#crack epidemic

[balthazar-sketti]

Pee-wee Herman PSA, 1986

[voidingintotheshout]

I’m taking a break from Tumblr, perhaps until the end of the year. I feel like I might be following in the steps of @bondsmagii Who seemed to stop spending time on the site and spending more time reading. Since I finished 11 books in October, I seem to be on the same path. I’m writing more fiction now as well so I’m working on a story that is set in Philadelphia during the height of the crack epidemic about a neighborhood restaurant in the last weeks before it would be abandoned forever. This required me to do some research into what it was like in Philadelphia during the height of a crack epidemic and this article is really interesting.

[imthefailedartist]

I'm tired of reboots and remakes as much as the next person. That said, I want a remake of Mario Van Peebles 1991 classic, New Jack City.

Nino Brown is a fantastic character, but his story is cut in half because of the cops story. I don't give a flying fart about the cop story. I want to see Nino Browns rise and fall.

A ten episode mini series.

1. Series starts with Nino and crew taking over the tower.

2. Nino's rise and how crack ripped through Black communities in the 80's.

3. Nino has big plans. He's meeting with plugs and other dealers. The community is affected badly, but also Nino gives out food for the holidays he pays for college and after-school programs

4. The Lackeys episode. Focus on Gee Money, his childhood friend, he wants out because Nino treats him like shit. Duh Duh Duh Man, the quiet one who keeps to himself. Keisha likes chaos and being Nino's ruthless right hand. Ends with Keisha's death

5. Pookies episode. Informants in the house means spring cleaning. Nino starts putting big plans into action. Bye bye-bye Gee Money

6. The cop episode. Nino thinks he's on top. However, the cops are watching.

7. He's arrested, but Nino's not going out a loser and makes a deal with the DA.

8. Nino's living the high life in prison and seeing the repercussions of his drug kingpin days. He's changing his ways.

9. A dad whose kid died because of Nino's drugs episode. Follow him, trying to live his life, as reminders and memories of his kid haunt him. Or just a man who lived in the community his whole life who watched its quick deterioration because of Nino and his crack and wants revenge.

10. Nino's five years is over he's free. He's changed his life. No more drugs. He's being a perfect citizen. The dad or the concerned citizen can't stand to see Nino living the life his kid or city should've had. Bye-bye, Nino Brown.

The soundtrack would be full of 80's bangers.

[lestatslestits]

Btw a question that has been haunting me for DAYS:

If Tale of the Body Thief is adapted in modern (2022 or onward) time, do you think Lestat will just like. Get COVID?

[moralesmilesanhour]

In light of that tiktok with the spiderverse director discussing miles 42, I think we should all let him be a little more silly and goofy. As a treat

[ausetkmt]

https://x.com/CLG98264897/status/1702084655288095220?t=Vd6t7MmenQMNF3TXdMxfEw&s=09

[jilyandbambi]

my dad, watching in horror as the Yellowjackets eat Pit Girl: You binged this? got these white girls eatin' each other and shit?

[aphnxrising]

My coworker and I got matching shirts because fuck Ronald Reagan

edit to add link to the shirt: "ANTI-RONALD REAGAN" T-shirt for Sale by trumporium | Redbubble | ronald reagan t-shirts - anti reagan t-shirts - anti ronald reagan t-shirts

[spittingspite]

what is your most crack ship?

Trying so hard to think of an answer for this but most of my crack ships stopped being crack and started being ship so long ago that I forgot which ones started as crack to begin with..... hmm let's see, eraserdust is always a funny ship. And eraserwash was brought into existence the other day, which is delightful, but if you want something more off the rails... there's a running joke on one of my servers that Klavier Gavin from ace attorney is in an unhappy relationship with his 3d model from Dual Destinies. 3d Klavier is a vlogger who dated Daryan, and would post an apology video in song. Hence why the relationship is unhappy

[chiropterx]

Carrying fruit in Gotham be like

[royalreef]

       “Not that I am complaining — but why are so many beautiful women following behind me? Specifically, beautiful women who are refusing to say anything? And merely offering me things upon which I am to touch?”

