Fly trap

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Kevin Allen and brother Elijah hadn't known “blood” to signify much in St. Louis, Missouri. They did know, however, how to slap, pat, sing, and chant to do the hambone. When they moved with their mother to L.A., the boys became novelties. Kids played with them just to hear them talk. Kevin and Elijah listened back. In their first neighborhood, everyone said “cuz” in the customary Crips manner. Once they'd moved to Pueblo del Rio, a new word was “like the lyrics to a song,” Kevin says. “Blood, blood, blood.” And while language certainly carried deep meaning in St. Louis, they had never before lived in a place where the wrong word could get you into such serious trouble. On one of their first days in the Pueblos, they saw a group of kids drag a boy off the bus at 55th Street and Holmes and beat him for saying “cuz” to a girl. They would see this scene repeated countless times. “It happened so much,” Kevin says, “that in the beginning, you would feel for the person getting beat, but after a while you stop feeling for the victim and start rooting for the beater. I was desensitized from seeing so many beatings, and I decided I wanted to be part of the beat-down team.”

Salon.com > Susan Phillips

Fly trap