by Erica Hilton
“Nut!”
Nut turned around to look at the man who called him.
“Yo, c’mere right quick,” the man said.
Lil Nut threw up an index finger to let the yellow car know he would be with him in a minute.
“What’s up?” Lil Nut asked the man who had called him, shaking his hand.
“What’s good, baby boy?” Skip asked.
Lil Nut gave a pound to the other two men that stood with Skip.
The three of them were much older than Lil Nut, and they were the muscle of another drug lord. They also sold drugs for the kingpin.
“Yo, who that cat?” Skip wanted to know.
“This cat that cops from me,” Lil Nut answered.
“What, he followed you home or something? I know you not selling outta these projects?” Skip asked, reminding Lil Nut that the crew he worked for had that particular project on lock, which meant that no one other than anyone from their team could set up shop there.
“Naw, I ain’t clocking outta here,” Lil Nut told them.
“I seen that honky somewhere before, but I can’t think where,” Skip said, staring at the car.
“Yeah, me too,” one of the other men chimed in, staring down the man.
The four of them stood there staring at the car before Lil Nut spoke.
“Let me go see what he wants.”
“Yo, Nut, man, I ain’t feelin’ no good vibes from that cat. Tell him to step, ’cause ain’t nothing here,” Skip ordered him.
Although Lil Nut wasn’t down with their crew, he grew up there and was known in those projects. In fact, the older heads looked out for him and respected his hustle, just as long as he wasn’t hustling on their territory.
“Yeah a’ight,” Lil Nut said, walking off.
As he walked to the car he looked over his shoulder, back at Skip and his crew, and as he suspected, they were watching him.
He walked onto the sidewalk to the passenger’s side of the car and leaned down, looking into the car.
“What’s up, my friend?” the man asked and smiled at Lil Nut.
“What’s up? Yo, seriously, why you come ’round here?”
“I need to score some more drugs. You got the best shit in town, and I wanted what you got. I need ten this time.”
Lil Nut just continued to stare at the man.
“You don’t be with my aunt anymore?” he asked out of nowhere.
“I haven’t seen her in a while. I came here with her one time before to score. In fact, that was the last time I’ve seen her, Lil Nut,” he said, smiling.
“You don’t know me like that to call me by my name,” Lil Nut told him seriously, getting angered because he knew no one but his aunt could have told this man his name.
“My bad.” The man held up his hands. “My name is Danny.” He held out his hand for a shake. Lil Nut just looked at Danny’s hand as it was suspended in mid-air.
“OK, I understand,” Danny said and placed his hand back on his lap. “Can I score?”
“Naw, I ain’t got nothing.”
“Come on, Lil Nut. Hook a brother up,” Danny said in his best b-boy talk.
Lil Nut frowned. “You need to watch your back riding around here in this loud ass-colored car. You might get jacked. I ain’t fuckin’ with you, man,” he said.
“Come on, man, just sell me the ten and I won’t come back tonight.”
Lil Nut looked up over the top of the car at Skip and his boys. They were still watching.
“Naw, man, I ain’t got nothing,” he said to the man and stepped back a few steps away from the car.
“Aw, come on, Nut, I need to get the ten. Listen, I’ll tell you what. Let me get twenty and I definitely won’t come back,” the white man said in a last desperate attempt.
“I’ll get up with you tomorrow,” Lil Nut said and stepped around the back of the car to cross the street.
“Oh, that’s how you gonna do me, Lil Nut?” Danny yelled out the window after him. “As much money I done spent with you, you gonna play me out like that?” Danny asked, calling him out in front of Skip and his crew.
Lil Nut kept walking. He became angrier as he listened to Danny yell out after him. Crackheads, he thought.
“Yo, bounce!” Skip yelled to Danny.
“Yeah, you better roll the fuck up outta here, motherfucker, before you get your shit split!” one of Skip’s boys warned.
“I’m tryna do business with my man, Nut,” Danny yelled back at them.
“Nut don’t do that kinda business, so bounce,” Skip said, now walking toward the streets.
“Yeah, what the fuck you think this is? This here is a clean neighborhood. Don’t none of that shit go on here,” another of Skip’s boys said.
“So I guess you three are on neighborhood watch, huh?” Danny asked with a smirk on his face.
“Yeah. Why, you got a problem with that?” Skip asked. Skip and his two boys began to cross the street and approach the Vega just as Danny slammed his foot on the gas pedal.
The Vega coughed first before jerking forward and peeling out.
***
It was about eleven am the next day when Lil Nut walked out of his building. He began the walk through the courtyard on his way to the store to get the daily newspaper. He was scheduled to meet up with Butter and Fatman at about one o’clock.
As soon as he stepped foot through the entrance of the projects about ten unmarked and marked cop cars came screeching up in front of the building. They pulled their cars up in different directions, having no concern for the cars that were traveling down the street. Several cop cars actually drove into the projects.
“Freeze!” several of the cops yelled.
