I asked The Greek Professor for his thoughts on the video, and whether it was real or staged? And for him to share a few of his subway experiences, as I know he has some really good stories. His response:
I thought the A-train beatdown was real, although what truly impressed me was a teenage chick making reference to a 15-year old tune.
As for my top subway beatdown stories, I've never thought of putting them under
a ranked rubric although I have retold random tales a bunch of times over the
years. Here are three that jump out:
I guess the birthday punches came later.
3. One Latino cat getting stepped to on the 4-train by three guys, between
161st and 167th streets. After telling the would-be assailants to leave him
alone because "it was his birthday," dude was severely stomped as the
rest of the train nodded off or looked on. The coup de grace: one of the
attackers pulled open the moving train's doors about two feet while the other
two attempted to throw the vic off as he desperately wrapped his leg around a
pole and held on to the bottom of a seat. They all got off at the next stop.
It was Gatsby's second choice after west egg.
2. A group of 10 cats menacing "The Sunshine Warrior", "Jamaican Guy", and other members of our
crew on the 4-train around 149th st, circa 1994. When two of them
stepped to "Dominican Businessman", demanding to know "Yo son, where you
from?", his reply of "West Bubblefuck" didn't go over too well;
an attack on DB ensued, leaving our hero bloodied. [Sidenote: I was in the
adjacent car with Doc -- Where you there for this one?]
No Pink Floyd cameos.
1: One guy seriously beating down 5 large dudes simultaneously @ the Hoyt-Schemerhorn A-train platform, circa 1991. One impressed onlooker
commented, "Damn, that ni**a's the "wall" ."
-
As a day/evening/late night rider since '88 I've got volumes of this stuff. Multiple volumes if i can include bus rides.
In the meanwhile, in response to the query at the end of story #2: I was cutting school that day (J-Kidd style: "I had a migraine"). So I wasn't there, unfortunately. Had I been there, I would guess I would have probably been the one who caught the beating....
I should be able to formulate a few good stories of my own, but I'm actually short on them right now. The one subway story that comes to mind right away is pretty horrific. A classmate of mine in high school - a little Asian girl - was slashed with a razor (boxcutter) by a homeless woman as they got off the 4-train in the morning. I was in the same car as both of them, and we all got off together, though at that time of the day like literally over a hundred kids get off the train at that stop. There were like six or seven people in front of me when it happened. It was so swift it was really surprisingly quiet - no one screamed (not even the poor girl); the assailant fled, the girl sat down on the stairs, and a few of the first people ran to get help from the token booth clerk. Meanwhile, since over a 100+ people are trying to go down the staircase, it slowed to an unusual crawl (as people tried to get around the scene around the girl). That's the first sign something was wrong. People were pretty hostile about the situation until they got to the stairs, and saw the pools of blood, and realized something bad had happened.
A less grim, and somewhat funnier (as these things go), story: I saw some kids rob a guy on the "up" escalator at Grand Central (connecting the 7-train to the 4,5,6-train level). It was also circa 1993, and I was coming home from visiting my dad in Queens. After robbing him, some guys came to the victims rescue (including a cop I believe) trying to bag the young cats that did the mugging. As they chased the kids up the escalator, and closed in on them (it's a long escalator), they hopped over into the divider, and bounced down it all the way back to the 7-platform.
If you've seen this escalator, you have some idea of how difficult and absolutely insane that is (and also... athletic). It's a long decline at a very sharp angle, like more than 45 degrees (I'm gonna put it at 60). It's the equivalent of going down the face of a mountain!
It may not involve an actual beating, but it's arguably one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
One more story, non-subway related: Willie Fuego loves to tell this story. Basically he's coming home (to the Amsterdam projects on Manhattan's west side), passed Lincoln Center. As he's walking, these three "Bebe's Kids" (his words, not mine) come running by, full speed. As they reach the corner, Willie sees the one in the lead, the fast one, run right up to some white guy carrying a pizza box; the kid jumps up and does a flying kick right into the guy's stomach. Pizza box and guy go down; the other two kids run up. One kid picks up the pizza box, the other shoves the guy to keep him from getting up. All three never break stride, and run across the street and back into the projects before the guy even knew what happened!
Undeniably true.
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Ditch the sports stuff and just write a NYC Insiders blog, SML. :-) Ha, your stories are always fascinating.
From the archives on the Asian girl that got slashed: http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/ny_local/1996/01/16/1996-01-16_cops_hunt_woman_in_teen_subw.html
I remember quite well when Dominican Businessman got it that day... what were a bunch of a meek Science geeks to do? I had my hand on my T-Square though in case it moved my way...
One time in '94, "Cutlass Guyana", "Black Dominos Miguel" and I were waiting on the platform of the 7 train at Grand Central Station, Queens side heading home. I'm listening to a Double R mixtape when two miscreants, much larger by 4-5" than any of us, approach and request from me: "Yo lemme see that walkman." Clearly I knew where this was heading and tried to slickly eject the mixtape into my pocket. This mixtape was hot btw, if I remember correctly it was Double R G-bo the Pro joint with reggae on side II re-dubbed on one of my Maxell XLII-S metal tapes.
As I'm doing this Cutlass Guyana says "Yo, why don't you leave my friend alone?!" and with that came two swift blows (Tyson would've been proud) to his dome piece. The other one flashed what looked like a gun to me and I quickly gave up the goods minus the mix tape which found it's way into the depths of my First Alliance X-Large bubble jacket. CG ends up with a speed-knot on his head, and I bring him home to my parents to comfort and thank him with some dinner (where he proceeded to eat the chicken AND the bone much to the horror of my younger sis).
True story.
What I made #2? Sweet.
Details to #2:
I got some good cuts in. Held my own. The West bubblefuck training came on well. I never went down, kept bobbing and weaving, and taking my shots 3 on 1. The only clean good shot was the first blindside hit, where one of the crew jumped up on the pole and kicked my left eye with his timbos-- that one cost me 5-7 stitches. Ironically, me and the attackers got off at 149 & Grand Concourse still fighting, they tried to run and I even went off drop kicking one of them as I ran down the stairs. Dude got up and ran away. Cops at the station were useless. They ran right past them. I had to walk myself to Lincoln Hospital.
I still remember my biggest regret of that day -- I should have worn my Timbos. Then maybe that last drop kick would have done some good. I was wearing some really weak suede shoes, probably payless too.
"One impressed onlooker commented, "Damn, that ni**a's the "wall" ."
That is classic.