Gang Members

"Seat way back listening to Anita Baker, Riding by myself smoking weed by the acre."

"Leave it to the flow we gettin' dough like a bakery, I don't really want to but these niggas makin' me, Put a motherfucker on ice like the Maple Leafs, That’s a hockey team and I ain’t on no hockey team"

"Ridin drop top in the winter with the heat on"

"Money gives me life like a man with a gavel."

"I’m strapped at home, strapped when I travel I pop my trunk and make these bitches spread like cattle."

"The judge is a bitch,the jury suck dick,I'm a east side Blood and I don't smoke that Crip."

"Carter in the office,Take notes when I'm talkin',Smooth as a cruise boat floats when I'm walkin'."

"I know the game is crazy. It's more crazy then it’s ever been. I'm married to that crazy bitch, call me Kevin Federline."

"The only time I'll wear Depends is when I'm 70 years old. That's when I can't hold my shit within so I shit on myself, 'cuz I'm so sick and tired of shittin' on everybody else."

"Un-fuckin-believable. Lil' Wayne's the president. Fuck 'em, fuck 'em, fuck 'em, even if they celibate!"

"Yo, money over bitches, my niggas trust my senses, and I will take on that shit as the Lord is my witness! And you all have witnessed, but I have not finished. So keep your mouth closed and let your eyes listen."

"Mel Gibson flow, Lethal Weapon, 'book 'em Danny!'"

"I'm running this, and I can jump the hurdles. I feel like I'm racing a bunch of little turtles. I keep a bandanna like the Ninja Turtles. I'm like a turtle when I sip the purple."

"Buck 60 on the dash, Imma to do two. Captain Crunch these niggas is Froot Loop. That's why your girl wanna fuck me and my group too. And Imma make her back it up like shoop shoop. I'm the Birdman Junior I gotta do Coups. I hop out that mother fucker hollering 'Soo Woo!'"

"All this ice got me feelin like a polar bear."

"Misunderstood ain’t got to be explained but you don’t understand me so let me explain, stood in the heat the flame the snow, please slow down hurricane, the wind blows my dreads swang, he had hair like wool like Wayne uhh, droppin ashes in da bible I shake them out and they fall on da rifle, scary hale Mary no tale fairy all really very extraordinary."

"Weezy F. Baby, the F is for forensics."

"From start to finish, the same Wayne, okay you doin yo thang, but thangs change."

"Working together, we can put an end to this cycle that creates deep pain in the hearts of our mothers, our fathers, and our people, who have lost loved ones to this senseless violence."

"It's 9:15 on 12/13 and another black king will be taken from the scene."

"What is certain is that since 1992, “Tookie” has been a voice reaching out to the voiceless. He has encouraged youth to lift themselves up so as not to end up locked up. His voice has reached impoverished and alienated youth in places police dare not tread. Through his personal transformation in prison, he has brought light to dark places because he knows where to look. He speaks truth to power with a sincere knowledge of what lies ahead for these youth and gives them a stark look at what their future could be if they don’t renounce gang life and all that it stands for. And they listen, because he was one of them."

"And for anyone to think that murder can be resolved by murdering, it's ridiculous. I mean, we look at all of the wars that we have throughout other countries and other nations, and all it does is – this violence, all it does is engender violence. There seems to be no end, but a continuous cycle, an incessant process of blood and gore that doesn't end. And through violence, you can't possibly obtain peace. You can, in a sense, occupy a belief of peace; in other words, through this mechanism of violence, you – it appears that because there is a standing army or standing police that is used in brutality or violence or a system that uses brutality or violence that that is going to totally eliminate or stop criminous behavior or criminous minds or killings or what have you, but it doesn't."

"The death penalty, it's not a system of justice, it is a system of – a so-called system of justice that perpetuates a, shall I say, a vindictive type of response, a vigilante type of aura upon it. We’re talking about something that is barbaric. We’re talking about something that – it doesn't deter anything. I mean, if it did, then it wouldn't be so many – especially in California, we're talking about over 650 individuals on death row. And if it was a deterrent, this place wouldn't be filled like this. And it's an expensive ordeal that – the money, as you know, the monetary means comes out of the taxpayers' pocket."

"Well, the fact that a person such as me, of my ilk, who deemed the opposing gang as an eternal enemy, it wasn't hard for people to believe me, because they knew where I stood. There were no clandestine or latent messages. Everybody knew where I stood. And for me to come out and say that what we were doing was wrong, it was believable. That's why people didn't – or at least the gang members didn't discredit my propensity and my alacrity for peace. That's why I was embraced with sincerity by those who I knew and those I didn't know on both sides of the fence."

"And when you maintain this sense of peace and you live by truth, by integrity, these things don't bother me. It doesn't. I have been experiencing moribund type experiences most of my life. I could have died many a times. I could have died when I was shot. I could have died when I was shot at by the police and rival gang members. There were many opportunities for me to die. Of course, I don't want to die. I mean, after my redemption I have what I consider to be a joie de vivre, so, you know, I have an enjoyment, a love for life. So that’s why I can calmly sit here and speak to you or anyone else with peace in my heart and peace in my mind. I don't get rattled. Nothing can rattle me. Nothing will ever rattle me. I have been rattled the majority of my life."

"We started out — at least my intent was to, in a sense — address all of the so-called neighboring gangs in the area and to put, in a sense — I thought I can cleanse the neighborhood of all these, you know, marauding gangs. But I was totally wrong. And eventually, we morphed into the monster we were addressing."

"I’m talking to any youth who are considered to be or deemed to be at-risk or even hinting around being a thug or a criminal of any type of genre. I mostly propagate education and the need for it, because to me, that is the terra firma in which any human being must stand in order to survive in this country or to survive anywhere in the world, in dealing, you know, with every aspect of civilization, every aspect of surviving. Education is very important. It took me all of these years to discern that, and now I do."

"Between the years of 1988 to 1994, and it's a continuous — it's an incessant reality for me. My redemptive transition began in solitary confinement, and unlike other people who express their experiences of an epiphany or a satori, I never experienced anything of that ilk. Mine — that wouldn't have been enough. I often tell people that I didn't have a 360-degree turnaround; I had a 720-degree turnaround. It took me twice as much. Just one spin around wouldn't have done it. I was that messed up, that lost, that mentacided, brainwashed. So, I was able to gradually in a piecemeal fashion change my life slowly but surely through education, through edification, through spiritual cultivation, battling my demons. And eventually, that led to me embracing redemption."

"Once I was in solitary confinement, it provided me with the isolated moments to reflect on my past and to dwell upon something greater, something better than involving myself in thuggery and criminality. It had to be more to life than that. It had to be more than the madness that was disseminating throughout this entire prison."