Lil Nut stood there for a moment looking at the chaos surrounding him. He was thrown to the ground with other people that happened to be passing by. Everyone got searched. The paddy wagon pulled up and the officers began to load it with anyone that they caught with paraphernalia. Lil Nut watched as the officers brought Skip and his crew out in cuffs and loaded them into the wagon as well.
Lil Nut was searched and they found nothing. “This one’s clean,” the officer that searched him told a cop, who looked to be in charge of the bust.
“Let him go,” he told the officer as he walked back into the projects.
Lil Nut went on his way to the store. Once there he stopped at the payphone and paged Butter. When Butter finally called him back he told Butter to meet him in front of the Tilden projects. Then he called Fatman and told him that he and Butter would be there shortly.
Twenty minutes later the three of them were talking about the raid.
“These motherfuckers is going crazy. First Howard and now Langston,” Butter said.
“I’m sayin’. Word up,” Fatman concluded.
“Somebody talking,” Lil Nut said.
“You think so?” Fatman asked.
“Word up. Just look at how they know exactly when to hit and what apartments to hit.” Lil Nut looked at the two of them before continuing. “Them niggas be clocking outta they sets. That’s how they know where to hit at.”
Both Butter and Fatman stood there listening intently.
“You see why I don’t serve outta Langston. I always take that shit away from where I rest at. That’s why I tell y’all niggas don’t serve nobody from y’all’s cribs either.”
“Word,” Butter said in a low tone, now realizing why Lil Nut had always told them that in the past.
Fatman became uneasy. “Yo, I served Sticky and that cat that beat me outta my shit in front of my projects.”
“Word, that’s right,” Butter said. “Yo, where ya shit at?”
“I got it stashed at the crib in my room.”
“You gotta get
that shit up outta there. They probably gonna hit Riverdale next,” Butter said.
“Naw, they gonna hit Tilden next,” Lil Nut said.
“Well I’m good then,” Butter said. “I gave you all I had left yesterday,” he told Lil Nut.
“I’ma go get my shit and bring it to you, Nut,” Fatman said, getting off the bench.
“Yo, chill. They ain’t gonna do nothing now, ’cause they gotta get paperwork and all that shit together first,” Lil Nut said. “You still got time. I need to go back to Langston to see what’s going on. Let’s be out.”
Butter followed behind Nut, but Fatman was feeling some kind of a way. He wanted to get rid of the drugs first to ease his mind. He was scared, and he didn’t want the others to know that he was. Reluctantly he followed them.
As they approached Langston housing projects, they could see the aftermath of the raid. Garbage cans were turned over and garbage was everywhere. People were still standing around talking about the raid.
“They got all them drug dealers,” one lady said.
“I’m glad. Good for they asses!” another woman added.
“Yeah, it’s about time. Kids play out here and they don’t care. You think they wouldn’t want the kids to see that kinda shit. But nooo!”
“I know that’s right, girl! These niggas don’t have any home training.” She laughed, and the two women gave each other a high five.
The crew walked right past the cackling women and into the building that Lil Nut lived in. Once inside his apartment, they went straight to his room. Butter plopped onto the bed and Fatman leaned up against the wall next to a poster of Chuck D from Public Enemy.
Lil Nut leaned against his dresser. He noticed the worried look on Fatman’s face.
“What’s up, Fatman?” he asked him.
“I’m good,” Fatman said, looking down at the floor.
“I think we need to chill for a minute till I can find out what’s up out there,” Lil Nut told them.
He wanted to wait until things died down before they continued with their business.
“I’m thirsty,” Fatman said, expressing no interest in what Lil Nut was talking about. He walked out of the room and into the kitchen to get something to drink.
“What’s up with that guy?” Butter asked Lil Nut.
Before Lil Nut could respond, a loud bang sounded. He and Butter jumped to their feet and ran out of the room. When they ran into the living room, they saw Fatman on the floor, face down, being handcuffed. Three officers tackled Butter and Lil Nut, slamming them to the floor.
After being cuffed, Lil Nut watched as the team of cops ransacked his mother’s apartment. He knew she was going to have a fit when she got home. As the police searched the apartment, two officers left to take the boys down to central booking.
Twenty minutes later the police were done with their search.
“What we got?” the officer in charge asked.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Yeah, absolutely nothing. The place is clean,” the young officer said before walking out of the apartment.
***
Lil Nut sat in central booking, handcuffed to a table.
The door to the interrogation room opened and in walked Danny, the white guy with the yellow Vega.
A smirk came across Lil Nut’s face.
“What’s up, Nut? I’m Detective Delveccio,” he said, taking a seat in front of Lil Nut. “So where the shit at, Nut?”
Lil Nut didn’t say a word. He continued to ice grill the detective.
“I know you the brains behind ya little crew, Nut. So where the drugs at?” Detective Delveccio asked again.
But Lil Nut sat in silence. He knew the code of the streets.
“Your boy Fatman is gonna go down for a long time. He sold to me, an undercover officer.”
Lil Nut still remained silent.
“Oh, yeah, your boy Butter is in there singing like a canary. He said you the brains behind it all. He said you the one who gives the orders. He says it’s all you.” The detective pointed to Lil Nut.
