Tales from da Hood

The Glamorous Life

A Hustler's Wife

A Project Chick

Girls from da Hood

The Game: Short Stories About the Life …
(contributing author)

F
IRST
, I
WOULD LIKE
to thank God for giving me the strength and patience to put such a powerful project together. Having a dream is one of the hardest things to sell to someone else because at the end of the day, it's your dream and your dream alone. But sometimes, dreams do come true, such as going from a career as a travel agent to becoming a bestselling author.

There were only a few people who genuinely believed in me, and those are the folks who I continue to thank in every book. Getting people to look outside of the box is hard. I know firsthand the stress it takes to break through any industry's door. So when those who have supported me asked me for a chance to let them shine by publishing their work, and giving their dream a chance to come true, I knew I had to do something. But what?

The letters and the calls kept pouring in. Upcoming authors had stories that needed to be heard through a vehicle that the streets respected. There was nothing for me to do but pray, and that's when God gave me the vision, the Street Chronicles series.

To the many authors in the various volumes, I came to you with a vision and each of you embraced it. In one single phone call you were just as excited about the manifestation of this project as I was. The enthusiasm rose like a tidal wave even though I didn't know how I was going to fund the book, print it, or get distribution for it. Having come to you with nothing but an idea, I thank you all for believing in me, in my potential, and in the editorial process from the beginning.

From conception to birth, I knew it wouldn't be a smooth ride.
There were some authors with me early on who, when the waves got too high, didn't have the patience to hold on and fell by the wayside. I wish you the absolute best in your future endeavors. But to those of you who rode it out with me on the high tide to the calming still waters, taking pride in your work by accepting any input I shared with you about your story, you make me proud to be able to put my name on this project. Thank you! Together WE DID IT, BABY!!! We're in the major leagues, being published by Random House, the same publisher that published Bill Clinton's books. If that isn't God's grace and mercy, I don't know what is.

All in all, this is only the beginning for you. You're not diamonds in the rough anymore. Continue to shine as stars do. The sky is the limit for you!

Craig, you will never know just how much I love you. You were the first person I shared my desire with and you stepped up to the plate, offering to fund the project for me without even knowing anything about it. You always keep me afloat, whatever the storm is in my life. Marc, my agent, I love you simply for being you. Melody, thanks for being one of the first professionals to assist me with this idea. You gave me a safe and sanitized place for the labor and delivery while you continued to encourage and believe in me. Thanks! Nicey B, my secretary from day one, thanks for only accepting Red Lobster lunches as payment for all you do to keep me organized. Kells, my best friend, for being there around the clock for me. Wayne, Drack, Robinette, Cool, Chelsea, Claudie, and Dre for reading through all the submissions. Pat, thanks for listening to all my tantrums and introducing me to yoga to escape from it all, but most of all, just for doing what you do best, be you! Joy, the official godmother, consultant, prayer partner, et cetera, I am sending you some black dye for all the unwanted gray hair I might have given you. Thank you for always holding me down or picking me up as you do. I know the industry hasn't been nice to either one of us but
somehow we always seem to make it through with a smile and a laugh. My Shay-Shay, never think I don't see you or appreciate you. To every one of you reading this, I cannot thank you enough for being avid supporters of my work. I appreciate you taking my babies (novels) into your home and loving them, and introducing them to as many people as you have. This is a book of short stories, so I need to keep this short and sweet. I apologize if you are not mentioned here, but I would like to thank everyone who played a part in the prenatal process, delivery, and nurturing of this baby. Charge it to my head, not my heart.

Peace and Love,

Nikki Turner

A Note from Nikki Turner

Introduction by Kwame Teague

Big Daddy
BY
S
EVEN

360
BY
T
HE
G
HOST

No Mercy
BY
A
KBAR
P
RAY

Thicker Than Mud
BY
Y. B
LAK
M
OORE

Gotta Have a Ruffneck
A N
IKKI
T
URNER
O
RIGINAL

Acknowledgments

NIKKI TURNER
, NUMBER
-
ONE
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
, looked long and hard, high and low, in every prison, ghetto, ditch, crack, and crevice all over the world for the hottest street writers on the planet to assist her in composing this masterpiece exploring every aspect of street life. With a powerful introduction by Kwame Teague, “Big Daddy,” “360,” “No Mercy,” “Thicker than Mud,” and “Gotta Have a Ruffneck” make up the first volume of an ongoing legacy guaranteed to change the game of urban fiction as we know it. These five uncut and uncensored urban tales chronicle subject matter that has yet to be told and are penned by five authors whose original voices demand to be heard.

The Queen of Hip-Hop Fiction presents a Nikki Turner Exclusive, the first volume of a series,
Street Chronicles: Tales from da Hood.

