It's Official!!! Black 'N Mild Cigars are the #1 Brand In The world

I remember when my love affair with Black N Mild's began like it was yesterday!!! It was like Freaknik '95 (The ABSOLUTE BEST ONE EVER!!!) and I was chilling with these dudes and they started smoking something that had the sweetest smell I had ever taken in. I was like yo man what is that and he was like dude you ain't never had a 'Black" and I was like nawww man, he said here try it...and it was on from there. Now, over the years, I have become a sophisticated closet smoker. If you are not one of my close friends, you prolly wouldnt know that I like to indulge. I have been around the world as it relates to smoking...tobacco pipes, cigarettes, bidi's, cloves, true cigars...but nothing gives the pleasure like a black. When I started working and making a little money, I dabbled in the high end world of cigars, but man...them things stink, and I really don't like the smell of smoke in my clothes or hair, and shoot, folks are normally doing it for show. But ooohhh weee when that Black hits your lungs, it's an indescribable issue. Gold n milds can't do it, Apple blacks are for the females (They like to flodge in the club actin like they are high and what-not), black n mild milds...What's the point?, and the wine ones make me gag...taste too much like grape bidis. The "Fast Break" variety kind of fits in to my style cause I usually never finish one in one setting, but you cant tweak them. I was going to post a video on how to "tweak" a black for maximum pleasure and draw, but there are already ones on youtube, and the technique varies from place to place, but it's basically the same goal...to get that good pull...so here it goes they call it "phreakin" a black http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNyA4Hsnj5E&mode=related&search=# ENJOY!...Sorry y'all I aint wrong for this LOL!

This aint nothin but the new "Newport"...Mr. Middleton, you sho know how to get the black market!!!

Attention!!! Why is it that everybody else knows what we want & need? How is it that everybody knows how to get it to us but US??!!!

You can't blame Vick for this!!! Pitbulls have been urban status symbols of strength and power for as long as I can remember!...But u know these folks...they value a damn dog over human life and are willing to ruin this man's life...but I digress!!!

I was headed to the local KFC to get some food for me and my co-workers when I was literally stopped in my tracks by this bubblegum machine advertising a new cheap gumball machine toy called HOODHOUNDS! I can just imagine Pookie and Mane Mane fightin cause he thought he stole his Hoodhound #5...Well y'know me...I'm the Ghetto detective and the net is my best friend.I looked into it, and an international (i.e. not Black Owned) company is marketing this towards our urban youth...here is the official quote straight from their hoodhounds.com website. UNEDITED>>>"We set the pace when it comes to quality in the urban market"!
Just like the LOCSTERSTM and The RASCALSTM,The HOOD-HOUNDSTM are unlike any other figurine in the urban market. Others have tried to match the quality but fail in comparison. This HIGHLY detailed line of dog figures are so popular that we can hardly keep them in stock! They are designed with care and much attention to detail.
They are created from concept to completion by that same wanna-be artist foo named ABEL, who also created the LIL LOCSTERS and the NEIGHBORHOOD RASCALS. So you know they've gotta be SUPER TIGHT foo!...This brought up the nighmarish images of the haircare product line released a few years ago called T.H.U.G. (That's right!!! THUG haircare!!!) They had a website, a CD and some more shit and they were poised to takeover the haircare market! I went and bought all the products to put in my hall of shame archives, but lost them somehow in-between moves. http://www.lillocsters.com/ & http://www.ogabel.com/home.html is part of this industry as well....Well, my rant today comes from the fact that it seems that while we as a people are sleepwalking, other people are walking all over us. It's funny that orientals and the arab community have cornered the market in urban retail. They damn near know what we want before we want it (haircare products, hiphop clothing, prepaid cell phone products...etc.) and they have it, but wouldnt live in the neighborhoods or dwell with the people that they sell it to. The urban market spends loyally with them people and won't try to argue or haggle, but hell, if I opened the same store offering the same products at the exact same prices, my people would rob me blind, or try to get everything on the "hookup" price. I don't know how true the statistics are, I'm coming off the top of my head, but it is said that the Jewish dollar travels 12 times within the Jewish community before it is spent outside of it, but the first dollar we get we spending it with somebody else. The mathematics are off somewhere aint it?...I know this O.G. Able cat probably got some backing from someone who doesnt want their name directly associate with it, but you can bet your ass, that when payday comes for this low-cost, high-return novelty merchandise...Mr. Charlie gon get his. I ain't figured it out yet, but it has to be more than a crab in a barrel mentality that is holding us back....We are wrong for that, aren't we?

