: once the street level dealers got their hands on them.
9:12
Speaker 1: Quality and quantity control, manufacturing, branding, and distribution. He didn't
9:19
Speaker 1: know it yet, but young Curtis Jackson was learning lessons
9:22
Speaker 1: he would use later in life, lessons that would bring
9:25
Speaker 1: him unimaginable riches. But for right now, at the age
9:29
Speaker 1: of ten, all he needed was a new pair of sneakers,
9:33
Speaker 1: sincere wasn't buying them many though. Nope, that's why he
9:37
Speaker 1: was weighing out the last of his powder. He separated
9:40
Speaker 1: it into five tinfoil packages. They called the little packages
9:44
Speaker 1: of Cocaine fat Alberts out in the neighborhood. Fat Alberts
9:48
Speaker 1: contained enough coke to get high on the weekend, but
9:51
Speaker 1: not enough to keep his supply twenty four to seven.
9:53
Speaker 1: Curtis's uncles partied with them on the regular and ran
9:56
Speaker 1: little Curtis down to Sinceres to keep them supplied and
9:59
Speaker 1: keep the party back at the house bumping. Sincere told
10:02
Speaker 1: Curtis that he wasn't buying him anymore sneakers. They're just
10:05
Speaker 1: going to get dirty and then you're just going to
10:06
Speaker 1: come back here looking for another handout. Instead, he gave
10:10
Speaker 1: Curtis the five little bags of cocaine. Take these to
10:13
Speaker 1: your uncles and bring me back one hundred dollars and
10:15
Speaker 1: keep whatever you make on top of that and buy
10:17
Speaker 1: your own goddamn sneakers. In a world of hand me downs,
10:21
Speaker 1: leaky roofs and murdered and unknown parents, opportunity had struck
10:26
Speaker 1: and ten year old Curtis Jackson had just gotten himself
10:30
Speaker 1: a job. The rival hustler stood Curtis Jackson up against
10:58
Speaker 1: the wall. He shoved his nine millimeter hard into the
11:01
Speaker 1: side of his cheek and spit street wisdom into Curtis's
11:04
Speaker 1: face from inches away. This was not how grown men
11:08
Speaker 1: did business. This was not how hustlers treated one another,
11:12
Speaker 1: and this was not how he survived on the street.
11:16
Speaker 1: Curtis shoved his attacker off of him and onto the ground.
11:18
Speaker 1: He kicked a nine millimeter from his hand, stepped on
11:21
Speaker 1: the husler's chest, and took aain with his own weapon.
11:24
Speaker 1: This was it, the moment of truth, kill or be killed.
11:28
Speaker 1: He knew the dealing Crack on the streets of Queens
11:30
Speaker 1: would lead to this moment. Curtis focused his aim, squeezed
11:33
Speaker 1: the trigger and nothing, no shots, no bullets. His gun
11:43
Speaker 1: wasn't a gun at all. It was his beeper, and
11:45
Speaker 1: it signaled weakly into the night before fear rocketed up
11:48
Speaker 1: his throat from his belly and startled him upright and
11:51
Speaker 1: awake in his bed. The dream was always the same,
11:54
Speaker 1: more or less. Sometimes the attacker changed, but he was
11:58
Speaker 1: always fearsome, and the end result was always Curtis being
12:00
Speaker 1: startled awake with terror rushing through his veins. And the
12:04
Speaker 1: fear was always there. Now, sincere was right, Crack had
12:09
Speaker 1: taken over the ghetto. It had been creeping in all
12:12
Speaker 1: across nineteen eighty five, when The New York Times first
12:14
Speaker 1: named the drug in print, and by nineteen eighty seven
12:17
Speaker 1: it was everywhere. Over three years, US hospitals reported cocaine
12:22
Speaker 1: related emergencies nationwide increased by almost four hundred percent, and
12:27
Speaker 1: crack had taken over Curtis Jackson too. Hustling what he
12:32
Speaker 1: and everyone he knew called dealing drugs had been almost
12:35
Speaker 1: too good to be true. The money to be made
12:37
Speaker 1: was more than anything he could have dreamed. Degenerating Legitimately,
12:40
Speaker 1: at the age of twelve, in his mind, Curtis had
12:43
Speaker 1: made it. He had a new pair of sneakers in
12:45
Speaker 1: a fresh track suit for every day of the week.
