Once safe, he pulled into the parking lot of Red Lobster to assess the damage and phone the goons. There was minimal damage to his $100,000 whip, but the damage to his pride was immeasurable. There was no doubt in Reece’s mind who had sent the hit. Reece wiped the blood from his eye and licked it with a smile.
Now he had a reason to get off the chain.
* * *
Qwess piloted the big Benz through traffic toward his sister’s hair salon. The deal was made, and it was official. He had hustled his way to legal millionaire status. As he maneuvered the Benz onto the expressway, he reflected on how he got to this point in his life.
He was born and raised in Atlantic Beach, South Carolina. Growing up, it was just he and his older sister, Fatima. They didn’t really have a hard upbringing, because their father and their uncles had the streets on lock, while their mother mostly remained home and attended to them. Anything they wanted, it was granted. As long as they obeyed the rules, minus the few little infractions that went along with childhood, their parents never gave them any trouble. One thing that was stressed, though, was education. It was absolutely imperative that they learned something new every day. No matter what their father was doing, who he was with, or where he was, at the end of every day he would gather the both of them together, and they would have to explain to him what they learned for that day.
It was on Qwess’s eighth birthday that the whole family accompanied his father on a “business” trip to Miami. It was then that two things happened that would affect Qwess’s life forever. The first thing was that he saw a black Cuban family speaking Spanish. This was intriguing to him because at that point, the black people he had come in contact with could barely speak decent English. Here, he met a person, a black person, speaking two languages. This intrigued him to a point beyond comprehension. His father noticed his interest and encouraged him to learn Spanish. As he put it, it could only be good for the family business later on down the line. So he tackled learning Spanish with the ferocity of a madman. It practically consumed him. Later, upon returning to South Carolina, his father hired him a Spanish tutor. By the time Qwess was ten, he had complete mastery of the language.
The second thing that affected his life forever after was when he and his sister snuck away and stumbled right into an Eric B. & Rakim concert. Well, they didn’t actually get in. The concert was on the beach, so they were able to climb onto a balcony of one of the surrounding hotels and see everything. Man, the way those people were going crazy just made his blood pump! His sister, who was twelve at the time, just watched and stared in amazement. She could barely keep her legs still; they kept twitching back and forth for some reason. It was then that Qwess knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up. He wanted the power to move the crowd, the power to control masses of people with his wordplay. The only problem was, it seemed he was destined to inherit the family business: cocaine.
When he was ten and his father knew he knew Spanish through and through, he started going with his father on business trips to Florida. His father would introduce him to his Cuban friends as his successor. This would give him esteem in their eyes, because they allowed him to sit in on their meetings. However, he had explicit instructions from his father to never speak Spanish, and never let them know that he understood Spanish. His father told him, “Never show all your cards.” He was only to listen and learn, and if they said anything of concern in Spanish, let him know. These trips went on once every two months for two whole years. Sometimes, one of his uncles would accompany them, and this would allow him to write songs. He always kept his dream alive. He knew one day he would make it as a rapper.
When he was fourteen, he experienced another life-altering event. His father and two of his uncles were busted by the feds. His third uncle was shot and killed by the police when he tried to shoot his way out.
The feds had a strong case, and it seemed that the family wasn’t going to win. His father and uncles were charged with murder, extortion, trafficking, and any other crime you could think of... besides robbery. His father had always taught him that robbery wasn’t a viable option. Robbery was a sucka’s game, a hater disguised as a hustler. While out on a half-million-dollar bond, his father pumped all he could into him about the streets, but his day came too soon.
When Qwess was fifteen, his father and two uncles were all found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. In order to get a fresh start, his mother packed Qwess and his sister up and moved the family to Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was a sophomore in high school. It was there that he met Rolando and Maurice.
The friends clicked immediately, because Rolando was half Puerto Rican and spoke fluent Spanish. He was originally from New York, and was a Muslim just like Qwess. Qwess showed Rolando that he could rap, and Rolando wanted him to meet his cousin Reece, who at that time had just gotten a record deal.
When he first met Reece, it was inside of a rap cipher. Reece was smashing everyone who stepped up. Then when Qwess stepped into a cipher, he and Reece went round after round. Reece eventually won, but he earned Reece’s respect. It wasn’t long before the three of them were inseparable.
On a trip to the beach to visit his sister, who had moved back, Qwess took Reece with him. While there, Reece noticed how all of the drug dealers showed Qwess love and casually hinted that he could make money in North Carolina with the right product. At the time, Qwess wasn’t able to keep up the high standard of living he was accustomed to. To add to that, he had become quite popular, courtesy of his skills on the mic. The crew would travel all over North Carolina, rapping at clubs, gaining momentum, with Doe acting as manager. At that point Reece had turned down his record deal, because they were making so much money independently, they figured they would just produce themselves. To finance their music endeavors, they dived in the dope game knee-deep.
By the time they were seniors in high school, everyone knew them . . . either from rapping or their street hustle. On graduation night, not even two hours after they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas, they were busted during a routine traffic stop. They were on their way to deliver a half ounce of powder to some white kids from a neighboring high school, and that’s what the cops found: a half ounce of cocaine. Instead of all of them going down for the charge, Qwess took it on the chin. Since Reece was the better rapper and Rolando the manager, he believed if he took the charge, the crew would still be intact.