FOR MANY
, this is the summation of the American Dream, that piece of the pie that young men and women everywhere aspire to obtain. They are raised with the ethic that if you work hard, you will succeed. If you go to school and get an education, you'll get a good job, a beautiful wife, and a picket fence surrounding nice green grass to water on Sundays.

But what happens when your school is a war zone, nothing more than a fashion show, and the only education you get is from a teacher who doesn't see you as a person, but as a problem, and therefore treats you as such? What happens when your job pays a slave's wages but the cost of living is a king's ransom? And even if you do have a degree, a piece of paper confirming you've been educated, just the fact of being young and black is considered a liability instead of an asset. Under these circumstances, the only fence a man's wife sees is the one around her project complex or the prison
her man is bidding in. So, by the time you see that nice green grass, it's in the manicured lawn of the cemetery, your final resting place.

The American Dream has been deferred, so those who realize this have chosen another avenue to success, another road to riches, a darker but parallel path. This is the way of the gangster, the one who makes his own list of rules and enforces it. His word is his gun and his silence is law. Violations are dealt with swiftly and, by the code of the streets, justly. This is the world where loyalty and honor really mean something because anything less can cost you your life.

THE
GANGSTER KNOWS
he isn't living the American Dream, he is a part of the American reality. He knows that this country was built on the same principles that he ruthlessly enforces. He knows the pilgrims were pillagers who conned the natives out of their country, and when the natives got wise, those pilgrims raped, burned, and slaughtered all who stood in their path. So while you eat turkey on Thanksgiving, the American tradition, the gangster celebrates the biggest takeover this country has ever seen, a real thug holiday.

But it doesn't stop with what the English took from the native. The Americans took from the English with common thug tactics and a “fuck you” attitude. When Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” he might as well have screamed, “Ride or die!” Because that's what he meant by today's terms. The Americans ran England off their block and we celebrate it every Fourth of July. We even sing its praises before major sporting events and salute it around the country. The American flag, its colors, red and blue. These same colors have split the streets, literally ripping them in half, making half our hoods Bloods and the other half Crips. Yet,
however you cut it, red and blue are the American colors, but
white …
is the American Power.

The gangster sees this, understands it, and so he applies it to the world in which he dwells. He turns the UN into the five families, the Geneva Convention into a gang peace treaty, and instead of invading countries, he invades neighborhoods, spreading the same violence, poison, and corruption on a smaller scale. He destroys lives, creates illusions, and sells dreams. All the while profiting, until one day the very law he created backlashes and destroys him. Then another man, disenfranchised by the mainstream, steps up, being even more ruthless, violent, and cunning than his predecessor. And the cycle continues. But don't blame the man. Don't hate the game because, you see, it's the American way. We are products of our environment so the only question left to ask is “How far are you willing to go?”

Following is a collection of stories that tell you just how far some people went how far they continue to go, the results, and the lessons to be learned. These are not fables. They are not fairy tales. They are not manufactured commercial gangstas that BET, the source of Clear Channel Communications, tries to create for your entertainment pleasure. The set is Harlem, Compton, Chicago, or Newark not Universal Studios. There are no stunt doubles or rehearsals so no one will cry out “cut” because these are the uncut versions. They are stories by men and women who lived the life, who live the life, and who have starved and bled, took it in the blood, won or lost. In short, these are the chronicles of gangstas that lived them.

Yes, these are only a few of the eight million stories, and tomorrow there will be probably eight million more. What we present is like various snapshots of a continuous riot, some faces laughing, some crying, some bloodied in the custody of the police, some fleeing the scene, arms wrapped around a stolen plasma TV set. Nevertheless,
the riot continues and it will continue until we realize that we have two options. Either we play the game all the way out, or get all the way out the game. Take the hustle, the grind, and the gangsta to a whole new level.

The Street Chronicles are a testament to that whole new level the writers in this book are examples of, and of what the power of expression can do. We as artists, as writers, are using our voices in diverse ways to articulate what the streets are feeling. This is for the beautiful women who do ugly things, for the intelligent brothers who make dumb decisions, and for the next generation of ghetto kids who need someone to look up to and an ideal to believe in. From the streets to the books, from books to beyond, the world is for those with the courage to claim it and the wisdom to maintain it.

HOW FAR
are you willing to go?

IN CLOSING
, remember to take what you see and hear, use what you can, and discard the rest. But by no means allow yourself to become just another story to tell, just another name to be remembered on walls or T-shirts, just another face lost in the riot that is the streets.

I've said all I'ma say. Turn off the lights and close the door when you leave. One Love!

Kwame Teague,
Author of
The Adventures of Ghetto Sam