12:48
Speaker 1: In Curtis's mind, powered work paid off, because that's exactly
12:52
Speaker 1: what hustling was to him. Work. But the fear of
12:56
Speaker 1: being caught, arrested, and sentenced to prison time was ever
12:59
Speaker 1: press In nineteen eighty six, Congress passed the first round
13:03
Speaker 1: of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. The guidelines for
13:07
Speaker 1: crack were one hundred times as severe as those for
13:09
Speaker 1: powder cook came by weight. Beyond prison, there was the
13:13
Speaker 1: ever present threat of an early death. The rules had
13:16
Speaker 1: changed in New York too by nineteen eighty six. In June,
13:20
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of Queen's from Upstart, Curtis a
13:23
Speaker 1: rookie NYPD patrolman was chasing an arm perp into an
13:26
Speaker 1: alley when the gunman opened up seven eight nine bullets.
13:29
Speaker 1: When the rookie returned fire, emptied his six rounds and
13:32
Speaker 1: then took a shot to the forehead while reloading his
13:34
Speaker 1: service pistol. The whole NYPD was full of fury and adrenaline.
13:39
Speaker 1: Now an army of drug warriors went and freshly upgraded
13:43
Speaker 1: to speedloaders and semi automatics for side arms so that
13:46
Speaker 1: it wouldn't happen again. The cop killer was found and
13:49
Speaker 1: convicted for both the officer's death and a drug burn
13:52
Speaker 1: slang the previous year. But to young Curtis, all this
13:56
Speaker 1: news boiled down to it was more danger at work. However,
14:01
Speaker 1: like most work, it all becomes routine and Curtis got sloppy.
14:06
Speaker 1: He showed up at school one day and was randomly
14:08
Speaker 1: searched by a security guard. The guard found a package
14:11
Speaker 1: of green Top crack files and Curtis's backpack that he'd
14:14
Speaker 1: forgotten about. He was arrested for possession. The judge went
14:18
Speaker 1: easy on him eighteen months probation, and Curtis went right
14:22
Speaker 1: back to work. He was suspended from school and intent
14:27
Speaker 1: on using the opportunity. This afforded him to hit the
14:29
Speaker 1: street and hustle even harder. He stood on his corner
14:32
Speaker 1: night and day, leaving only to hit the kitchen he
14:34
Speaker 1: rented from a friend of his to cook more crack.
14:37
Speaker 1: He power napped on city street benches, rarely showered or ate,
14:41
Speaker 1: and grind it full time. The work was all consuming
14:45
Speaker 1: until Curtis caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, disheveled, griming,
14:50
Speaker 1: almost possessed, just like the crack fiends he serviced. Something
14:54
Speaker 1: had to give. Two un marked police cars sirens on
14:59
Speaker 1: their dash. Two cops per car bounded out onto the sidewalk,
15:03
Speaker 1: guns drawn, screaming at Curtis and two of his friends
15:05
Speaker 1: to get on their knees. They had them dead to rights,
15:09
Speaker 1: their whole operation caught on tape. The lookout, the hustler,
15:12
Speaker 1: the duodoo man the package and made the handoff to
15:14
Speaker 1: the customer. The funny thing was Curtis wasn't even involved
15:18
Speaker 1: in this steal. He was just hanging out talking to
15:21
Speaker 1: some of his friends who were caught up in a transaction.
15:24
Speaker 1: Didn't matter. The cops sting netted him as well in
15:27
Speaker 1: this bus on the heels of a failed drug test
15:29
Speaker 1: due to the fact that Curtis was processing so much
15:32
Speaker 1: crack that the drug had seeped into the pores of
15:35
Speaker 1: his skin and into his system and caused him to
15:37
Speaker 1: fail the drug test. This second bust landed him in
15:40
Speaker 1: front of another judge, for whom probation would most definitely
15:43
Speaker 1: not be enough of a punishment. Young Curtis Jackson was
15:47
Speaker 1: sentenced to two years in a court mandated drug program.
