I’m So Hood

“I feel like a Black Republican, money I got coming in/can’t turn my back on the hood I got love for them/ can’t clean my act up for good too much thug in him/ prolly end up back in the hood I’m like f*ck it then” – S. Carter

This past Wednesday I had a rather interesting conversion with one of my best homeboys about “the hood”. The conversation started when he mentioned watching some great basketball games at The Carmelo Anthony Youth Development Center, dubbed the Melo Center. For the last few years there has been a Pro-Am League at the Melo Center featuring some of Baltimore’s best basketball talent verses many NBA and Division One notables. This summer has been no different and the most recent action that’s had the city buzzing has been the play of locals Josh Selby and Gary Neal and rising NBA star Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Monday night Brandon Jennings shut down the whole gym down with this play right here. (If you’re like me you’ve probably watch this video about 3 times) I heard about this play all the way in NY that’s how spectacular it was. So my homeboy mentions this play and proceeds to poke fun at another friend of mine who’s a HUGE Kobe Bryant fan and says “Kobe would never come to the hood, down the Melo Center and do that”. I couldn’t help but interject with “Why would Kobe do that? He doesn’t need the hood he’s trying to win championships, besides Kobe played in the Rucker and other Pro-Am Leagues”. My buddy who’s a pretty hardnosed, loyal and sometimes argumentative guy tells me, “So what and that Rucker ain’t Bmore!”. Granted we do play a different style of ball here but it’s still all entertainment for peeps in the streets. We both ended the discussion jokingly but I had to let him know that when you’re on a certain level you don’t need to prove anything to the hood. I told him, “Ask Brandon Jennings if he’d rather make fast break lay-ups in the conference Finals or have a monstrous alley-hoop dunk at the Melo Center?” Case closed.

This got me to thinking about some people and their loyalty to “keeping it real” or putting on for the “hood.” Now you can ask anyone I’m close to and they’ll tell you that I claim that I’m “hood” all the time. I mean I am but not really. Its just a joke to them. No one pays me any attention even though they know I was literally raised ‘up the block, around the corner and down the street from where the pimps, prostitutes and the drug lords meet’ (thank Hov). Luckily for me my house was about 2 blocks away from Baltimore’s worst but needless to say I’m not ignorant to the plight of our ghettos. Anyway, I realized a long time ago that while “hood credibility” and “streets stripes” are all good in the streets they do you no good as you ascend financially or socially and pose mostly as a liability the more one tries to hold on to it. I’m not saying forget where you come from or sellout and disown anyone or anything but growth is growth and you don’t work that hard just to stay the same.

You know who suffered from staying attached to or proving a point for the hood? People like Gucci Mane, T.I. and Mike Vick. As they used their talent to acquire more in the world they didn’t cut the loose ends necessary to stay at that newly acquired level. Granted playing a basketball game in a local gym instead of an arena isn’t as drastic as say buying guns for a small militia or doing drugs with your friends but they’re still tied to the fact that with success comes responsibility and that responsibility does not include proving a point to your peeps in the “hood”.

You know who learned to adjust to success and cut loose ends? Kevin Lyles, Carmelo Anthony and of course Jay-Z. Kevin Lyles come up in Baltimore. He comes home and gives back to the community here but he isn’t on the corner in rap cyphers or buying bottles in the same club as some random guy having his “run” this summer. He worked hard to get where he’s at and he’ll stay there. Melo is another perfect example. He had quite a bit of trouble entering the NBA with drug implications and such. He realized what he needed to do, cut the loose ends, maintained the proper relationships and matured without blowing it all trying to keep his credibility. And I’m sure you’ve heard stories of Jay-Z street ties but he knew what he needed to do and explain it in Death of Auto-tune “I don’t be in the project hallway/ talking about how I be in the project all day…That sound stupid to me” That would be just as stupid as say Kobe looking to drop 50 every week at random Pro-Am Leagues. Referring back to Jay-Z’s lines from Black Republican at the beginning of this entry…don’t be that guy. Keep it real with yourself and do what’s best for you. Don’t feel so obligated to the “hood”. The same “hood” that will turn it’s back on you because that’s the nature of the beast. Don’t be afraid to grow out of being so “hood”.