Kwan Dai;5573855 said:
It was a recent comment. I watched the entire interview with Jalen Rose and Bill Simmons last week on ESPN.com. And my math isn't off. The south bronx in the 70's and 80's was gang invested. Poverty was rampant as well a unemployment. So, not only is your math off but so is your history of NYC during the 70's/80's.
And I am not acting it's a fact that Rappers back then were harder. In the 90's Hip Hop was in every borough, and every project. In the 70's\80's you had to go to specific hoods to even hear Hip Hop so, a dude traveling from the BK to BX could encounter mad beef. Not to mention early Hip Hop venues were filled with Gang Bangers like the Black Spades, Latin Kings, and the savage nomads to name a few. These weren't spots for the average person to be hanging out. Something was always jumping off.
With all due respect, you have no idea what you're talking about. If the interview came out this year, 20 years ago was 1993, so again being generous, dude was talking about a range from maybe 85 - 95. If he was talking about the 70s, he would have said 30 - 40 years ago. That's simple math, so I don't know what you don't understand about that.
And as far as violence in NYC, you are still off. Look at this site:
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm
The peak of violent crime in NY was 1988 - 1993 after the advent of the crack era. Those years were much higher in crime than any of the years in the 70s and early 80s. The funny thing is this ain't groundbreaking info. Everybody knows that shit. Nobody would be stupid enough to argue that crime was worse anywhere before the crack era. It was a nationwide trend, not just NYC. Most of the 90s rappers came up in the 80s and were really in the mix in the late 80s and early 90s, the exact time when violence was at its highest in NYC. SMH @ this nigga acting like niggas like Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel were more street tested than dudes that actually had jail records and stints behind bars. Really?