15:51
Speaker 1: He did his two years standing on his head. It
15:54
Speaker 1: was easy compared to real time. Curtis bullshitted his way
15:57
Speaker 1: through mandatory group therapy sessions and up to the false
16:00
Speaker 1: role of being a degenerate drug addict in an effort
16:02
Speaker 1: to work his way through the program, back onto the
16:04
Speaker 1: streets and back to work. Behind one of the program
16:08
Speaker 1: counselor's desks, I'm a plaque, it read the price of
16:11
Speaker 1: success is hard work and an unremitting devotion to see
16:14
Speaker 1: the things you want to see happen. No shit. Curtis
16:18
Speaker 1: could get with that if he could only get out
16:21
Speaker 1: of this damn program, which he did eventually, and when
16:25
Speaker 1: he did, he was recommitted to his work no more.
16:28
Speaker 1: Sloppiness on the street or in school. He was going
16:30
Speaker 1: to become a real hustler. Enough of this dangerous street
16:33
Speaker 1: level stuff. Curtis Jackson had designs on working his way
16:36
Speaker 1: into a management position. Sure the risks were greater, but
16:40
Speaker 1: so were the rewards. He needed cash, and a lot
16:44
Speaker 1: of it, the kind of cash that convergiuse, weight enough
16:48
Speaker 1: product to put out on the street to low level
16:49
Speaker 1: hustlers who work for you while you sit back and
16:52
Speaker 1: bring product him from the Columbia connect. To get that cash,
16:56
Speaker 1: Curtis hit the street and hustled, but once again another
17:00
Speaker 1: street bust for possession, and then over the goddamn door,
17:06
Speaker 1: we're knocking it down. A house arraid while out on parole,
17:09
Speaker 1: where the cops found two hundred and eighty grams of
17:11
Speaker 1: crack cocaine and fifteen thousand dollars in cash. Remarkably, the
17:16
Speaker 1: judge went easy on Curtis, deeming him a prime candidate
17:19
Speaker 1: for rehabilitation as part of the new Monterey Shock incarceration
17:23
Speaker 1: program in beaver Dam's, New York. What could have been
17:26
Speaker 1: a nine year sentence for possession was now a six
17:28
Speaker 1: month trip up state to a boot camp posing as
17:31
Speaker 1: a hybrid reheb summer camp slash outdoor prison. The rehab
17:36
Speaker 1: was mostly physical in demanding. He was awake at five
17:39
Speaker 1: am every day, thrust into workouts, and taught to maximize
17:43
Speaker 1: his effort in time. When Curtis was eventually released, he
17:46
Speaker 1: was anything but rehabilitated from the drug gamp. He was
17:49
Speaker 1: inspired to push himself into the game even further, and
17:52
Speaker 1: he was in shape, lean, mean, and ready to get
17:57
Speaker 1: back to work. We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're.
18:13
Speaker 1: The Suzuki gsx R seven to fifty motorcycle was built
18:16
Speaker 1: for speed, and it whipped down the block. Curtis Jackson
18:20
Speaker 1: was traveling light out of rehab and on parole back
18:24
Speaker 1: to dealing, but not stupid enough to speed through Queen's
18:26
Speaker 1: on his bike while holding product. Still, that didn't stop
18:30
Speaker 1: him from speeding off when the cops approached him. Any
18:33
Speaker 1: arrest while on parole could lead to hard time, and
18:36
Speaker 1: when the cop rolled up next to him at the
18:38
Speaker 1: stop sign on guy Our Brewer Boulevard to ask him
18:40
Speaker 1: a question, before he even got it out of his mouth,
18:43
Speaker 1: Curtis gunned him. The Suzuki's engine screamed. The police cruiser's
18:49
Speaker 1: lights went into a frantic fit, its siren howled, and
18:52
Speaker 1: Curtis blasted down the boulevard and the bank two hard rights,
18:55
Speaker 1: disappearing from the cops momentarily into the Baisley Projects. He
19:00
Speaker 1: exited the projects onto a main street, accelerated to one
19:03
Speaker 1: hundred miles per hour, and let up on the throttom.
19:06
Speaker 1: He cruised for a moment, seemingly safe from the cops.
19:09
Speaker 1: Thinking he was in the clear, Curtis turned and headed
19:12
Speaker 1: back to the block to laugh off the incident with friends.
