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Editor’s note: Pulling another drop out of the archive to celebrate D-Day. Hail Meg!

The passing of my homey RAY BARNETT has stirred a lot of feelings inside of my heart. I wanted to think that somehow through pain and time I could escape the things that plagued me when I was a teenager. The sad truth is that young people can destroy things faster than it takes to build or repair them, and there will be a lifetime of rebuilding for the BARNETT family.

Just like there has been a lifetime of rebuilding for the family of RICHARD FRENCH.

RICK was NOT a common street thug or a random hoodlum. He attended Brooklyn Technical high school and dreamed of being an artist or an engineer. Brooklyn Tech was so diverse with students from all over the city and all types of backgrounds. This school taught us how to speak the universal language of New York City. There wasn’t a corner of the city that RICK didn’t know how to navigate, and this was before we had stolen a single car.

RICK put me up on this crazy store on Canal Street called Canal Jeans Company because they sold all kinds of designer shit for pennies on the dollar. Polo Ralph Lauren knit sweaters, Coca-Cola rugbys and Girbaud jeans for $10 dollars a piece. You didn’t need to steal shit at those prices, but you did it just to see if you could get away with it. RICK had two brothers that were right behind him too so his shit belonged to them as well. You didn’t have to be his blood brother to get the jacket off his back if you needed it. RICK would show you where to get your own soon afterwards.

Meg and Shock circa 1987

What I didn’t realize was the situation that RICK had grown up in back at home. He was the protector of his brothers outside of his house and sometimes inside of his own home. His dad was abusive to his mom in front of him and his brothers. Instead of becoming angry and introverted RICK became determined and focused to rise above the Brownsville neighborhood that encapsulated him.

There’s no other borough in the city then and now that contains all the potential and simultaneously, all the danger of Brooklyn. Its all inside there on any given day. The goal is to avoid the pitfalls that are often hidden and disguised in order to stay in the race. There is no finish line either. The race is everyday life. Raising a family and building a community takes more than just one man’s lifetime. I salute RAY BARNETT and RICHARD FRENCH for both giving their lives to the beautiful struggle.

In the upcoming months there may be a renewed interest in the story of my brothers who were labeled a street gang. Now while we were responsible for some of the bad things that occurred in New York City we were influenced by any so-called gangs. If anything is the truth it would be that the Zulu Nation were our forebears. Our brotherhood was not localized to a neighborhood or even a borough, but made up of young men and women from the entire city who felt marginalized and threatened. We formed this collective to fight back against those feelings. Never in our minds did we imagine that we might become the oppressors ourselves.

Peace to Cyclonus, Rumble, Roxy, Spanky, Vital, Astrotrain, Barrage, Headstrong, Soundwave, and all the brothers and sisters fighting and working to make this lifetime right. Even though RICK is no longer with us we still remember his love for us.

Big Cy and Roxy circa 1989

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 5:50 am and is filed under D-Cepz, Ghetto Celebs, T.O.N.Y., When I Reminisce.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.