So my book it opens and it moves through these sections
where I'm really hoping to redefine or to define
some terms that have defined my life.
And that are so much the language of hip hop
and the language of the streets is so beautiful because it
takes these things that exist like trap or like dope
and these are the things that are
so much a part of our lives and our lexicon
and create entirely new meanings for them, right?
And so that's what some of this is hoping to do.
CCDC South Tower, 6th Floor.
"The fourth time you get locked up, nothing comes by surprise.
Not the cop who rips out your piercings or the cold smell
of piss in the holding cell.
You already know how the phones work and who to call.
You know they talk fast.
You've seen sunshine seep through the receiver
and leave a man drenched in his grief.
The fourth time you get locked up,
you might try to pretend it's normal like a long DMV trip.
You might say things like this happens to everyone
who is Black or Brown.
You don't waste time watching the door or pacing for warmth.
You pull your arms inside your shirt and sit.
You know you're going to have to sleep.
You know they're going to keep you at least a week.
The fourth time, you know the slow gray beat of captivity.
You don't learn so well the rhythm is drumming through you
like a pulse, so low you don't feel it, keeping you alive.
You're not picky about food because you
know what choice you have.
You take what you can, trade strawberry cakes
like rose gold bricks and choose coffee, and fruit, and a pill
to help you sleep for a day.
The fourth time they take you, you
know the dry expanse of consciousness
and the oasis of dreams.
You know no one knows why they are here
or when they will be called.
Don't come back as a jinx and never just an empty promise.
You know silence is a word you can keep.
Best to roll it up and quietly toss your blues.
The fourth time they get you, you
know well how society cages good and sick people
and calls it just, how cages feel just like society
to the people who fill them.
We all find a way to live in our prison.
We ignore the meals skipped, scream
in traffic in the shower, scrap flesh for pride and survival.
We spit blood and sacrifice."
You know CCDC is where they shoot Cops.
They filmed Cops at CCDC and most, not most--
I don't want to say most, because I don't actually
remember the statistics on this, but I learned at one point
that a lot of the footage you see
of people who are incarcerated is actually
coming from Clark County Jail here
in Las Vegas because they have practices that allow cameras,
and footage, and stuff.
Mad interesting.
If you watch 13th, a lot of the people there,
they're from here.