19:15
Speaker 1: Then an unmarked cruiser sped up tight next to him
19:18
Speaker 1: on his right side, and the cop yelled out of
19:20
Speaker 1: his window. Curtis yanked on the accelerator, the bike rocketed
19:25
Speaker 1: ahead with the cruiser. The cruiser accelerated and quickly caught
19:28
Speaker 1: up to the bike. Curtis slowed, banged quick right, steadied
19:31
Speaker 1: his foot on the street off of the bike to
19:33
Speaker 1: better handle the sharp turn, straightened his bike in the
19:35
Speaker 1: opposite direction of the cruiser, and sped away from the cops.
19:39
Speaker 1: Cyanara suckers. Curtis had escaped, but then the sound of
19:43
Speaker 1: another siren from a second cruiser that was somehow right
19:46
Speaker 1: behind him Curtis heard the sound of the original cruiser
19:49
Speaker 1: now as well. It blasted in unison as it rapidly
19:52
Speaker 1: gained speed, catching up behind him. Two cars, four cops,
19:56
Speaker 1: one bike, one hustler on parole. Curtis steered the Suzuki
20:00
Speaker 1: up onto the sidewalk and sped through a crowd of
20:02
Speaker 1: surprise pedestrians. He scurried away from the bike to safety.
20:05
Speaker 1: Curtis was running out of sidewalk. He hit the street
20:08
Speaker 1: again and the cruiser was right there beside it and keeping
20:11
Speaker 1: pace down the boulevard. Curtis did no such thing. He
20:15
Speaker 1: accelerated up ahead. A third cruiser appeared. This one headed
20:20
Speaker 1: straight toward Curtis and the cruiser to his side. Curtis
20:23
Speaker 1: jammed his brakes skid it to his stop. The cruiser
20:26
Speaker 1: to his left did the same, stopping next to him.
20:28
Speaker 1: The third cruiser kept speeding straight toward them both, and
20:31
Speaker 1: the cop in the car at Curtis's left reached up
20:33
Speaker 1: his hand and grabbed his motorcycle's handlebar. Curtis yanked it away,
20:36
Speaker 1: pulled the throttle and mounted the jerk and bike back
20:39
Speaker 1: up onto the sidewalk and away into the crowd, and
20:41
Speaker 1: eventually back on the guy ar brew of boulevard, going
20:44
Speaker 1: the other direction away from the copse. On the straight away,
20:47
Speaker 1: he pushed the bike as fast as it would go,
20:50
Speaker 1: reaching a speed of one hundred and twenty miles per hour.
20:53
Speaker 1: He needed to get off the street, ditched the bike,
20:56
Speaker 1: and back to his grandmother's house, but that wasn't going
20:59
Speaker 1: to happen so easily. As he raced through traffic, he
21:02
Speaker 1: could hear it sounded like as many as five cruisers,
21:04
Speaker 1: now speeding behind him and getting closer. The traffic got heavier.
21:09
Speaker 1: It provided an obstacle course for Curtis to weave through
21:11
Speaker 1: with his bike, and an obstacle course that the cruisers
21:13
Speaker 1: could not penetrate. Curtis ended up on the other side
21:16
Speaker 1: of the congested boulevard, ahead of the traffic on his bike,
21:18
Speaker 1: while the cops sputtered behind the cars and their cruisers.
21:21
Speaker 1: It was now or never. Time to make his move
21:24
Speaker 1: and escape for real. Curtis banged the left off the
21:26
Speaker 1: main boulevard and onto his side street. He quickly stopped,
21:30
Speaker 1: turned the bike around, and idled on the side street
21:32
Speaker 1: while he faced the boulevard. He waited. Soon enough, the
21:36
Speaker 1: cruisers caught up and turned off to the boulevard and
21:38
Speaker 1: onto the side street. They saw Curtis turn on too,
21:41
Speaker 1: where he waited. As soon as he saw them, he
21:44
Speaker 1: blasted off straight toward the approaching police cruisers, passed it
21:47
Speaker 1: and away into traffic. The cruisers screeched to a halt
21:50
Speaker 1: and made a clumsy effort to turn around, but it
21:52
Speaker 1: was too late. Curtis was off. He pulled off of
21:55
Speaker 1: Guy R. Brewer onto Rockaway Boulevard and beneath an overpass.
