All language subtitles for Rubble.Kings.2015.DOCU.720p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H264-RARBG.EN 23.976

The Bronx was like
a world of its own.

In the early '70s, man,

crime was like major income
of the Bronx.

In the Bronx,

it was a deep-rooted
gang culture.

There were gangs literally
on every corner.

The violence was everywhere.

You could feel
the tension in the air.

You could see the fights
across the street.

You could hear the shots
in the nighttime.

It was that fateful day
that I sent him to bring peace.

That was one of the worst days
in South Bronx history.

The word on the street was that
he was trying to make peace,

and he was murdered
trying to make peace.

Basically after that,
the South Bronx,

fort Apache was out of control.

They were running
through the streets.

They were burning everything.
I mean, pandemonium hit.

I put out a bulletin,

and I started calling
all the ghetto brothers.

Charlie wanted
to get the ghetto brothers

to mobilize
for the biggest bloodbath

in the history of New York.

We lost a member.

They viciously murdered him
out there in the street.

Now It's an eye for an eye.

The Bronx was gonna be bathed in
blood.

How rumors spread,
how news spread.

There was not a gang
in the whole of New York

that was not aware
what's happening.

And it was like
the movie "the warriors"

when the lady's on the radio
telling everybody,

"hey, Boppers, you've got
to make that move."

Let's get down to it, Boppers.

We're gonna a have
to do better out there.

Everybody was tense
because nobody knew

when it was gonna jump off.

Remember that scene
from "the warriors"...

"can you dig it"?

That really went down.
That really happened.

Can you dig it?!
Can you dig it?!

We moved up to the South Bronx
in 1963

from Greenwich village
to the South Bronx.

It was a completely
different world.

The buildings were beautiful,
very spacious.

The blocks were wide.

There were still Jews
living there at the time,

pockets of Italians and Irish
still lived in the community.

The South Bronx
at the time was fantastic.

It was just a completely
different world.

It was a world of discovery.

In those days, I didn't
like the idea of joining a gang.

I started my own thing.

When I started
the ghetto brothers,

originally it wasn't
supposed to be a gang.

It wasn't supposed
to be an organization.

It was a brother thing.

It was basically
my brothers and I.

We lived in Manhattan,
we moved to the Bronx,

and those days,
it was the ghetto.

So we were ghetto brothers.
Who were ghetto brothers?

Robin, Benjy, Victor,
those were the ghetto brothers,

my brothers, okay?

Then later on,
since I knew a lot of the kids

in the community,
I was very friendly,

I was amicable,
everybody got along with me,

so I said, you know,
let's expand this.

I met Charlie at 150th St.
And trinity Avenue.

I was with my friend Raymond.
He was like a brother.

We grew up together,
and we saw this guy

taking a wood thing
and going... bah!

And breaking it. I said wow.

I found that amazing because
I was into the martial arts.

And I said, "that is fantastic
I wanna make friends with him."

That was me.

"I want to make friends
with this guy."

I walk up T him, and I said,
"hi, my name is Benjy."

It's 1960-something.

I only know they rob,
they steal.

Nobody's gonna rob me.
So I prepare.

I'm ready to take this guy on.

"I just want to shake
your hand."

That's Charlie.

I said, okay,

the moment he moves,
his ass is mine.

But he's standing there
with his hand out,

and he starts telling me
about there's a few guys

that study martial arts
that he's been watching,

and he can imagine that I'm
a pretty good martial artist.

"And we sat down,
he said what's your style?"

I Says, "I'm Goju. Talk to me."

And we just talked
and talked and talked.

I stick out my hand,
I put my hand in his,

and the ghetto brothers are one.

The '60s
were a time of worldwide

social and cultural reckoning.

With movements demanding change
spreading across

the college campuses
and the front lines

of America's ghettos,
it truly felt

like the seeds for a full-blown
revolution were being sown.

So we thought this revolution
was gonna happen.

We knew that this was the end
of the world order.

We thought revolution
was possible.

For the first time,
we had a multicultural movement.

For me, it reconfirmed
in a strange way

my faith in America.

But as the '60s came to a close,

the Vietnam war and racism

continue to erode America's soul

and fade all optimism.

A systematic backlash
against organizations

like the black panthers
coupled with the assassinations

of nearly every iconic figure
of hope

left a new generation
with nothing more

than unfocused rage.

They killed the king.

And then they killed Kennedy.

My heroes died in the '60s.

The hope is deflated.

I was so mad at America.
I was pissed.

Heard of the troubled '60s?

Well, the troubled '60s
give rise to the violent '70s.

"I have a dream."

No, you don't.

"My people!

We will overcome!"

Boom, no,
you're not gonna overcome.

You ain't getting nobody
out of this fucking ghetto.

Remember the '60s?

Hey!

Peace!

Now it was peace.

America's unrest was reflected
locally as New York City

struggled under the weight
of its own mounting crises.

A failed vision
of urban renewal pushed all

but the city's wealthiest
to the brink

and a new pessimism
and desperation

made its home in its streets.

Here was this great city,
the international capital

of commerce and culture
and communications and finance,

and it was on its knees asking,
begging for help.

The city was on the edge
of bankruptcy.

All through the '70s remember,
industries were departing.

Jobs were disappearing.

If there was
a safety net before,

the federal government
was basically not just ceasing

to protect it
but cutting holes in it.

Despite the city's
financial troubles, in 1970,

New York's cultural scene
was as vibrant as ever,

construction
of the world trade center

would soon be complete,
and the New York Knicks

would win their first
championship.

However, only four Miles away,

due to reckless urban planning,

the district of the South Bronx

was rapidly becoming a symbol

of urban decay around the world.

When we were young,
we remember Robert Moses.

I remember the teacher
talked about a guy

who was fixing up the area.

They were saying
they were renovating the area.

Buildings are being
taken out of commission.

Hey, gotta go.

We're gonna build
this highway over here.