But Lil Nut knew better. He knew his boys wouldn’t sell him out. Or at least that’s what he thought.
Truth be told, the detective was just toying with his mind. Lil Nut was correct in thinking that his friends wouldn’t rat him out. The detective was reaching, reaching for anything to get Lil Nut.
“I’m clean. You got nothing on me,” Lil Nut said with confidence.
“Oh, but I do, young man,” the detective lied. “You know Lorene Bolden, don’t you? Oh, yeah.” He laughed. “How could I forget. She’s your aunt, right?”
Lil Nut continued to mean mug the detective.
“Yeah, she copped from you that night, right?” the detective asked.
“Did you see her cop from me?” Lil Nut asked.
“No, but she confirmed it when she came back and got in the car with me.”
“That’s hearsay,” Lil Nut said.
“Hearsay my ass. She copped from you, and you know it.” Detective Delveccio was getting annoyed with Lil Nut’s smart mouth.
Lil Nut just smiled at the detective, realizing he was getting under his skin.
“Where she at? If she can testify to that, then you got yourself a case, detective.”
Pissed was an understatement for what Detective Delveccio was starting to feel about Lil Nut. He had been trying to find Skinny Lorene and couldn’t. He was going to use her to testify not only against Lil Nut, but several other dealers. But she had come up missing, so he got out there on his own, hoping the dealers would trust him and still sell to him without her. Most of them did, but Lil Nut never sold to him directly. Without his boys or Skinny Lorene testifying against Lil Nut, the detective knew he would have to let him go.
Detective Delveccio stood as calmly as possible and left the room. One hour later a uniformed police officer stepped into the room. He unlocked the handcuffs from around Lil Nut’s wrists.
“You’re free to go,” he told Lil Nut.
Five minutes later Lil Nut walked out of the precinct a free young man. But the same could not be said for Fatman. Fatman had sold to an undercover officer, and drugs were found in his room at home. He would do five years in jail. Butter was released and met up with Lil Nut at Langston a little while later.
“That’s fucked up what happened to Fatman,” Butter said. He and Fatman were close.
“Yeah, it is, but I told y’all cats before don’t sell where you rest at,” Lil Nut said plain and simple, realizing he needed to take his own advice more often.
He had gotten away this time, but what would happen the next time?
6
“That God damn credit, dead it. You think a crackhead payin’ you back, shit forget it!”
—“Ten Crack Commandments,” Notorious B.I.G.
1989
“Listen, kill all that noise. I ain’t tryna hear that shit. Pay me my money!” the dealer told the crackhead.
“I’ma have your money on Friday. I get paid on Friday. I told you that,” the crackhead responded.
“How the fuck you gonna ask me for more credit and you already owe me?”
“I swear I got you on Friday. Don’t I always come to you straight?”
“Yeah, you do, but you two hundred dollars deep, and I can’t give you no more credit. Pay me whatchu’ owe!” the dealer shouted.
This was the conversation Lil Nut heard as he walked to the store. Lil Nut had that Brooklyn swagger in full effect. He was on his way to the store to get something to eat. He glided past the two arguing men with a touch of gangsta in his walk.
It had been a year since Fatman got locked up, and two years since he’d killed Fuquan. To this day no on knew who killed Fuquan and Red.
Now his crew was down to two. He missed his friends, but his business had taken him to a new level in the crack game. He and Butter had recruited runners to work for them after their near jail experience.
It was a cold winter that year, but it didn’t stop the fiends and the crackheads from plowing through the snow chasing that next hit. Lil Nut was rocking a brand new Triple F.A.T. Goose coat and a pair of Forty-Below boots. He had the legs of his jeans crunched down on top of the boots. No Brooklyn cat would ever be caught dead with the legs of his jeans stuffed inside his boots. Lil Nut looked like new money.
“What’s up, Nut?” one of the boys standing around the store asked him.
“What up?” Lil Nut said as he stepped into the store.
As soon as he completed his purchase and stepped out of the store, shots were fired. He looked in the direction of the gunfire and saw the dealer who had been arguing with the crackhead earlier pumping bullets into the man’s face. The man slid down the wall after the first shot, but the dealer wasn’t satisfied. He began to pump bullet after bullet into the man’s face. The man’s head hit the brick wall every time a bullet entered him. The shells from the 9 mm gun discharged and fell to the ground. When the clip was empty the dealer took off, quickly running away from the scene.
While others on the street came to investigate the killing, Lil Nut shook his head and walked off in the opposite direction. He wouldn’t have used that type of a gun, because it left shells for the police to gather as evidence.
The hulk was out, so that meant it was cold as hell and Lil Nut hunched his shoulders as the wind whipped around his body. When he reached one of the buildings of Ocean Hills projects, he climbed the stairs two at a time. He walked into the hallway on the second floor and rang the bell at the second door. He waited patiently, using his thumbnail to clean the dirt from underneath his other nails.
Finally Butter came to the door and opened it.
“My nigga, what’s up?” He smiled at Lil Nut.
“What’s up?” Lil Nut walked into the apartment and saw Butter’s girlfriend, Tamia, sitting on the sofa watching TV.