21:59
Speaker 1: The shaking hit him almost immediately. His handlebars vibrated, his
22:03
Speaker 1: ribcage rattle, the lining of his stomach rolled. What the
22:06
Speaker 1: fuck was happening? Curtis turned off her rock Away out
22:09
Speaker 1: from underneath the overpass, looked up and there it was
22:12
Speaker 1: a fucking police helicopter, keeping pace with his bike and
22:15
Speaker 1: bearing down on him. Curtis had no time to think,
22:18
Speaker 1: He just raced. He managed to duck off onto another
22:22
Speaker 1: side street, momentarily escaping the smothering chopper, and ditched his
22:25
Speaker 1: bike in her friend's backyard. From there, it was a
22:28
Speaker 1: stealth foot race through the alleys and yards of his neighbors,
22:31
Speaker 1: over fences, away from the jaws of snarling dogs, and
22:34
Speaker 1: up the side of his grandmother's porch, through her window
22:37
Speaker 1: into his house and up and hidden away in the attic,
22:42
Speaker 1: he heard the sharp bang of the police billy clubs
22:44
Speaker 1: on the front door. Almost immediately his grandmother opened the
22:48
Speaker 1: door and he listened. He could hear both cops clear
22:51
Speaker 1: as day, one white, one black. They spoke in a
22:54
Speaker 1: rehearsed rhythm. Was Curtis Jackson their grandson? Yes? They lived there? Yes?
23:01
Speaker 1: Was he home? No? Could they come in? Hell? No,
23:04
Speaker 1: not without a warrant. When was the last time they
23:06
Speaker 1: saw Curtis? That sounded like a question for a lawyer
23:09
Speaker 1: to answer, Well, if you see him, will you contact us?
23:11
Speaker 1: Why the hell would we do that? Because your grandson,
23:15
Speaker 1: Curtis Jackson is wanted for murder. Murder, no worse than that,
23:23
Speaker 1: a double homicide. How the hell did this happen? He
23:27
Speaker 1: didn't kill anyone, but the cops didn't know that. They
23:30
Speaker 1: believed he killed two people, and that's all that mattered,
23:34
Speaker 1: at least on the day of that high speed chase,
23:36
Speaker 1: a day when he could have easily died. Curtis Jackson
23:40
Speaker 1: wasn't yet twenty one years old, and because of his
23:43
Speaker 1: chosen line of work, he was nearly dead or about
23:45
Speaker 1: to spend his life in prison. Making matters worse. His
23:49
Speaker 1: girlfriend was telling him he was about to be a father.
23:52
Speaker 1: He didn't want his child growing up without a dad
23:55
Speaker 1: like he did, so the choice was easy. No more hustling,
23:59
Speaker 1: no more high be death defying chases, no more street
24:02
Speaker 1: bus no more cord order rehabilitation or worse, incarceration. His
24:07
Speaker 1: parole officer knew he was innocent on the double murder
24:09
Speaker 1: rap and got him off. Curtis now needed a new gig.
24:15
Speaker 1: He heard his future blasting out of the boomboxes on
24:18
Speaker 1: the block, the notorious Big, a Brooklyn hustler who'd gone
24:23
Speaker 1: straight by weaving his street rhymes into hip hop gold.
24:26
Speaker 1: Curtis could get with Big. His shit was the only
24:29
Speaker 1: shit in the rap game that rang true. It was authentic,
24:32
Speaker 1: and it provided Curtis for the path. If Big could
24:35
Speaker 1: do it, so could he. It was audacious, but fuck it.
24:38
Speaker 1: The entire notion of making any life for yourself and
24:41
Speaker 1: a place as fucked up as a crack torn Jamaica
24:43
Speaker 1: queens in nineteen ninety six was audacious. Hell, just believing
24:47
Speaker 1: you could survive in the streets was audacious. If you
24:50
Speaker 1: could make thousands of dollars a week and outrun angry
24:52
Speaker 1: cops and high speed chases throughout the neighborhood. If you
24:55
Speaker 1: could dodge a double murder rap, why couldn't he actually rap?
24:58
Speaker 1: How hard could that shit be? Anyway, Curtis started writing
25:02
Speaker 1: rhymes in his head and he envisioned a new authentic
25:04
Speaker 1: persona for himself. He took the name from an old
25:06
Speaker 1: school local street hustler named fifty cent Got it Too.