The cross Bronx expressway
at one time,

that whole area was nothing
but houses, beautiful houses.

He takes a wonderful borough

that's made up of ployglot...
I mean, everybody was there,

Ralph Lauren comes from there...
and he cuts across,

he cuts a huge swath,

literally destroying
the neighborhoods.

This is amazing.

I mean, It's amazingly creative

even though it was also
humanly destructive

that he thought the shortest
distance between two points

is a line even If there
are houses

and people, you know,
in the way of the line.

And that's when things
started to go down.

The economy, the store owners,
everybody just took off.

You see a quiet white flight

where everybody was migrating,
you know,

from the concourse up to,
you know, Nyack, white plains.

"Come on up, pops, come on up.

"You can't stay down here
no more," you know?

The rich move out
to their second and third homes.

The middle class
is not far behind,

and left will be the poor

who require enormous services
and who will suffer.

The South Bronx.

It has all the superlatives...
highest crime,

poorest people,
greatest unemployment,

worst blight,

and the world's record
for arson.

In just 10 years,
more than 30,000 buildings

have been set ablaze
and abandoned here.

You got rats, bugs,
no heat, no water.

It was terrible, terrible.

It's like another
domino effect here.

Then you see the burnings start.

The landlord
wouldn't provide services,

and the people had
to ultimately move out,

and then the landlord
burned the building down

and got the insurance.

You know, having buildings
torched was the norm.

The Bronx was like
a world of its own.

The Bronx to us
was a whole world.

Well, this morning
on our way into work,

we had a report
that the police had located

a carcass in the street
on 172nd and Bryant.

Turned out to be a stripped
carcass of a gorilla.

It was headless,
and the fur was removed,

the skin was removed.

South Bronx.

It was just a feeling
of hopelessness.

It wasn't like murder
was hidden.

You know,
murder was very rampant.

The number
of homicides about quadrupled

from 1960 to 1971.

There was crime from, like,

the crooked politicians
to the crooked cops.

In the early '70s, man,
crime was like...

crime was like the major income
of the Bronx.

There was lines of people
wrapped around the corner

just waiting to buy a bundle
or a couple of bags of dope.

When the cops drive up and down,

it was like
a total pharmacy drugstore.

When it got virulent,
people got into it.

It's almost as If
they wanted to die,

and so they got into heroin
because there was no dream.

All this stuff was happening.

It was too much
for anybody to understand,

but one of the byproducts

was a lot of kids out
on the street

and a lot of locations
that would have been

alternatives to the street
ceasing to exist.

The system
had totally let us down.

They let us do
what we wanted to do.

We deal with
whatever we deal with.

They deal with it
in their own manner.

At the police department
was beating on us

like they had a permission card.

It was just total chaos.
There was nothing for us here.

So we turned to each other
and said, you know,

let's do something
for ourselves.

Basically, that was it.

Every gang was for themselves
back then.

We had nobody looking
out for us, so it was us.

It was the brotherhood,
it was the gang, and that's it.

Out of the rubble
and chaos of the city,

a new breed
of outlaw street gangs arose,

transforming the urban wasteland

to a dark
and dangerous playground.

Police estimated gang membership

in the tens of thousands,
and these new outlaws

maintained a firm grip
on New York City's streets.

The mentality of the gangs
that came out of the '70s

was very violent.

The street gangs that was
coming out in the late '60s,

early '70s was more what
you could say savage and outlaw.

These guys kicked you
and cursed you

and spit on you
and urinated on you,

and then showed you,
"this is who did it."

Weren't you charged
with shooting a policeman?

Yeah, last time I got busted,

they told me, "we gonna catch
you one of these nights",

and we're gonna kill you."
Some people would say

they'd be very worried
If somebody told them that.

Why don't you?

Because, you know,
If I'm gonna die,

you know,
let it happen now than later.

It was all about power.

I ain't got a pops.

My moms ain't gonna
tell me what to do.

I have all this anger.

I'm gonna grab all these guys,

and they're gonna do my bidding.

So whatever I want
that lacked in my life,

I'm gonna get it right now.

It wasn't like you had a choice.

Whatever gang ran the block,
you had to be a part of it.

There was no civilians.

You had to be in it
or you were a victim.

On the outside looking in,
it looked really good.

We're fighting all the time.

We didn't take
any bullshit from anybody.

We pretty much did
whatever we wanted.

There was nothing
to look forward to.

This was our life.
We lived for each other.

We lived and died
for each other.

We bled for each other.

Whether you was right or wrong,
it didn't matter.

In the steel and concrete jungle

of the big city,
a tribal group survives,

the one-percenters.

These are the motorcycle freaks.

They get a charge
out of spooking the citizens

in a straight neighborhood.

They live in a different world,

in a strange cop-out world
of their own making.

With a kick pedal and a boot,

they work off their frustrations
on the maddened street.

Everybody wanted to be the giant
that everyone's afraid of.

Everybody wanted to be
the hells angel.

Everybody wanted to be the guy
on the roaring machine.

Real hard-core motorcycle,
you know,

outlaw culture adapted
to the streets of New York.

We had pretty much accepted it.

Puerto Ricans in general
and blacks, they're like,

"fuck it," you know what I mean?

"We're gonna fuck everything,
you know?"

Because of the anger
that we had towards the system,

we figure, "well, fuck it,
we can do that, too."

You know,
they were raising hell,

and we figure
we could raise hell

because we had something
to raise hell against.

As much as America
thinks we're not watching it,

we are watching it,
and we're imitating it.

And so what you see
with the retention

of some of the garb,
the biker garb,

what you see is Americana,
but It's an outlaw Americana.

They don't want to be Mr. wasp,

but they can see themselves
as hells angels.

And, yeah, we had
the swastikas and everything

because they had
the swastikas and everything.

We tried to emulate them
as much as possible,

and as they wanted
to shock society,

we wanted to shock society.

So we just wanted
to be as repulsive

and repugnant as possible.

We put the colors on the floor.
The guys surround the colors.

Everybody takes out their penis

and starts leaking
on the jacket,

and then If you're lucky,
the guy vomits.

Then you take your jacket...

Put it on, wha!

That's an outlaw.

And not even flies
will want to hang around you!

The patches are the family's
coat of arms.

The colors is your shield.

Most of the gangs of yesteryear

wasn't nervous
to say who they were.

So If you was a skull,
a spade, a reaper, a turban,

you would wear with honor
on your back of who you was.

Supreme enchanters,
you see that?

Javelins, you see?
Get a good look at it.

Gang culture street law Says,
"this is our turf."

If you want to walk
through our turf,

this is like our nation.

In order to pass through
our nation,

you have to show respect
and not fly your colors

"'cause this is our turf."

You walked into another turf

and you didn't have
their permission,

you might lose your colors
or you might lose your life.

I mean, you would walk
certain places,

they see you in a cut-off
dungaree jacket,

yo, they'd take it from you,

stomp you out
and stuff like that.

I mean, If you had
M.C. Boots on,

you weren't in the club,
you're walking home barefoot.

If you could walk.

They'd just beat
you up, take your colors,

hang 'em up on a wall,
that's how they used to do it.

Our conquered enemies.

Those are our conquered enemies
right there.

Bachelors, encounters Bron...
enchanters Bronx,

royal javelins, Latin eagles.

Girls had major roles
because back then,

there were no policewomen.

So we'd carry the guns,
which was a big issue

because If the cops stopped you,
they'd tell the women,

"keep it moving,"
and they would search the guys.

The guys are beautiful.

We all get along.

We're calling each other
you know?

That means respect.
We're brothers and sisters.

We got respect for each other.
Brothers and sisters.

We bore their babies.

We fought alongside them,
not behind them

or in front of them,
although many of us

did fight in front of them,
but we were hand-in-hand.

Back then, to join a gang,

you did have to go through
initiations.

For every gang,
the standard initiation

is the Apache line.

The Apache line is something
we used to test your mettle

and your fighting skills
and your heart.

People would set up
on each side,

and somebody would beat you
with their fists.

Some gangs might even hit you
with bats or sticks.

It's almost like going through
rites of passage.

Other guys was jumping a cop.

We used to have to fight.

It wasn't a choice.
We had to fight.

But ours was different.
We didn't do the Apache line.

We had a 45.

As long as that record
was playing,

you had to fight
three guys at the same time.

So we put grand funk rail road,
you're gonna have to...

"all right, song's finished."

One day I looked
at my brother Victor, said,

"Vic, I'm going to the store.
Take care of this.

I'll be right back."
Go to the store.

Come back, he had an album.

"I said what the hell you doing
with an album?!"

"I just want to see
the guys beat him up."

Supposed to be a 45.
He had an album on.

The poor guy got his jaw broken.

The skulls were the ultimate

because their Apache line
was a .32...

one shell, spin,
and pull the trigger.

From the Saigons of Harlem

to the jolly stompers
of Brooklyn,

outlaw gangs followed a system
of law and organization

that was common despite
their glaring differences.

The ranks in most gangs,
there was only three levels.

There was the president,
the vice president,

and the warlord.

Your president,
he had to have the charisma,

and everybody
would want to follow him.

There has to be someone you
respect and someone you admire

to give you a different
perspective.

That person has to have
not only the power of love

but the ability
to beat you down.

Vice president came in

in case the president
was ever killed.

And then you had the warlord,
and the warlord was the person

that either declared
or stopped a war.

The warlord was the one
who would go in and negotiate,

to see If you're gonna go to war
with just the hands,

the bats, chains and knives,
or the guns.

Some gangs had gestapo,

and those with the guys
that were in charge

of inflicting punishment
on their members.

They were like the police.

Like, you policed your own gang.

There you go, cool off.

The gestapo were like
the real hard-core gang guys.

Like, they followed street law
to the "T."

I represent gestapo
in the savage nomads,

which is a different squad.

I get one of my members
where school's up

but doesn't know
how to behave on the street

or talk to anybody like
a human being

the way he's supposed to,
he comes to my little cell here.

Biggest gangs in Brooklyn
from my time,

known gangs, the dirty ones.

The dirty ones,
they were the most famous.

We heard about
the tomahawks out in Brooklyn.

Gangs like
the assassinators, the Dukes.

And the homicides.

The majestics, sandpipers.

There were gangs
literally in every corner.

Dynamite brothers
were a big gang

in the lower east side.

Towards the lower east side,

you had the choccos.

You had the Harlem Turks.

You had the renegades of Harlem.

In those days, the meanest
borough was the Bronx.

You came from the Bronx,
you was bad.

It all started up in the Bronx.

In the Bronx,

it was a deep-rooted gang
culture, okay?

They lived it.

There was 101 gangs
in the Bronx, so take your pick.

Black assassins, peacemakers.

Roman kings.
Young kids, deadly.

You see them,
they're little kids.

You look at them wrong,
they're gonna shoot you.

The turbans,
the javelins, reapers.

Seven immortals.

Turbans.

Turbans.

Ex-veterans from Vietnam.

These guys didn't have guns.
They had rifles.

Bachelors was... there were big.

One of the biggest gangs
in the Bronx... black spades.

Black spades had a division

in every area
they had a police department.

Black spades,
you could count them

because when they came,
like, they blackened,

like, the whole street.

We had nothing
but respect for them

because
they earned their respect.

The savage nomads.

These guys,
once they put those colors

on, remember doctor Jekyll
and mister Hyde?

These guys turned mean.

Savage skulls.

Savage skulls was one
of the most respected gangs

that walked the streets.

There was gangs
in the north Bronx also,

and they were predominantly
white gangs, right,

and they was just as vicious
as gangs

in central Harlem
and the South Bronx.

You had gangs
like the war pigs, the aliens,

white lightning,
junior KKK, grateful dead,

and these guys were like
a lot of guys, right?

