Loose Sqaures

Along the economically impoverished streets and in the communities where regular 
employment is a rarity an undercurrent of commerce takes place in the trade of single 
cigarettes also known as loose squares. Sold singly in the city of Chicago because of 
the heavy taxation placed on tobacco products in the city of Chicago driving the price 
of a pack of cigarettes up to fifteen dollars in some area's. The cigarette black market 
has provided some with an alternative income and it is how people have 
learned to make ends meet in a city with fewer opportunities for income for people 
within the black colony than any other segment of society in the city.

The city of Chicago in true Imperialist form has made the selling of single or loose 
cigarettes a criminal offense punishable by up to six months in jail and fines. 
The constant removal of opportunities for education and employment continues to 
plague the people of the black colony and the continual assault and bombardment of 
the black colony with draconian laws to further destabilize the lives of black and
brown people.

We have witnessed the Nabisco company moving its bakery operation where they 
produce the iconic Oreo cookies from Chicago's southwest side to Mexico. 
A provider of almost 4000 people with employment at its peak in the nineteen eighties, 
this Nabisco company provided jobs and a means to an end for many black and brown 
people.  After several free trade agreements companies began slashing their labor force 
over the last few decades, now the company has moved lock stock and barrel to Mexico 
to increase the company's profits further driving the despotism and hopelessness of the black
colony by removing the remaining employment the company offers.

Free trade in it modern manifestation has moved production out side of the United Snakes 
leaving in their wake skeletons of de-funded and economically deprived communities.

The Crack wars of the 80s and 90s pushed legislation and policies that coincided with the 
flight of industrial production to outside of the United Snakes and inflated the number of 
prisoners in the United Snakes to astronomical proportion with black and brown people 
bearing the brunt of the human cost in terms of lives stolen away by crime and punishment 
scenarios all revolving around the economy provided by sales of Crack and the removal 
of industry from the United Snakes. With few economic opportunities and increasing taxation 
it is becoming extremely difficult to survive and make ends meet in the communities 
of the south and west sides of Chicago.

A few years ago the city of Chicago has taken steps to de-criminalize small amounts 
of marijuana by issuing civil citations instead of arresting an individual for possessing 
marijuana. But the memo must not have reached the Pigs that occupy the black colony 
because even though a city ordinance was put in place to for the pigs to write a civil citation 
that orders the offender to appear in court or pay a fine,Black and Brown people were still 
being arrested and charged criminally while whites were ticketed and released.

The city has targeted loose cigarette sales and wants to jail the people who sell single or 
loose cigarettes. It is not by chance that the majority of people involved in the trade are 
black and brown people. The disparities in education, employment and criminal justice 
are the systemic and structural weapons used by the fascist state to oppress and 
further exploit the people of the black colony.

Today in 2019 we are in the midst of an economic holocaust in the mass metropolis 
known as Chicago, Illinois. With 50% unemployment among people on the south and 
west sides of the city where the black colonies are located. 
Now there is created this black market for cigarettes and another avenue to
arrest and confine people who are only trying to survive. To feed the beast called 
mass incarceration and keep the pigs and the systems in which they operate in place.

What happened to the Tupac generation and where are they now ?

While thinking about the current trends in Rap music and how things have seemed to degenerate into the negative sphere for the most part. A mere portion of what Rap began as and evolved into at it height. 
And as I began to examine what has become of my contemporaries from that golden age of Rap, when Tupac Shakur, Nas and Ice Cube were putting together thought compelling pieces that provoked heart felt sing along's that had a black power core built into it and they provided  colorful editorial to what the youth perceived of the world. 
The question That I found most alluring was what happened to the generation that came out of that period ? Did the brilliance of the music provide a stepping stone to higher levels of thinking and provide a basis for positive action ? Was all of the bravado and young spirit being displayed of any merit to our black community as a whole ? 
To be equal in analysis of the music of the day ( circa 1990 ) there was a nemesis to the boastful and positive messages in Rap that surfaced in the middle of the golden era of the nineteen nineties called Gangster Rap the brain child of a Jewish investor named Jerry Heller who brought into the world NWA ( NIGGAS WITH AN ATTITUDE ) and for each record that taught self pride and peace in the streets came two that preached  the exact opposite.
In addition to that the great Tupac himself seemed very dualistic having bipolar moments of praising then subjugating black women, speak for and against the selling drugs and loving then gunning down his peers. So is it that this schizophrenic behavior was what created the barrier to the music of the time from having any positive social impact ?
The mid nineties was the peak of the crack wars that were being waged all across the United States and in 1994 President Bill Clinton signed the Crime Prevention Act and it's effects are prevalent in the steady march towards mass incarceration and the effect the drug Crack itself had upon people. Creating crack zombies and urban warriors one as crazed by the effects of the drug as the other. Crack zombie parents abandoned their children and would expose young minds to all sorts of horrors brought on by their zombified parents. Homes became drug dens where sexual perversions were played out and at times visited upon the children.
Poverty was embellished by all of the food stamp allowances and/or general assistance funds being traded for crack. The children of this monstrosity became calloused, illiterate soldiers or drug Lord's themselves who were caught by a militarized police infrastructure  and either killed by the gun during apprehension or by legislation during sentencing hearings.
Now thirty years in hindsight where are the people who stood in the midst of all that turmoil as people in their late teens and early twenties, the next generation that was shaped in that cauldron ? At least several hundred thousand where in or are still in one of the many correctional facilities that exist today. And those who passed away during that time numbers are great as well.
So where are the survivors of the great purge ? People who are now closing in on or have surpassed fifty years in age ? There must exist some sort of void were all of the people who fell during the crack wars for what ever reason fell into it.
Is it safe to say that all of the great strides made by the young people during the civil Rights movements of the sixties and seventies where washed away by the youth of the eighties and nineties ?
By the mid seventies black people were feeling like they should now be in a position to reap the benefits of the previous decades struggle. Many more black people were being educated in universities that were off limits not long ago and almost all of the civil Rights movement champions were seeking and finding acceptance in the Democratic National Party. Now it was time they felt, to enjoy all American society had to offer, good and bad. Disco began and powder Cocaine became a staple in the disco techs and considered a clandestine status symbol and soon happy go lucky disco becomes Rap and Cocaine becomes crack, both derivatives of the prior each stronger in it's delivery and effects upon the individual psyche.
I strongly believe that the think tanks of the FBI and CIA engineered the transformation of Cocaine into Crack and stood off to the side of the creators of Gangster Rap .
Since we have arrived here as chattel , living agricultural equipment , plans have been devised employed adapted re-engineered and redeployed as time and circumstance called for.
This brings me back to my original thoughts of how Rap music is being used once again to subtly program the youth to become killers, drug dealers and now homosexuals. The corporations have turned what was once our way of communicating to one another in mass into a weapon that captures the mind of our children. Tupac understood that music could be used to motivate people and his intent was to positively motivate young blacks towards a new revolutionary attitude that was intended to be black nationalism integrated into music and strengthened by hip hop. Now Tupac's music is best known for his great lyrical prowess with some messages of unity among people of color and street gang peace treaties in order to fight a greater enemy. 

Tupac's mother Afeni was a Panther and imparted much knowledge of the struggle into Tupac and I believe if he could have been afforded the time he could have put together a movement akin to what the BPP put together in the early seventies. We did not have the appropriate time with the brother to recieve the message of revolution in a form that we could have used to get organised around. We sit here now and are bombared with drill music that is at its core gang banging to music and rappers that want to be homo-thugs. Yes we have departed from the path Tupac was attempting to forge late in his career. If only we had more time with the brother who knows what could have happened. Peace out family.