25:10
Speaker 1: Someone introduced him to local queen's legend jam master j
25:13
Speaker 1: of R on DMC, who signed fifty cent to a
25:15
Speaker 1: production deal, but that didn't move fast enough for him.
25:18
Speaker 1: Fifty cent had a baby on the way. Fifty Cent
25:21
Speaker 1: hustled not on the block in the rap game. His
25:25
Speaker 1: wraps were pure authentic. He rapped about real hustlers and
25:29
Speaker 1: real situations, and it rang true and resulted in an
25:31
Speaker 1: invitation to record with the track masters, who were two
25:34
Speaker 1: of the hottest producers in the game. The studio was
25:37
Speaker 1: overrun with other rappers, their posses, hangers on girls, local
25:41
Speaker 1: hustlers coming in and out. There was a party. Everyone
25:44
Speaker 1: was just hanging around getting fucked up, blunts, alcohol, an
25:48
Speaker 1: occasional beat queued up on the monitors to entice some
25:51
Speaker 1: inspiration from one of the attendant rappers, but was ultimately wasted.
25:54
Speaker 1: Like those hanging out, fifty Cent saw his opportunity and
25:58
Speaker 1: he took it. Rap wasn't about hanging around and getting
26:01
Speaker 1: fucked up. It was just like the street, except with
26:04
Speaker 1: less cops and less bullets. It was about work. He
26:08
Speaker 1: stayed there at the trackmaster's studio for eighteen days. He
26:11
Speaker 1: left with thirty six songs for his demo. Thirty six
26:15
Speaker 1: that's two completed songs a day and unheard of clip.
26:19
Speaker 1: The track masters signed him to their production deal and
26:22
Speaker 1: then transferred fifty cents contract to Columbia Records. Fifty Cent
26:26
Speaker 1: was now signed to a major label, which is like
26:28
Speaker 1: with jam Master Jay. Columbia wasn't moving fast enough for
26:31
Speaker 1: fifty Cent. The release of his record was stalled, and
26:35
Speaker 1: with a kid on the way, he wasn't making money.
26:37
Speaker 1: He had no choice. Back to hustling crack, fifty Cent
26:43
Speaker 1: made his new presence on the street felt with authority.
26:46
Speaker 1: He came back strong and intent on taking over the
26:48
Speaker 1: strip in Jamaica, Queen's all for himself and making as
26:51
Speaker 1: much money as possible in the shortest amount of time.
26:54
Speaker 1: He brought him muscle from Brooklyn. Employed old school queen's roughnecks,
26:57
Speaker 1: recently out of prison. He hustled hard during the day,
27:01
Speaker 1: stack cash and recorded in the studio at night. Burning
27:04
Speaker 1: the candle at both ends led to sloppiness. Fifty disrespected
27:08
Speaker 1: the wrong rival hustler. A sit down was arranged to
27:11
Speaker 1: squash the beef before street violence overtook the strip and
27:14
Speaker 1: disrupted business. Fifty blew off the sit down he had
27:18
Speaker 1: a recording session booked. It would prove to be a
27:21
Speaker 1: near fatal decision. The phrase putting in work can be
27:52
Speaker 1: interpreted in two ways. The first interpretation is the literal one,
27:57
Speaker 1: to apply one's efforts toward a task in exchange for money,
28:00
Speaker 1: to have a job, to work simple. The second interpretation,
28:05
Speaker 1: the street interpretation of putting in work, means to do
28:08
Speaker 1: the deed no one wants to do, but will if
28:11
Speaker 1: the pay is right or the tensions and emotions are
28:14
Speaker 1: high enough. To put in work means to kill, usually
28:18
Speaker 1: in the murder for higher sense. Fifty cent knew this.
28:22
Speaker 1: What he didn't know was that, due to the unresolved
28:25
Speaker 1: beef with the rival, hustler, a street assessin was hired
28:28
Speaker 1: to put in some work. Fifty cent never saw it coming.
28:34
Speaker 1: The first bullet blasted through the backseat car window and
28:37
Speaker 1: tore through the flesh of his leg. Immediately, the adrenaline
28:40
Speaker 1: lit his insides up. Two more shots in legs, more adrenaline.
