Hold on, this tale isn't quite what you expect from that subject line. But a number of you folks tell some pretty good tales and I thought I'd try my hand at adding one. Typically, I would not expect a forum (likely) made up of "old white guys" 
to pleasantly sit back and read a story about Gangsta Rap, but again, the title is just a bit of the story.
Back in 1990 I was a barely 18yr old kid off to college. Tossed in to student housing, I was one of two extremely white kids with one black roommate. And as fate would have it, right across the apartment complex lawn was another student housing apartment with two black guys and a very white dude.
It didn't take long before we all became pretty good friends and we spent pretty much all of our time together.
A small town white kid, I was 100% not listening to rap music in -ANY- form, but just as we mashed our friendship together, we did the same with our music... and for about a year, I totally got in to all the music that Johnny brought to our little group. So much that I even bought a few CD's of my own... and it was just as cool to see Johnny get in to the classic rock that I loved and the heavy metal that one of the others brought to our little group.
Johnny is key to this story because he's a very interesting guy. While I found myself in college quite simply as the best answer I could come up with of "what the heck to do next" after high school, Johnny came to the same place as a last ditch, live-saving escape. You see, Johnny was a real-deal, inner city drug dealer. All his friends were 'hood gang bangers and he even drove a Cadillac (which was flat-out eye-popping for an 18 yr old kid from the hood to us white kids from the sticks.)
But Johnny was one helluva good guy and one of my very best friends from day one, a whole bunch of us landed there knowing NOBODY and we became fast friends. And his entire reason for being there was to leave THAT world behind and to that end, he came with no drugs, no guns, no ideas of selling drugs or falling back in to the lifestyle that he just escaped. In getting to know him better, it was his buddy back home getting shot in a drive-by that helped him make this decision. And I later got to meet that guy and I can confirm that THIS dude was absolutely as OG as I am certain I will ever meet in my (sheltered) life time. (for you old white guys... "OG" means that his pal, down for a visit... was a real gang member.)
Fast forward a bit and I realized that college wasn't for me and I made my exit from it after a little more than a year. Johnny made the same decision... his long time girlfriend having moved down to be with him, he was managing a local Pizza Hut when we went our separate ways in life.
Obviously...
I was always left to wonder if Johnny stayed true to his plan, and stayed straight and narrow, never falling back in to a similar lifestyle here where we lived now... or moving back home to resume it full bore. But suffice to say, we didn't run in the same circles as time passed and we lost touch in short order and I was never left with anymore more than wondering what did happen to him.
That was a full 25 years ago. Fast forward to 2016 and this young guy at work, a big corn-fed country white boy that had been working with us for maybe a month was talking about this movie, "Straight Outta Compton" and he was saying how good it was, that I oughta check it out. I told him "you might not believe it... but when that stuff was actually happening -- I was a fan, trying to keep up with it and listening to all of that music." (the movie depicts a lot of the drama that went on in & around the rap group NWA and all the crazy antics that were a part of that music scene circa late-80's/early 90's.)
CONTINUED-->
to pleasantly sit back and read a story about Gangsta Rap, but again, the title is just a bit of the story.Back in 1990 I was a barely 18yr old kid off to college. Tossed in to student housing, I was one of two extremely white kids with one black roommate. And as fate would have it, right across the apartment complex lawn was another student housing apartment with two black guys and a very white dude.
It didn't take long before we all became pretty good friends and we spent pretty much all of our time together.A small town white kid, I was 100% not listening to rap music in -ANY- form, but just as we mashed our friendship together, we did the same with our music... and for about a year, I totally got in to all the music that Johnny brought to our little group. So much that I even bought a few CD's of my own... and it was just as cool to see Johnny get in to the classic rock that I loved and the heavy metal that one of the others brought to our little group.
Johnny is key to this story because he's a very interesting guy. While I found myself in college quite simply as the best answer I could come up with of "what the heck to do next" after high school, Johnny came to the same place as a last ditch, live-saving escape. You see, Johnny was a real-deal, inner city drug dealer. All his friends were 'hood gang bangers and he even drove a Cadillac (which was flat-out eye-popping for an 18 yr old kid from the hood to us white kids from the sticks.)
But Johnny was one helluva good guy and one of my very best friends from day one, a whole bunch of us landed there knowing NOBODY and we became fast friends. And his entire reason for being there was to leave THAT world behind and to that end, he came with no drugs, no guns, no ideas of selling drugs or falling back in to the lifestyle that he just escaped. In getting to know him better, it was his buddy back home getting shot in a drive-by that helped him make this decision. And I later got to meet that guy and I can confirm that THIS dude was absolutely as OG as I am certain I will ever meet in my (sheltered) life time. (for you old white guys... "OG" means that his pal, down for a visit... was a real gang member.)
Fast forward a bit and I realized that college wasn't for me and I made my exit from it after a little more than a year. Johnny made the same decision... his long time girlfriend having moved down to be with him, he was managing a local Pizza Hut when we went our separate ways in life.
Obviously...
I was always left to wonder if Johnny stayed true to his plan, and stayed straight and narrow, never falling back in to a similar lifestyle here where we lived now... or moving back home to resume it full bore. But suffice to say, we didn't run in the same circles as time passed and we lost touch in short order and I was never left with anymore more than wondering what did happen to him.
That was a full 25 years ago. Fast forward to 2016 and this young guy at work, a big corn-fed country white boy that had been working with us for maybe a month was talking about this movie, "Straight Outta Compton" and he was saying how good it was, that I oughta check it out. I told him "you might not believe it... but when that stuff was actually happening -- I was a fan, trying to keep up with it and listening to all of that music." (the movie depicts a lot of the drama that went on in & around the rap group NWA and all the crazy antics that were a part of that music scene circa late-80's/early 90's.)
CONTINUED-->