Once a Man...Twice a Child

I have been responsible for taking care of my old man for about the past few years after he and my mom parted ways. He suffered a stroke about 17 yrs ago and has not been the same since. It has been hard observing him wither away from a first hand basis...Especially seeing him as a shell of who I knew he was during my younger days. He looked like the Incredible Hulk to me, and that man NEVER laid a hand on me...shiiit he didn't have to. The look that he gave plus those never-ending stories of him being a golden-gloves boxer and growing up in the Hood was enough for me to back up and think twice about feeling his wrath. He could stand on the porch and whistle, and I would hear it 3 blocks over and be like "yo man...I gotta go. My dad's calling me". He made sure that I didn't want for much, and did what he knew to do in providing for his family. Now my dad was truly old school in his tastes, and he felt that there was only one way to show that he had made it...and that was through showing off. He loved his cars, clothes, houses, and its acoutrements. He was an entrepreneur, and a hard worker, but hell all he got for 33 years of sweat equity was a lobster dinner and a cheap gold watch...was it really worth it? Soon there after he stroked out. I remember it like it was yesterday....but over the years, it's hard to watch a person who's a shell of himself navigate through life...But what pissed me off the most is how people take advantage of folks in the name of getting over. I was cleaning up his apartment one day when I ran across some papers for a loan that he had supposedly co-signed for. I was like WHAT THA F***!!! This was a loan for 10 g's that was to mature for over 30 g's (first payment isn't due until 2009!!!!)...My dad doesnt even make enough to cover the loan, but come to find out...it was a backhanded deal for his great-neice by way his trifling, conniving ass brother. While I applaud the fact that she wants to continue her education, the means in which this money was gotten was underhanded and f***ed up to say the least. She's naive, and I know how this whole deal went down. But this is how old people are taken advantage of all the time...He can't even read the contract, much less have any understanding of the ramifications of what he has signed his name to...And once this is all over..."cause it aint"...I will share with you the details of what things really look like. I was called every name but a child of God because I "stuck my nose in some business that I shouldn't have" Well...I don't care if that is your brother...that's my DAD, and whatever below the deck deals that you and my dad did in years' past has nothing to do with what's going on now!!! If you wanted your granddaughter to have this loan then you should've co-signed for it yourself...ooops! I'm sorry, you are in wage earner! AT 70 years old!!! Who's the jackass? Well, it's my job to protect this man, and I see that he ain't too senile by the looks of things...the first thing to go is the mind, but the last to go is the libido...Just next time, man please throw your evidence away...Uncle ____ you and your folks are WRONG AS HELL FOR THAT, you no-business barring, insecure, rat-soup eatin son-of-a gun!

Low Rent ='s Low Expectations...Why?

A couple of years ago after my divorce, I said that I would look for somewhere to stay comfortably and be able to build back up my chips at the same time. My Ex-Wife is from hell, and my lil' man needs a place to lay his head and be given that firm, manly foundation to take him on in life. For you that don't know, divorce is mofo on finances and what-not and especially if you have kid involved. Imma do another story on how to live beneath your means and still live good. Well, I decided to move back to my old neighborhood, a lower-middle-class section of the city...y'know hard working folks that are really trying to make another day and hopefully see the light of day. I went back because I'm part of that, I know the community and the surroundings, and I could have a pretty comfortable existence and get my bearings together. Well to make a long story short. There was an apartment complex, that was damn near the best-kept secret in town. There are a couple of colleges around the way that served the well-to-do set, and for a long time the students lived here in lieu of having to follow dorm rules. Trust-fund-babies and the earthday crowd. Well y'know daddy and mommy wasnt going to have their precious little pumpkins living in squalor, so they made sure that things were taken care of, and none of the elements of the hood were present. Low-rent and really above basic amenities...I was like, aiight, I can dig it for a minute to get back on my feet. Well low-and-behold a few things changed this whole set-up like overnight....(1)Change in management,(2) Katrina, (3) The mayor shutting down a few of the public housing pj's in town (4) White Flight. Well, the apt's went down the toilet in a hurry, first with the upkeep, then with the demographic. As you can see by the photos, they are slow to do anything around here, and the wood is rotting and rain is coming through the ceiling of one of my neighbors apartments. I had a squirrel family living in my ceiling at one time, but I was like HELL NAW! It was crazy listening to them little paws scurrying back and forth all day. It takes an act of congress to get anything fixed around here. My apartment overlooks the pool, and when I first got it i was like...cool, a room with a view. I could smoke my blacks, have some libations and just chill....Well this summer it was a different story. The room with a view turned to be a damn tv set. COPS 24-7, Weed, loud kids, and everthing else that you can imagine. I saw two security guards get whooped...I was like whoa. I pulled up the crime report for my complex and all kind of shit been going on here...aggravated rapes, break-ins, armed robbery. I sure didnt know that I had moved into the projects!!! See what trips me out is that I CAN, and I AM changing my situation, but what about those that cannot, or don't want to? Are we to just turn the other way and let it go on? I talked to some of the people and they didn't want to make no waves cause they really are lenient on the rent...some folks were having hard times and they look out for them. People have the right to have decent living conditions, no matter the cost that is paid for it. People are not as fortunate as I am...I have choices. And I did what I had to do to get where I needed to be. Is it really keeping it real by living like this? Man, Y'all are Really Wrong For That!