As luck would have it, he turned eighteen two days before he went to court. The judge gave him an ultimatum: go to jail or join the army for two years. Of course, he chose the army.
He went to basic training, and advanced infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia. In the infantry, he learned all kinds of survival tactics, as well as numerous ways to assassinate men. He would later use these same skills to terrorize any unlucky soul who got in the way of his crew’s money. After schooling he was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. It was there that he found the woman he was going to marry.
He was a nineteen-year-old private, she a seventeen-year-old virgin. Her name was Hope. They met and fell in love almost immediately. She was the first woman he ever thought about seeing more than once. She was the first woman, other than his mother and sister, whom he actually respected. It was rather uncanny the way they clicked, but like all good things in life, it would eventually end. She went off to college, and was supposed to meet him back in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where her parents were from. During the time, he started venturing off to Mexico, first for fun. Then, while he was over in Mexico, he met someone he presumed was a regular local. He started talking to the guy in Spanish one night while drinking. The guy liked the fact that he had a healthy appreciation for Spanish culture (or so he was told), and got close to him. When the guy found out a little about his background, the guy revealed more about his background. Turned out his name was really Poppo, and he was a middleman for a Mexican cartel. Needless to say, they hooked up, and before long Reece was coming out to Texas to pick up c
ocaine and marijuana. Rolando was in school studying accounting and management. Turned out that one brush with the law was enough for him.
At the end of his two years, Qwess returned to North Carolina and visited Hope at Fayetteville State University often. He eventually took her virginity, and he grew real close to her family as well. However, as each day went by, he and Reece grew stronger in wealth and power. Because they were still dealing with Poppo out of Mexico, the other dealers couldn’t compete. For those who tried with violence, they were met with violence. One guy in particular woke up one morning, cranked up his brand-new BMW, and was blown all over the neighborhood. They found his head in the neighborhood preacher’s backyard. It sent a message: Don’t mess with the crew.
At the ripe age twenty-one, Qwess and his crew, who encompassed a gang of young, hungry, loyal hustlers, were major players in the city. To top it off, he was engaged to be married to Hope when she graduated from college the following year. However, that was not to be. One night he was supposed to be delivering a kilo of cocaine, along with one of his crew members, when they were ambushed by would-be robbers. The robbers aired the car out with automatic gunfire, killing his partner, Paco. Qwess was also hit, but managed to get away. He found out who it was and went to exact retribution. On his way to the spot where the robbers were, he ran into the police. This time when they searched the car, they found a grenade as well as an unregistered Glock pistol. He was by himself, believing all dirty work should be done alone. After spending fifty thousand dollars in legal fees, Qwess received five years, federal time. He was still only twenty-one years old.
His incarceration devastated Hope, because she never knew about his street endeavors. She tried to be by his side as much as possible, but when she graduated college with a degree in public relations, she felt her career was more important than he was. She moved away to Baltimore, and the lovers lost contact, although Hope and his sister kept in touch.
While in prison, Qwess rediscovered Islam, as well as his passion for music. He told himself he was going to go straight, and prepared himself by giving fifty thousand dollars of his stash money to his sister to open up the hair salon she always wanted. It became an instant success. He also planned to use the music industry to maintain a way of living. He figured he’d be killing two birds with one stone: He’d be appeasing his hunger to make music and appeasing his hunger to make money. To him, the only way to do music was on his own terms. So while in prison he studied every music management book he could get his hands on, like All You Need to Know about the Music Business by Donald S. Passman, and other books as well. He also read EQ magazine religiously. It was teaching him all about production equipment, since he planned to self-produce.
Qwess was released from prison after three and a half years, partly due to good behavior. When he came home, he noticed his whole crew—now going by the name Crescent Crew because they were all either five-percenters or Muslims—had grown in stature and money. Reece had whipped the crew into shape, and with him as the head, the Crew flourished. Ever since Reece had orchestrated the killings of the guys who tried to rob them before Qwess went to prison, no one questioned his authority. They offered to let Qwess get right in at the top, but he declined. Instead, he built a studio in his home, made an album, and sold it himself out the trunk of his car. He initially started selling in Atlanta, then spread throughout the whole Southeast. Now, a week before his twenty-sixth birthday, he was about to become a legal millionaire. His only wish was that he could help the others in his crew.
Qwess’s phone rang, interrupting his reverie. He answered. “As-salaam alayka.”
“Hello, handsome.” It was Shauntay, his steady girlfriend.
“What’s up, love?”
“I’m just calling to see what time you’ll be home. I don’t want your dinner to get cold.”
“I gotta stop by the salon. I’ll probably be there about seven.”
“Seven?” she asked anxiously. “That’s four hours from now!”
“Yeah, I know. Fatima wanted to see me.”
“Well, come when you can.”
“Why, is something wrong?” he asked.
“No, I just miss you.”