28:44
Speaker 1: The pain set his legs on fire. He outstretched his
28:47
Speaker 1: hands to block the shooter. The shooter squeezed the trigger
28:50
Speaker 1: five more times. Five bullets ripped through fifty cents hands.
28:55
Speaker 1: A final shot, this one exploded through fifty cents face,
29:00
Speaker 1: nine bullets, nine gunshot wounds. The shooter's work was done,
29:04
Speaker 1: so too, it seemed, was fifty cent when he awoke
29:13
Speaker 1: in the hospital room, miraculously alive. None of the bullets
29:16
Speaker 1: had hit any major arteries or organs. Even the gunshot
29:20
Speaker 1: to the face merely only took out a tooth. Fifty
29:23
Speaker 1: cents fear overtook his physical pain quickly. However, that fear
29:28
Speaker 1: was overrun by aggression, and fifty cent transferred that aggression
29:32
Speaker 1: into purpose the only way he knew how, through work.
29:36
Speaker 1: Because that's the great promise of work. Purpose. It gives
29:40
Speaker 1: a man's life meaning something. Fifty cent desperately needed when
29:44
Speaker 1: he was an aimless ten year old out on the
29:45
Speaker 1: streets of Jamaica Queen's and it was what he needed
29:48
Speaker 1: now to overcome his pain and rehabilitate. The workouts started slow,
29:53
Speaker 1: first physical therapy but with consistency, then walks outside the hospital.
29:59
Speaker 1: Before long, he was in the pool stretching those legs
30:01
Speaker 1: with light resistance, then finally into the gym, work in
30:05
Speaker 1: the Nautilus machine, squats, shoulder presses, biceps and shoulders. Before long,
30:11
Speaker 1: fifty Cent was jumping rope, back in the rings, sparring
30:14
Speaker 1: for cardio wind sprints, long runs through the streets of Queens.
30:19
Speaker 1: The entire way he plodded his way back into the
30:22
Speaker 1: rap game and off of the streets for good. He
30:24
Speaker 1: relied on what he knew for inspiration. He thought back
30:27
Speaker 1: to sincere in the Blue Cap crack files, packaging and marketing.
30:31
Speaker 1: It inspired him toward creating CD and mixtape covers that
30:34
Speaker 1: would stand out. He recalled all the street level hustlers
30:37
Speaker 1: who peddled his product and created ways to inspire the
30:40
Speaker 1: bootleggers and radio DJs to push his new product his music.
30:44
Speaker 1: After all, they were all the same, just mentalman. He
30:47
Speaker 1: could never forget the beef with the rival hustler that
30:50
Speaker 1: led to his shooting. It was singed into his brain
30:53
Speaker 1: that dude would ultimately end up in prison for life
30:55
Speaker 1: and the trigger man six feet under, but the damage
30:58
Speaker 1: they did to him was an everlasting lefe. Never again
31:01
Speaker 1: would fifty cent be so dismissive of power. So when
31:05
Speaker 1: M and M and Doctor Dre, two of the most
31:07
Speaker 1: powerful players in the rap game, came calling, fifty Cents
31:11
Speaker 1: snapped to attention and paid them the respect they deserved.
31:14
Speaker 1: When talent recognizes talent, and game recognizes game. When real
31:18
Speaker 1: hustlers recognize real hustlers, real work gets done. Fifty cents
31:23
Speaker 1: first album, Get Rich or Die Trying, recorded under the
31:27
Speaker 1: guidance of it in collaboration with Dre and M, sold
31:30
Speaker 1: over one point five million copies in two weeks and
31:33
Speaker 1: twelve million by the end of two thousand and three.
31:36
Speaker 1: It launched a career in hip hop for fifty Cent.
31:38
Speaker 1: That is nothing short of an empire, and it can
31:41
Speaker 1: all be traced back to one thing, work which, no
31:45
Speaker 1: matter the environment, can always lead from disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan,
31:52
Speaker 1: and this is disgrace. Land Disgraceland was created by Yours
32:09
Speaker 1: Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits
32:12
Speaker 1: for this episode can be found on the show notes
32:14
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32:18
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32:57
Speaker 1: Rock a rolla, He's a baddard Man,