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LETTER FROM LEFT Nas said " Hate to cease y ' all plans it ' s the rap repo man ". Black Thought called em Clones . Rakim said " follow the leader " and my man Corey Gilkey even put " LEADERS " on a shirt to remind the biters , to fly right , but some still don ' t get it .
" When niggas stole my style I didn ' t stress the boostin " - Fabolous
THE LIT
From the beginning of time there have been style inventors and style biters . For every Biggie there is a Shine looking to shine . For every Mike there is a Kobe . Every hood had a fake Mike type of character that slapped his own wrist when he did reverse layups , mastered a MJ walk and all that so we know the drill . In recent times though , biters have gotten bolder and get props for their fakery . From fake chains to fake diamonds , fake love and fake smiles , they will stop at no length to wave ride . You can even buy fake muscles from what I hear . Where is Mr . T when you need him .
Spit from the 1984 flick " Beat Street " was probably the first biter that made my blood boil . He was a jacker of the worst kind and when he managed to get my man Ramon taken out , I knew from then on it would be WAR against all biters .
My partner Javin Foreman and I created the I AM CHICAGO BASKETBALL brand to advance the culture . The game has given so much to us that it ' s only right that we give back , but with every step we take and every move we make their seems to be another alligator lurking around the corner . First it was guys biting our T-shirts . We flip a new color-way they flip their color . We come with the big bold letters putting our city on our chest .. suddenly it ' s Chicago vs Everybody . Nah Detroit did that . Let em have it . That ' s minor stuff though , they ' ve been biting me and my manz flavor since he was doing GET PAID , Court Classics and Chicagorillaz - some of the illest street apparel to ever touch the GO . But this latest bite was massive .
As you probably know , we dropped that " Hooper ' s Pass " short film in an effort to salute our nation and as a visual pour out to our fallen soldiers . The response was great and for that we said gratitude , but no sooner
than we dropped our first 4 bars , with the teaser , did those sharp tooth carnivores clear their plate and grab their picnic basket ready to dig in to our recipe . This time it wasn ' t just the low level biters the big boys wanted in on the # art .
That former Chicagoan Bryant Gumbel and his team must have been sniffing around FB or gotten tipped off by a local runner , looking for a check , because his follow up piece to the award winning documentary " Hoop Dreams " was somehow flipped into being called " Hooper ' s Pass ". Let ' s be clear , we coined that phrase . It ' s like McDonald ' s and McDowell ' s . We might both make burgers but yours don ' t have the flavor .
It ' s cool to be inspired - that ' s a part of the game . All we ask is to give props where they are due .... and cut the check . We created this magazine and our platform so that we could tell our own stories and capture our own history . We don ' t need another media company looking to get a check and some ratings from covering Chicago violence and then heading back to wherever they are .
" Y ' all are violating straight up and down " - DJ Premiere
Lefty
Lefty B . Boyd , SeniorEditor twitter : @ leftybboyd FB / IG : Lefty B . Boyd
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