Featured Story, Hustling & Hip-Hop

Today’s Incarcerated Scarface’s

“He’s tough in the Ghetto/but in jail… he’s Jell-O” – “Road to Riches” Kool G Rap

A group of young men of different shades of color are standing up bopping their heads to the beat knocking in their headphones… some are sitting down in plastic chairs… reciting the lyrics of the rapper as he raps… they all are looking up… being captivated by the TV as they watch music videos… some got the Koss CL-20 headphones… some with the R-10s… some with ear buds… as their Walkman radio is tuned in to the television station signal box… and their music is turned up as they bop their heads… moving their hands… spitting lyrics… they are going hard with it… like it is them who is performing the song on stage in front of an audience… not even five footsteps away from the group of hip-hoppers sits another group, who are standing, while some sitting surrounding each other… each wearing some kind of headphones or ear plugs being tuned to another television… watching ESPN sports… from the highlights, reviews, previews to statistics… from different to any to every kind of sports… game talk… as they stay glued to the TV… just as hard if not harder than the hip-hop group.

There is nothing wrong with what these men in these groups are doing… even though they are in prison… inside the same unit… watching the numerous televisions that are posted six feet in the air… what’s wrong is most of these men have ten, twenty, thirty, forty, or more years of time… some with life… or multiple life sentences… some young… some older… some too old… and they will sit in from of that TV all day… Everyday… Watching the same channel… Channel Zero… Prison… Home of the walking dead, the sleep walkers… I remember growing up you can look and tell if a person just came out of prison… his vocabulary was different… it was advanced… you can tell he read books and studied… you can tell he worked out… he carried himself different… prison woke him up… he was more focused… he was either a way better thinker… better individual… or a better criminal… or he was even worse than he already was before he went in… prison made you or broke you.

Nowadays these characteristics and traits are hard to be found… dudes are now coming into these concentration camps thinking they know everything… like their input or mistakes had nothing to do with why they were ever incarcerated… they refuse to learn… they have no idea that prison is also a universal university you can utilize to take advantage of all of its educational programs… learn different trades… and linking up with different convicts to learn languages, stocks, business plans, to various and different illegal aspects to expand your criminal horizons… but some, if not most of today’s incarcerated dudes are too much into the things that won’t benefit or improve them as a whole… they are too busy comparing P. Diddy’s to Baby’s to Jay-Z’s to LeBron James to Kobe Bryant’s life and money… they know all of the songs, styles, sports statistics and who won what and when… like they are planning to be a future sports analyst or music executive… they can spit any rappers song, lyric for lyric.. but can’t quote any case law that can help them or save their life.. most of them don’t even have their GED… but they are so very much in tune regarding everybody’s else’s life.. they can tell you everything about Rhianna, who she’s fucking, who she dated, all her habits and secrets, how much money she made last year and how much she spent this year.. Beyonce. They even know Blue Ivory’s business… when she don’t even know it yet… we got the walking and talking XXL’s, Vibes, Hip-Hop Weekly’s, People mags… Sports Illustrated… you name it… They know it.

People are in on everybody else’s business except their own… Today’s Incarcerated Scarface’s… I can understand why they have no education… they were too busy on the grind… hustling and trying to get it… but… they are now in prison… these education classes are free… we don’t have to get dressed up and fly to go learn in prison… the opportunity is there… all we have to do is go for it… there shouldn’t be no excuses… I was no different… I was just like them… until I realized that I needed to better myself and my situation… that it all started with me first… I cannot remain the same… the game advanced, so I must advance as well… the better I get playing it… but now I’m seeing the game players coming in faster and being dumber and dumber… they come in misguided… most grew up without fathers, so the Ghetto celebrities was our fathers… BET and MTV were our teachers… rappers were our prophets… Today’s Incarcerated Scarface’s.

Pants sagging where their asses are sticking out… drawers are showing… what part of the game it that? When did sagging go to that level? Especially in prison… being homosexual is more accepted nowadays than anything… dudes are coming in already gay… I remember the most disrespectful thing you can say to a man in prison was “Suck my dick!!!” It was automatically war… bloodshed… nowadays… you got to watch who you say that to… for they really want to do it… men lusting off of men… prison changed… we are being taught the wrong things… fed the wrong mental foods… the younger generation is not being groomed properly… or given proper instructions… mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, lyrical… or guided by no real examples… these are our Today’s Incarcerated Scarface’s.

Lil’ Wayne gangbanging on wax… from up in the booth… Rozay selling tons and tons of cocaine… over a track… rappers and singers inspiring that life… acting… none of them really living it… but looks who’s following them… Tony Montana to Joey Banana… Today’s Incarcerated Scarface’s.

The author, Brooklyn born Shakim Bio, is an Official Street General, who was raised in Far Rockaway, a heavily impoverished and extremely dangerous section of the borough of Queens, New York. Shakim came of age, earning his stripes while engulfed in a whirlwind of criminal thoughts, drug dealing, violence, women and partying. His reputation is ironclad and his respect echoes throughout the streets of New York City, the streets of various towns and cities across the United States, as well as federal penitentiaries and state prison systems.

Before committing himself to a life of crime, which he does not glorify, however real is real, Shakim was touched by the artistic expressions that blossomed and bloomed from the culture he and so many others around him lived daily; a culture where the have not’s instinctively made do with what they had, making something from nothing, while surviving harsh living conditions. Shakim Bio fell in love with the culture of hip-hop.

While reflecting on his life after being confined to a 40 year federal prison sentence, Shakim came to overstand that his unconditional love for hip-hop music and culture collided with the drama of his well-documented street ventures and he was a product of “Street Hop,” which is the result of street life merging with hip-hop culture… Shakim speaks and touches on various aspects and levels of life itself as he brings his thoughts to the Gorilla Convict family through his column “S.H.A.K.I.M.’s Hood.”

Shakim Bio is also the author to two novels. The first God and Earth Love novel titled “Love, Hell or Right” and the most anticipated street hop novel ever, “The Omega Jon Christ- The Last Illest.” To learn more about Shakim Bio or to correspond with him friend him on facebook at John “Shakim” Edwards.

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *