Recently Street TV caught up with LA Blood affiliate Big Stretch for a in depth interview on the recent calm within the gang culture, how authentic are the friendly relationships also, how expansions to USC is the cause of Fruit Town Brims to not have a hood to call their own.
Now, Big Stretch is a well known Damu from South Central Los Angeles, official top to bottom. And addressing that hip hop is responsible for some Blood rappers misrepresentation of the red rag. Mentioning LA rapper Joe Moses’ and his relationships with Crips, claiming Blood rappers are dick riding the Crips and vice versa. Its all for the gram he says.
However the interview took a drastic turn when Stretch began to refer to Crips as “crabs” (a disrespectful term used by Bloods) including the Crips founders, Tookie Williams & Raymond Washington. Stating that they never stood for the black community, but played a huge role in tearing it down. Saying they have NO good intentions when dealing with Bloods.
After watching the interview, he did make some very valid points… Concerning jobs and wages for undocumented immigrants. But that was all over shadowed with the amount of disrespect, towards the Crips, Do some Crips share the same feelings? I’m sure they do, no doubt, but when do the leader characteristics kick in? Are we preaching to young Bloods and Crips that we want violence, that we can’t co exist on the streets and within hip hop?
Does he have a right to his opinion, yes he does. Are these facts he is speaking, yes if this were 1989, when it was very active in LA, Compton and its surrounding cities. It’s 2019, and because of, these things of ours called, gang bangin, and hip hop, a organic unofficial peace treaty has been born. Times have changed Stretch. Get used to it. Any form of black unity should be welcomed. Not frowned upon because we were taught to hate each other.
The two biggest contradictions in this interview came when he said he learned from Pac (a rapper accepted by the Bloods) to search to find that God body spirit inside the black man, and Stretch says he found it… Also going on to say change is better than sitting in the same position. The biggest fact stated within the whole 16 mins. But, change isn’t on Big Stretch’s agenda… sadly.
I’m not going to knock him for how he feels, it’s his truth, and he owns it. But when it comes to rappers like, Nipsey Hussle, Joe Moses, Uncle Snoop, Killa Twan, RJ, G Perico, YG, and the many more west coast artist with direct ,ties to the Red and Blue rag, know exactly where they come from, where the hood is, what it stands for. Last time I checked, they are all young Africans that come from the same struggle… THE EXACT SAME STRUGGLE, different color flags, and made a way for themselves, their families, and their hoods.
Big Stretch, accept the change big homie. It feels good fam!
Let’s LIVE my niggas!