Famous... golden guineas.

Well, the golden guineas
I would have to say,

they were the baddest white boys
on the block.

They weren't taking
no crap from nobody

as far as they were concerned,

and we had to give them
their respect.

181st, 182nd,

and that was like the cut-off
right there.

Yo, dude, If we went up
to Fordham road, it was on.

We had guns, but we didn't have
guns like they had guns.

These guys had transportation,
they have the weaponry,

you know,
and they have the balls.

The golden guineas,

now they had a reputation
for cutting two gs

into your face so that you know

that you ran
into the golden guineas.

Good evening.
I'm David Susskind.

First part of the show tonight

are the emergence
of the street gangs once again.

My guests are leaders
and spokesmen for these gangs.

I want you to meet them now.

First, Benjy Melendez

is a spokesman
for the ghetto brothers.

Former marine Charlie Suarez

is the president
of the ghetto brothers.

With the black panthers
and the young lords,

the further you got in the '70s,

the less influence they had
on the younger generation,

even the older generation.

The ghetto brothers was
kind of like filling that void,

but they still
had that street cred.

We are being oppressed
by the north American Yankee.

We the Puerto Ricans should
rise up and defend ourselves

against these dogs
who will oppress us

and liberate our country
from capitalism and imperialism.

The north American is trying
to steal our identity

as Puerto Ricans
and call us Americans.

We Puerto Ricans
are Puerto Ricans

to the day we are born
until the day we die.

When the black panthers
came into the scene,

the young lords
came into the scene,

these groups went
around talking to the gangs,

"stop the violence.

Let's direct
all our energy this way."

Lot of the gangs
didn't want to hear that.

The ghetto brothers
took heat to that.

What we wanted
them to do is understand

that there was another vision
of America,

that they were killing
themselves...

that's what our intent was...
and that the neighborhoods

that they were in
were their neighborhoods.

We wanted them to feel ownership
over those blocks.

There's a lot of clubs that help
just their own friends

and forget about other people
who live around us, you know?

But we don't think like that. We
like to help everybody.

I loved the ghetto brothers.

We honored them because
they were... they seemed...

to me, it seemed like they had
enough courage to do something

that we all really wanted to do

but didn't have the courage
to do it

because you were known for
your brutality in those days.

You weren't known
for being a nice guy.

Ghetto brothers
was definitely political minded,

but they also, you know,
didn't take no shit either.

It wasn't that
they couldn't fight.

That was the South Bronx.
There's no not fighting.

So even If you're a nice guy,
everybody had to fight.

If you saw them coming down
the block, you know,

okay, the ghetto brothers,
they're cool.

They got a lot
of kids off the street.

They got a lot of kids, man, like, going
back into school. From what I understand,

they did start helping
the neighborhoods a lot.

So far, since I've been
in the ghetto brothers,

they have Dave me back
my self-respect

because I am an ex-junkie.

They was with me
almost 24 hours a day.

I kicked cold.

More than eight or nine
ghetto brothers

in the organization
that we got now are ex-junkies,

and If you go right now to
ghetto brothers headquarters,

you don't see no junkies
in that block no more.

The ghetto brothers
started to grow

and grow and grow and grow.

2,500 in the Bronx alone!

Then the ghetto brothers
started to expand

to Manhattan, Brooklyn, queens.

They knew how to articulate
and use the media

to actually let
not just New York City

but kind of let
the United States know that,

look, this is happening
here in New York City, right?

I guess It's what the teenagers
are gonna make it, right?

If we shoot dope,
they're gonna be shooting dope

when they get older,
and If they see

the ghetto brothers...
like my club is doing,

that we are...
get ourselves together,

we do something
from the community,

then they're gonna think
that's what's hip.

We're in the ghetto.
Someone smashes a bottle.

Someone bends a can
and tosses it.

Someone grabs a piece of paper
and tosses it.

We're in the ghetto
because we created the ghetto.

So we just said no more.

No more.

I started to think,
I said it would be good

to channel all this energy

into doing something
for our community.

Let's have a good time.
Let's get together.

Let's sweep the community.
Let's give out free food.

Let's give out clothes
to this community

because in those times,
things were really bad.

I want people to say

the ghetto brothers
has done something.

I want my child to say
when he grows up

my father's done
something for society, see?

And I want things to change
because I don't want

to be living in the South Bronx
where everything is messed up.

Three names
that always popped up...

Benjy, karate Charlie,
and black Benji.

You know,
I'm an ex-drug addict.

I'm not gonna lie about it.

When I came to them,
I was still using drugs.

Due respect to them,
and I went to kick.

I've been straight since,
and I love ghetto brothers.

There's a purpose here.

It's something that's beneficial
to the neighborhood,

the establishment,
and everybody else.

Black Benji, Benjamin Cornell

was introduced to me by Charlie.

He said, "Benji wants to
check out the ghetto brothers."

Sure.
I said, "would do you do?"

He said, "I work as a drug
counselor."

Said, "very good.
That's very good."

So one day,
kids were in the program,

and the ghetto brothers club,
I'm looking at them,

and he sits down in a chair
and he's talking to kids,

and I saw they were on the floor
telling them stories,

and I looked,
I said, "that's wonderful."

And then he talks to the older
people in my community.

He said, "man, there's something
about this guy, I like that."

Charlie, come here.

I think we should
stop the warlords

and put a peacemaker,
that's the man.

"Let's make them into
a peace ambassador."

He became the third staff
of the ghetto brothers.

You're gonna be the ambassador
for peace.

What I knew
about the ghetto brothers,

the first thing was I heard
a lot about karate Charlie.

Everybody kept
hearing about this guy

karate Charlie, right?

Guys in gangs, you had to have
a karate something.

Like in this one gang,
you had a karate Kenny.

I remember him.
Then you had a karate Joe nose.

We had a guy named karate Moe,

but it was all
because of everybody

heard about this guy
named karate Charlie.