He sighed. “Oh, well, I’ll be there sooner than you know.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then. Love you.”
“Yeah, all right.” He clicked off his phone and exited the expressway.
Qwess changed the disc from Sade to Dead Prez, and cracked his window, getting into the mood. His phone rang again. He thought it was Shauntay, but when he saw Reece’s number he quickly picked up.
“Peace! What’s up, Reece?”
“They got me, brother,” Reece said, with pain in his voice. “They caught me slipping and wet me up.”
“What?! Who? When? Where?”
“You know who. Meet me at the studio.”
Qwess sighed heavily with the world on his shoulders. It never ended. The drama, the violence, the uncertainty.
But he couldn’t walk away from his brother.
Chapter 6
It was just after midnight when Qwess pulled his Benz into the garage. He waited for the wrought-iron gate to close, making sure no one came in behind him. His nerves were on edge after the evening he’d had. He rested his head on the steering wheel and tried to stop his world from spinning. Everything was coming at him so fast. AMG, the Crescent Crew, the upcoming tour, and Reece’s war . . . For the first time in forever, he felt overwhelmed. He guessed it was true: more money, more problems indeed.
The door to the garage opened, and Shauntay was standing there in a beautiful purple satin robe. A faint glow from the house framed her beautiful face, giving her an angelic appearance. He could hear the music of Floetry drifting from inside the house. This was exactly what he needed, a soft dose of femininity to balance out a rough day.
“Hey, honey, you okay?” Shauntay called out. She stepped into the garage and retrieved Qwess from his car. “Come on inside. I got just the thing to make you feel better.”
After she had received the call from Qwess as he rushed to Reece’s aid, she could sense his mood was tense. She knew exactly what he needed. Shauntay went all out preparing a dinner for Qwess. Afterward she planned to bathe him and give him a nice, long hot-oil massage. She wanted to show him how proud she was by pampering him and making him feel like a king.
She had the kitchen sectioned off from the rest of the house because she didn’t want him to see the trail of roses that she had laid for him leading from the kitchen to the bedroom. She wanted him to be surprised. Just like she wanted to surprise him with the roses floating inside the garden tub in the master bathroom. She even had a silver platter filled with a variety of fruits. She was going to feed him dessert inside the tub. After this, she was sure that whatever plagued his mind would be a thing of the past.
“Damn, baby, you went all out, huh?” Qwess said, taking in the arrangements.
“Yeah, I already had dinner made, but when you called me back I figured you needed something extra to get you back to yourself.”
Qwess took a seat at the bar in the kitchen and sighed. “Yeah you wouldn’t believe the night I had.”
Shauntay placed the baked potato on his plate. “Reece?” she asked knowingly.
Qwess nodded. “Yeah.”
Shauntay placed his plate before him. “Baby, I love Reece like a brother, you know I do, but . . . you have to learn to let go. You just signed the deal that is going to change your life. You can’t do the same things you used to do with the same people, hun.”
Qwess nodded. “You right, but how am I supposed to turn my back on him?”
“If he’s truly your friend, you won’t have to. He wouldn’t let you get involved in his shit anymore. A friend protects a friend.”
“Exactly.”
“Exactly.”
Qwess dropped his head and closed his eyes. An image of his friend bleeding flashed across his eyes. “Reece was shot at today,” he whispered.
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“Ohmigod! Is he all right? Did he get hit? Are you okay?” Shauntay rushed over and cradled Qwess’s head into her bosom.
“He’s fine,” Qwess mumbled into her chest. “Just caught some glass in his face.”
Shauntay breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God!”
Qwess stroked Shauntay’s thighs beneath the robe. He needed to shift his mind from the carnage of the streets, the drama, the bloodshed, and hits. He needed her.
“What you got on under this robe?” Qwess asked.
Shauntay grinned and opened the robe. Beneath it, she wore a purple thong with no bra. Her hair was pulled into a coil of curls on top of her head and held in place with a chopstick.
Qwess moaned. “Niiice!”
“You like this?”
“I love it.”
She knew Qwess would love this. She maintained the sexy by switching up styles on the regular because she knew the quickest way to kill a relationship was to get complacent. Furthermore, Qwess had so many women coming at him, if she didn’t keep him interested, she knew what would happen.
Shauntay slipped from his grip long enough to retrieve the chilled wine from the freezer and set it onto the glass table.
“Now follow me,” she commanded, taking his hand, leading him to the dining room table. She sat him down in a chair and told him not to move. As she walked into the kitchen, he silently admired the sway of her hips. Moments later, she returned with a platter of fresh-cut vegetables. He knew this was an appetizer because he smelled the shrimp the second he walked in.
Shauntay straddled him face-forward and began feeding him. He started to say something, but she took her perfectly manicured finger and placed it on his lips.
“Sshh,” she whispered softly. “No more talk. This is your time. Just bask in the moment.”
Qwess obliged and continued eating. He inhaled her scent, something feminine and erotic, but he couldn’t place what it was. All he knew was it smelled good. He looked deep in her green eyes as she fed him and basked in the love he found there. This inwardly warmed him, and he started to get an erection.
Street Rap Page 4