Selling Drugs Saves Lives
In my community, young Black males often talk about how selling drugs saved them from being visibly homeless. A lot of these young men write about their struggles through their music. I know people in Jane and Finch who are literally one sale away (i.e. selling crack rocks) from becoming homeless. As a result of this, these men hustle to make ends meet. In other words, they sell drugs to pay their parents bills. Most people would think this lifestyle is sad or even traumatizing, but the Blacks in my neighbourhood are used to it. They have accepted their realities and break the White man’s rules. If legal jobs are not provided, then they create their own jobs despite how police officers feel and they are willing to risk their freedom to survive. A young man that goes by the name of JNeat is the embodiment of this lifestyle and he often raps about it in his music. JNeat is a known figure in the Jane and Finch community and people listen to his music. In a song called “Drip Freestyle”, he often references how selling drugs has saved his life. To be specific he said, “I ran to that bag they be lazy…I was robbin’ the trap is what saved me. In the field like a nigga playin’ football. Got the place still jumpin’ like John Wall, I started getting money now they pissed off. Watch that dope lock like a pit jaw” (Inc, 2018). To translate, he is bragging about how much money he makes by selling dope (i.e. crack) and is making it known that this is his hustle. Selling drugs in my community has become normalized to the point where there is competition about who profits the most. Although this seems absurd, one must consider why Black men within my neighbourhood became comfortable with selling drugs. This is because they were born into generational poverty and had to find alternatives to make money. JNeat is a personal friend of mine and he often tells me that his end goal is to take his mother and siblings out the hood by saving up the money he makes.