The rep for him that we heard

was that he was a bad dude.

He was into karate and stuff.

They were saying, Oh,
he knocked a guy out

by kicking him in the head,

and it was like
an urban legend almost.

Charlie was a warrior.

He lived like
the Japanese Bushido.

You cross me,
you cross my honor?

Yah! You're going down.

Remember, I just came
out of the marine corps.

So what I wanted
was a little marine corps.

Because he brought
the military discipline

to the ghetto brothers.

The ghetto brothers
were not known for guns.

We were known for the hands.

Ghetto brothers were very good
with hands and legs.

So Charlie was the instructor.

They called me karate Charlie,
and they called the founder,

Benji Melendez, the preacher.

Charlie and I were brothers.
I mean, we were very close.

But we were two worlds.

Benji was a yin
while I was a Yang,

black and white, soft and hard,

rain and shine...
we were the opposites.

The yin and Yang? That's true.
That's me and Charlie.

Charlie was...

and I would say, "no, Charlie."

"Come on, Benjy!"
"No, Charlie, come on."

Sometimes it was
the other way around, too.

Charlie had to calm Benjy down.

You know, they kept each other,
you know, at bay.

Yellow Benji,
he was more of a peacemaker.

He was also trying
to let people know,

look, let's stop fighting
amongst ourselves

'cause we're only hurting
each other.

Let's fight the man.
Let's hurt him.

The enemy around the Bronx now
at this very moment

is the policeman.

Yes, this is a warrior thing.
Yes, it is.

And we're here to defend
our brothers and sisters

against people like them.

If you're gonna communicate,
communicate, man.

If you're gonna strike us,
we're gonna strike back.

Right on!

Beyond running the gang,
yellow Benjy

was also the leader
of the ghetto brothers band,

a unique and well-loved
rock and Latin funk outfit.

The band and the gang
were two separate entities.

The talent was definitely there.

It was definitely
a Latin flavor.

It also showed
what clubs could do.

If they took
a different direction.

I tell my brothers, listen,

I notice that when you
talk to people,

some people will listen,
some people don't.

But the idea of music,
my brothers and I,

music caters to all type
of people.

So If you want to get a message,

why don't we put it into song,
watch them listen.

Then when we play the music,
what we always wanted to say

to them and you put it
behind guitars is,

"yo, man, that's me, man.
I live that type of life.

What would be that song for you,
my brother?"

I remember a lot of bongos.

I always, you know,
remember bongo music.

If they were jamming
up the street, you know,

up the hill,
you could hear the music.

When we played music,
why don't we play

a little rock here,
a little Latin here,

a little soul over here?

So you heard Beatles,
sly and the family stone,

Santana, you heard all of that.

So every Friday, the gangs knew

that we had music and a message.

In 1971 despite all efforts
by social workers

and specialized police units,

gang violence had escalated
to a fever pitch,

plunging the streets
into a state of continual war

unlike anything the city
had ever experienced before.

Drugs was a big factor
in gangs going haywire,

lust for power, lust for turf.

The wars with street gangs
could start from something

that could be just as silly
as stepping on somebody's boots.

Wars could get started
just from a rumor.

Territory was a big issue.

I had heard of some dudes
just getting popped

from running down
the wrong block.

The garbage can is here.

If you go past that garbage can,

although It's the same block

in the same neighborhood,
it could be a war.

The devil's rebels
is fighting gang,

and on this night,
they found their first victims

outside a corner grocery store.

What looks like child's play
is not.

In the middle of all this,
a young man was stabbed.

It was the thing
about conquering.

You go to their turf,
beat the hell out of these guys,

and come back again and again
until they were forced...

either they break up
or become part of the majority.

So they did it
through barbarian style,

warrior, vikings.

They tried to take over
one of my divisions.

They didn't quite make it,
and we killed two of they guys.

They tried to burn down
my clubhouse.

We killed two of they guys,
and five of they guys rolled up

on one of the savage nomads.

Know what they told him?
"We gonna give you hell, baby.

"We gonna give you hell."
And they didn't even kill him.

There were big gang wars

between the savage skulls,
black spades,

between the savage skulls,
the bachelors.

Back then,
nobody had cell phones,

but It's like drums...
you hear it.

You hear it all over the place.

You know, one way or another,
you hear who's beating who.

The violence was everywhere.

You could see the fights
across the street.

You could hear the shots
in the nighttime.

What made life interesting
in the South Bronx

for these young guys
was fighting, was killing.

"Yo, I killed a dude today."
"What'd you do?"

"I stabbed him in the throat.
What'd you do, man?"

"Yo, I shot that dude."
"I burned this guy."

You hear this,
and this is every day.

It was a lawless time.

If somebody got killed
on Hewitt place,

their body stayed there.

An ambulance wouldn't dare
come and pick that body up.

The police came in riot gear
to take that body out there,

and they didn't do
an investigation.

They took that body out of there
as quick as possible

because they didn't
want to get it.

There's no ambulance coming.

There are no ambulances,
all right?

How long It's gonna take, man?

The '70s when the drug trade
came in the city,

that totally changed
the whole vibe on how we rumble.

Now It's serious.

Now we're gonna start
shooting at each other.

In the '70s, you had firepower.

You had some gangs
with arsenals.

I've seen .357s.
I've seen 12-guage shotguns.

I've seen dynamite
on the street.

I've seen all this.
You'd be surprised, man.

Pretty soon, they're gonna
steal the damn atom bomb.

As the bloodshed continued,

the ghetto brothers worked
fervently to mediate peace

amongst the ever-growing web
of turf battles.

A lot of things was happening
in the Bronx at the same time.

We felt the whole world
was going through these changes.

I said
this is getting out of hand.

You know, we were pretty much
hurting fighting each other

instead of going
against the real enemy.

Benjy, he tried, man.
He tried to let us know that.

They were like the club
that would be the mediators,

you know, stopped a lot of us
from going out there

and going ballistic on a whole
lot of wars, you know?