[reasoningdaily]

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Crack had a massive impact on the Black community in the 1980s. It would be impossible to do a podcast like “Being Black: The ’80s” and not talk extensively about crack. People smoked it and experienced the most intense high they had ever had, and the chase to feel like that again ruined millions of lives.  

De La Soul is not one of the hip-hop groups that talked a lot about street life. They were proudly suburban at a time when that made them stand out among hip-hop artists. Quick story: I was a suburban kid who loved hip-hop from the first time I heard “Rapper’s Delight,” and I felt deeply connected to hip-hop as I watched the culture grow in the years after that song dropped. Hip-hop was the music I loved most as a kid. It was part of my identity, but then De La came out and I realized that as far as rappers, no one represented me or symbolized me better than De La. If I could rap, they were what I would be. Their suburbanness, their intelligence and their sense of humor all spoke to who I was. They became my favorite group of all time. But I digress. Even though De La was all about everything that rappers weren’t normally about, like so many Black people back in the ’80s, they did have a crack problem in their family. 

Crack was so pervasive in the ’80s that living in suburbia was not enough to insulate you from the crack epidemic. De La’s Posdnous had a brother who was battling a crack addiction, and out of that experience he recorded the best song ever made about being in a family with a crack addict: “My Brother’s A Basehead.” That song is at the center of episode two of “Being Black: The ’80s,” and it leads us into a conversation about the overall impact of crack.

“My Brother’s A Basehead” is one of those songs that spring from the artist’s real life. Posdnous is telling the story of what happened to him and his family because of his brother’s addiction. It wasn’t quite a cry for help because Posdnous himself wasn’t in trouble, but it was perhaps a way of Pos speaking to his brother about hurting the family. Producer Prince Paul, who’s sometimes referred to as a member of De La, comes through in this episode to talk about the making of the song and what really happened to Pos’ brother.

Meanwhile, another major hip-hop group was dealing with having a crack addict in the family in a whole different way. Public Enemy was, in many ways, the exact opposite of De La. Where De La was about having fun and being smart, Public Enemy was overtly political and they were as serious as a heart attack. They positioned themselves as the sons of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers so you knew they were going to decry the crack epidemic as often and as loudly as possible.

Quick aside — one of the hallmarks of “Being Black: The ’80s” is that I generally bring up a second song as a way to help further explain the episode’s central song. In this episode, that second song is Public Enemy’s “Night of the Living Baseheads,” which is Chuck D’s way of sermonizing about the evils of crack and shaming those who used crack. P.E.’s producer Hank Shocklee comes through to explain the origins of the song, which goes back to a movie he saw in his childhood — “Night of the Living Dead.” 

But it was very interesting to hear Public Enemy shame crackheads while there was a crack addict in their musical family. Flavor-Flav battled addiction for years, including while he was in the group. I asked Shocklee if they knew that Flav was doing crack. He said, “Yes and no.”

You’ve gotta hear the whole story of how De La and Public Enemy dealt with crack in their families in very different ways. That, and the impact of crack, is at the heart of episode two of Being Black: the 80s. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.

[karmaphone]

screams my stepdad and my moms boss both believe people trapped in poverty choose to be poor

[jrueships]

i need franklin and kane to kiss i need them to get married and start a family real

[myberndpulch]

✌Gary Webb: The Investigative Journalist Who Exposed CIA Drug Links

Introduction Gary Webb was an investigative journalist whose groundbreaking series Dark Alliance revealed alleged ties between the CIA and the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States during the 1980s. His work brought to light the role of the Contras—a Nicaraguan rebel group funded by the CIA—in drug trafficking to U.S. cities. Despite his significant findings, Webb faced intense backlash,…

[organicbeing]

"Crack Babies vs. Percocet Babies: The Hilarious (and Slightly Terrifying) Evolution of America’s Toughest Kids"

Let me start by saying, this blog isn’t meant to offend anyone, just to shed some light—with a healthy dose of humor—on the generational shift in American kids from the crack baby era (pre-Y2K) to the percocet baby wave (post-Y2K). It’s no secret that certain American children, particularly those born into more challenging circumstances, have developed… let’s just say, unique survival…