FLASHBACK FRIDAY!

The year was 1998, War Emblem and I were fresh out of high school. When we weren't playing basketball, cruising through the mall looking for some fine "breezees", or eating at 'Taco Lita' - we were rapping.

"I'm compact like a bobcat, I maneuver on tracks like an F14-Tomcat."

Sure, some of our closest friends were assholes and laughed at us, but in retrospect, we had skills. We weren't gangster - we were lyrical and had potential; we just didn't have the right beats or producer. In any case, we did have this friend of War Emblem's; his name was Andy (R.I.P.). He used to do radio back in the day, he was an older man with a studio in his home. It wasn't a studio like one you'd see in Diddy's house, but for aspiring rappers getting their feet wet; it did the job nicely.

***One last note before I move on, War Emblem worked at a local Karate dojo and Andy had recently taken over as owner of said dojo. The dojo became our "peach pit" (yes that was a 90210 reference) and on Saturday's I would go and wait for War Emblem to finish training or teaching and then we'd head over to Andy's house (down the street).

So it was a Saturday and we left the dojo (in one car - I left mine at the dojo) on our way to Andy's to drop some hot tracks; I'm talking straight fire. After all, that's how 'Paradox' rolled - oh yeah, that was the name of our rap group.

"Paradox on the mic, tight like a virgin on prom night - aight!" 

Without boring you all to death, we dropped it like it was hot and our producer Andy, he gave us each copies of what we had just done on tape. We hopped in War Emblem's ride and headed back to the dojo to get my car.

Now, I usually parked in the alley in back of the dojo that looked something like this...

War Emblem pulls in back, I get out and hop in my ride (Old ass Toyota Corolla). War Emblem pulls up next to me, I'm sticking my head out of the window talking to him when all hell broke loose...

I hear people yelling, it was too loud and sudden to make out what they were saying; however, actions spoke MUCH louder than words as I saw a rifle pointed at War Emblem from just outside the drivers door. Then I see cops pop out from in front of both our cars and they're yelling at us to put our hands where they can see them. They tell War Emblem to get out and basically get down and they proceed to cuffing him and detaining him in the back of their ride. Then they go through the motions with me. Now, I don't know how many of you have had dozens of cops roll up on you like it was Black Ops, but things move kind of fast; especially, when you have absolutely no idea why. I could see if we had robbed a bank, then it would make sense and wouldn't surprise me much.

Unfortunately - it did surprise us both.

I remember the cops telling me to get out of the car, so I reach for my seat belt and all hell broke loose once again.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS UP! DON'T MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVES!"

Now I'm tripppin' cause I got guns in my grill and I'm supposed to get out, but unless I've got super 'X-Men' powers, I've got to unbuckle my damn seat belt. So I reach with my opposite hand and one of the cops yells...

"USE YOUR OTHER HAND IDIOT!!!"

Okay, shit just got real! It got real ridiculous cause there's more instructions than for Gremlin's man. I swear the dude just wanted to put a hot one in me; least, that's how it felt 'cause I couldn't do shit right!

Eventually, one of the cops gets close enough (with pistol pointed at me) to watch me undo my belt, then I open the door and the cop nearest me pushes me on the ground. I'm wearing a red Fubu sweater (it was in at the time) and black nike mesh pants, so when he made me get down on my kness - on the gravel - it hurt. After awhile, both War Emblem and I were in separate cop cars, in cuff's dying to find out what the hell all this drama was about.

Was Ashton Kutcher going to pop out? Probably not, he wasn't around at that time.

Turns out a bank nearby had just been robbed and the suspect (get this) had a red top and black bottoms. Well aren't I the lucky one for matching the description. Being in the back of an alley in separate cars with the bank being less than a block away is probably the epitome of "wrong place-wrong time". The cops had one of the tellers stand far away, then they had War Emblem and I get out and stand far from the teller. Basically, he was identifying us - which obviously he told them we were not the culprits.

Without so much as an apology, they released us and said they were just doing their jobs. I mean, I guess they were, but damn that was some Saturday afternoon. At the end of the day, it was funny and for two aspiring rappers - it definitely gave us something to rap about; it also gave us a little "street cred" as they say.

After all, that's the rappers life right? We were actually living the dream. No Hollywood gangsters here.

"I'll put an X on your chest like Wolverine"

(Images found at njmonthly and painttalk)