I would sit down and reason
with a lot of these brothers.

"Come here, guys.
Savage skulls, come here."

"Savage nomads, come here.
Black spades, come over here."

That's the way we used to talk.

"It doesn't make any sense
with this turf thing, guys."

It's us against the government.
It's not me against you.

You are not hurting me.

You're not the one
that's keeping me down.

I don't have to fight you.
You're not the problem.

"Yo, brothers, come on, man."

"Nah,
but you don't understand, man!"

He came into my turf
with his colors, man!

"And he was just trying
to tell me..."

because colors?

Come on, guys,
think what I'm gonna say.

Colors is gonna
make you go insane?

On December 8,
a series of events transpired

that rocked the ghetto brothers
and the rest of the Bronx.

As a result,
the outcome would come

to change gang life
in New York City forever.

They came to the storefront
and said

there was going to be a fight
at the bottom of the stairs.

"Benjy, three gangs are coming
from Southern boulevard..."

bongos, black spades,
and seven immortals.

"They want to get
the Roman kings."

Benji said, "let black Ben go,
Cornell go."

"Benji, you got your job
cut out for you."

You're gonna get me
the president, vice president,

warlords of those three gangs.

Bring them here
so we can broker a peace.

"Bring them here, take some
ghetto brothers with you."

So he left.

He went with playboy

and a few of the younger
ghetto brothers.

We came down the stairs, right?

And we stopped there,

and there was about 13
to 20 of us.

And then when we looked down,
we seen them,

and you couldn't
even see the corner.

That's how many there were,
and when we got to the bottom

of the stairs
and they could've seen us,

there was only about nine of us.

That's when Benji came out,
and Benji said...

he took a step forward,
and he said,

"listen, brother,
we're here to talk peace."

And the guy who came out,
he said, "peace, shit."

That's when the guy
pull out the machete.

That's when they had us
all surrounded.

Benji said, "take, brother..."
Because there was too many.

So I heard a noise,
you know, pow, like a slap,

and Benji had got hit
in the stomach, and he tripped.

At that time was a time
when they were killing,

killing, killing, killing,
and Cornell wasn't recognized.

They recognized violence,

and they recognized somebody
that'd throw a punch.

It was a moment in time
that could have been avoided.

If I could just turn back
the hands of time,

this wouldn't ever
have happened.

And I looked at my brothers
today, my real brothers,

Says, "think about it...
there was that fateful day"

that I sent him
to bring peace."

My brother looked at me, said,

"Benji, but you didn't know
what was gonna..."

"no, you're right, I didn't know
what was gonna happen."

I didn't know the fate,

"but it was my decision
to send him."

That was one of the worst days

in South Bronx history
when he got murdered.

The word on the street was
he was trying to make peace,

and he was murdered
trying to make peace,

and basically after that,
the South Bronx,

fort Apache was out of control.

When this tragedy happened,

they went to war and even got
many gangs to move

against the seven immortals
and the black spades.

Every gang in my neighborhood
at least were so mad

that they killed this guy,

they were running
through the streets.

They were burning everything.
I mean, pandemonium hit.

Black spades
wasn't gonna back down.

If they was gonna
fully get attacked.

Then there was the time when
the spade leaders,

all of them said hell with it,
get ready for war.

How rumors spread.
How news spread.

There was not a gang
in the whole of New York

that was not aware
what's happening.

I put out a bulletin,

and I started calling
ghetto brothers,

all the ghetto brothers.

Charlie wanted to get
the ghetto brothers

to mobilize
for the biggest bloodbath

in the history of New York.

We lost a member,
they viciously murdered him

out there in the street.

Now It's an eye for an eye

because another ghetto brother
loses a life,

six of whoever,
whether they his kids,

his mother, his father,
they lose their lives.

Who was it that took
the lives of two of your...

some dude out there.

At the time, I was...
I was blind.

And I said, no,
I'm gonna make everyone pay.

That's when I said I'm going to
just start killing, you know?

Watch. The sword is sharp.

Look, razor-sharp.

And Benji kept saying,
"but, Charlie,

that's not the way,"
I said, "I don't care.

At the moment, I don't care."

My business at the point

was to quell down the anger
that was coming up.

He said,
"let's go see Gwendolyn."

That's Cornell's mother.

Let's go see her, show respect.

I said, "when I walk in there
and tell her"

I've called New Jersey,
I've called Connecticut,

I've called all the boroughs,
I've called everybody...

"I've got an army outside."

I walked in
like a mother fucking cock

ready to fight, spurs gleaming.

I strutted over.

I kissed her.

I said, "mom," I said,
"I've got an army outside."

And she said, "Charlie,
my son died for peace."

Said, "God damn."

I looked at his mother.

She didn't want
to see other children die.

It just confirmed what I said,
you know?

So he understood after
what she... "please."

You know, Charlie,
that could be our moms, man.

That's an omen.
It's your mother talking.

She's my Mami talking to you.

"My son died for peace,
Charlie."

I walked back to the storefront.

Storefront was like this
with media,

cameras waiting for me to say
that the Bronx

was gonna be bathed in blood.

We could have gone
in the chronicles of New York

to be the most notorious gang.

We even allowed our influence

to use all these gangs
to do our bidding.

All they were waiting was this,
like the Roman empire.

All the gangs
were there at 174th.

They were waiting
for the big war.

We said, no,
we're not gonna do anything.

I said,
"brothers, don't you know this?"

Look at these newspaper people.
Look!

As soon as I said no,
they stopped writing.

This is what they want to see.

They want to tell the world

that we're a bunch of savages,
that we're killers!

We're not gonna give you
the satisfaction.

"Send our message...
hands down, no war!"

No, we ain't doing nobody.

Gotta figure out
how we're gonna do this.

We're gonna have a peace treaty.

Word of the murder and fear of
reprisal spread like wildfire.

At the insistence
of the ghetto brothers,

representatives of over 40
of the city's

most notorious gangs
met at the hoe Avenue

boys' club in the Bronx.

So I got them while
they were still in revenge mode.

They wanted to see war
and blood.

I said this is the time
to do it, right now.

Said, "listen,
this is what's going on."

They killed my brother Benji."
"What you want me to do?"

I said, "I don't want you
to do anything."

I want you to come to
a peace treaty."

"I don't do peace."

I said, "well,
you're gonna do peace now, bro."

I said, "you do peace
or we're gonna take you out."

"Who's you?"

"I'm the spades. I'm the skulls.
I'm the nomads."

And I to started running it off,

everyone that said
that they'd stand behind me.

This is hoe Avenue.

This is the spot,
Madison square boys' club,

here where history was made.

It was here
that the gangs got together

to have the biggest peace treaty
in the history of the Bronx.

President young sinners.

Vice president
of the young sinners.

Vice president of young saints.

President of young cobras.

War council of young saints.

It was fantastic
how it all happened,

and they just sent
just their main leaders.

Come on, it was too many guys.

So it was all the leaders
that were there.

At the treaty,
I was a young person

sitting in the background
listening to my head leaders

talking what needs to be done.

Basically it was just like
the movie "the warriors."

Everybody was tense
because nobody knew

when it was gonna jump off,
but it went well, though.

After while,
everybody started talking.

Everybody calmed down
and just got into,

you know, what the purpose was,
and it turned out good.

People were just bringing out
atonement

to say, you know, come on,
let's slow this thing down.

Let's bring this peace treaty
into play.

One by one, gang leaders
stated their grievances

with the intention of squashing
prior beefs once and for all.

When we have static, man,
we sell out among ourselves,

man, because, wow, we got to
live in this district.

The whitey
don't come down here, man,

and live in the fucked-up
houses, man.

The whitey don't come
down here, man, and have

all the fucked-up no heat
in the fucking wintertime.

We do, Jack, so therefore,
like, wow,

we got to make it a better place
to live, you understand?

The idea of the meeting was to
expose the ones

who murdered black Benji.

Now in those days,
you can't say, "you do it."

We didn't say that,
but If you saw that film,

you look at the guys
that were sitting in front,

those are all the guys
that murdered my boy.

And I'm looking at them.

I say, "yo, my brothers, man."

One of the guys, a president
of the club, came up to me,

"Benjy, I don't want to die.
Please, I don't want to die."

"You're not gonna die,
my brother."

See, that's power.

You don't want us to become
a gang again, right?

Because I know you.
You was up in the meeting.

And you told me, "Benjy,
I want to get out alive."

Didn't you tell me that?

"Benjy,
I want to get out alive."

That's what's gonna happen.
You're gonna get out alive.

Benji didn't get out alive.

The thing is we're not
a gang anymore.

We're an organization.

We want to help black
and Puerto Ricans

to live in a better environment.

At the end of
this historic summit,

an inter-gang peace treaty
was signed

by every attending leader.

This momentous turning point

gave the first real promise
of the long needed peace

the system
had failed to produce.

Peace after the treaty
came instantaneous.

The following day,
the day afterwards,

you didn't feel the hostility

you did prior
to black Benji's death.

Things were just waning down.

It meant people
was trying to bring

a different type of vibration,
frequency to their community.

A definite attitude shift.

A lot of the people
that were at the meeting,

they decided, hey, you know,
we're just killing ourselves.

We're hurting
our own neighborhoods.

We better put a stop to this.

Wars had stopped.

It was here and there,
but wars had stopped.

It was definitely
a different lifestyle

where when we gang busted,
we stood in the same spot.

We stood in the same area.

We couldn't go that way.
We couldn't go this way.

We couldn't go that way.

Once the peace treaty happened,

people was being invited
in areas

where they used to never
even stepped into that area.

People would go
to certain parties

that you would never even
step in that party

or you don't know
what would happen.

We're having house jams.

We're having basement parties.
It was different.

Now we're able to go here,
go there,

meet more people,
unite with people.

Peaceful block parties hosted
by the ghetto brothers

and other local gangs
began to multiply,

helping to dissolve
the invisible turf boundaries

that had dominated
for years prior.

Here's where the whole thing
started to change.

We invited many gang members.

"Guys, If you guys haven't
been to a party,"

why don't you come out?
Gonna have a party.

"We're gonna play out there." And
they would invite other gang members

to have jam sessions with them.

All over the city,
you were invited

to come to these jam sessions
and jam with them.

You can bring your instrument.

You could, you know,
do whatever it is you do.

This is the famous 163rd St.
This was ghetto brothers city.

All the people came down here
to hear the ghetto brothers.

Every Friday and Saturday,
we would gonna have a party.

You had gangs
from different areas

to down come down
and check us out.

This block
was literally full with people.

They would call out big parties.

You'd see like 100
to 200 guys hanging out.

It was massive. Scary, too.

When the ghetto brothers
had the parties,

they all mingled.

Everybody mingled...

savage skulls, black spades,
the turbans,

everybody because
we were having a good time.

People were dancing,

and you saw turbans,
and you saw skulls.

What was the common thing?

I said, "look,
I put the flags up there."

They'd see
the Puerto Rican flag.

They'd see
the black liberation flag.

"See, brothers?
This is us, man."

It's about dropping
the attitude.

"We're all one people here."

It's almost like a... A relief,

you know, 'cause the chaos
in the streets and the mayhem

and everything
that was going on,

this was kind of like
a breather to say...

you know, finally, some peace.

You see, when you saw
that friendly attitude there,

they brought that back
to their club, you understand?

So every Friday,
they were looking forward

to getting back together again.

One of the things
the ghetto brothers

made us realize...
I'll put it very simply...

self-worth.

When you...
whether it be a guitar

or a saxophone
or an instrument or a bongo,

whatever it is that you can do
to add to the flavor

of what was going on,
it kind of gave you a revelation

that, hey, I can actually
do something besides,

you know,
stomping somebody's brains out.

I can actually do something
besides stabbing or shooting

or besides this other stuff
we've been doing.

There's something inside
of me that's positive.

In the years that followed,
outlaw gangs

transformed into DJ crews.

A major shift in attitude
made way

for this emerging culture

that was taking hold
of the youth in the Bronx.

I always thought there
was a connection

between gang culture
and hip-hop

because from what I learned
that either you was a DJ,

an MC, a break dancer,
or a graffiti artist,

once upon a time,

one of them members
was part of a gang.

Now you can express yourself
and show what is it

that you have on the other side
from what you used to be.

So we saw the translation
between the violent attitude

to something positive,
but at the same time,

you see the intimidation.

Competition is always
and has always been there.

The battle
when they battle on the mic,

when they compete
against each other,

they're battling,
when they're dancing

against each other,
they're battling.

It was more like
challenging to dance now

and not to fight,

and whoever could dance
the best won the fight.

Colors were starting to come
off, and little by little,

that's when the music
started to come into the deal.

When the gang scene
started fading down,

it was the DJs who started
becoming the stars

in the community,
the leaders in the community.

The Bronx's own DJ Kool Herc,

considered the founding father
of hip-hop,

played a crucial role
in redirecting gang energy

into this new
and growing movement.

Herc had the right
timing of presenting something.

The same people
that was involved with gangs,

they felt that they
want to be relieved.

They want to have
some of this dance.

Herc took it upon himself
to become their new pied Piper.

It was like, hey,
this is what we want to hear,

and we don't want to hear what
was being played on the radio,

what was being played
in the clubs.

We were trying to reach out
for the beats,

that raw essence, heavy drums.

Herc started something
his enemies didn't want to stop.

It came in the form of music.
They gravitate to this.

This is something
that is theirs.

That hadn't come in a long time.

They didn't worry
If you were black, you're white.

Got this common thing
right here.

He was God. He didn't...

Herc didn't come out with
no little tinker toy speakers.

Herc came out with the big boys.

See, I got some big boys
behind me right now.

Herc came out with the big boys!

Later on, some of these people
that was coming

to all his parties
turn out to be DJs...

flash, grand master Caz,

mean gene,
remember the I brothers,

started seeing Aj,
the I brothers with Theodore,

breakout, baron, bam.

There was no closer connection
between the gangs of the Bronx

and this budding
hip-hop movement

than Afrika Bambaataa,

who had personally taken it
upon himself

to convert
the fearsome black spades

into the Zulu nation.

This was the first
worldwide force

to promote positivity
through music.

When I started
the universal Zulu nation,

I already had an army of street
gangs that was with me.

I had a lot of pull and power,

so If I was with
the black spades,

I might go and hang
with the nomads

and some of the javelins
and some of the groups

that might not even
like each other.

I had a type of persuasion

with many of the other leaders
in groups.

Bambaataa had great influence
amongst so many people.

They believed in him,
and If you was a person

that come from Bronx river
or within the soundview section,

everybody was coming
to their parties.

And he accepted you.
He didn't put you down.

It took a lot of work,
took a lot of speaking,

a lot of teaching,
a lot of organizing,

speaking to the brothers
and sisters

to get away from
that certain mentality.

The purpose of the Zulu nation
at that time

was to show that
we can turn ourself around

from negative to positive,

and we was doing
that through music.

Our slogan became "peace,
unity, love, and having fun."

Lot of Zulu nation running
in Monroe now. Yeah.

A lot of Zulu nation
in Monroe and Stevenson

and in all these housing
development projects.

Soon, the Zulu nation
gonna take over the world.

Is the Bronx in the house?!

Is everybody in the house?!
Hit it!

Are we gonna get loose in here?!

Say z-u-l-u!

- That's the way to say...
- Zulu!

Z-u-l-u!

- That's the way to say...
- Zulu!

Another thing
that is not mentioned

is a style change happened.

Like, it wasn't just
break dancing, graffiti, MC, DJ.

A fifth thing included
was style.

You had to now have style.

You didn't want to walk around
with dirty clothes anymore

or, you know, the patches
on their back

because that wasn't attracting

the type of girls
that they wanted.

It was just
a whole mindset change.

Well, let me talk about girls

because I think women played
a big part in it

because
there was always girls around.

Even the black spades
had their girls.

Everybody had their girls,
so basically,

once you could talk
to the girls,

then you knew it was safe.

So it kind of like opened up
a whole new area

of South Bronx for us
when you can talk to girls

that you couldn't talk
to before.

That's a big deal.

Oh, you can talk
to this Puerto Rican girl now.

'Cause you couldn't talk to
a Puerto Rican girl back then,

not and be black
in the South Bronx and live.

It wasn't happening.

We didn't even know
we was creating anything.

We just wanted to have
something that was hours.

Music calms the savage beast.

We would be the pied pipers,
just calm the storm.

Music had definitely calmed
the savage beast

because how many times

you may be in the motion
of something that feels so tense

and you just hit that one tune,

and it would relieve everybody.

I think It's important
that whoever sees this

knows that we have grown,
and, yes,

there was a lot of negative,
and a lot of shit happened,

but a lot of us own homes,
fancy cars,

two and three hikes,
have good-paying jobs.

And I think It's important
that whoever sees this

knows that there is hope,
that we could do this,

and it could be positive.

They say history is not made
by individuals.

I disagree.

I think
It's a confluence of factors.

It's the social context
of the time,

the economic context
of the time,

and the individual dream.

What was so powerful
about our generation

is we caused movement.

We had to take from nothing
and make something.

I believe that we were making
a statement to society,

so to speak,
that had forgotten about us,

that we have worth
because we did have big fun.

Even though we were poor
and we didn't have a lot,

we had fun.

You know,
we made a way to have fun,

and we made a way
to feel like we counted,

and we made a way to show
the world

that we actually existed.