Harlem Heroin(e)- My Love Affair With Harlem Street Life and The Men Who Ruled It

Copyright © 2015 Ms. Tee

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions hereof in any form whatsoever without written permission.

Note: Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book was purchased without a cover, it may have been reported to the publisher as unsold or destroyed, neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for the sale of this book.

The events are portrayed to the best of Tonia Taylor-Bragg’s memory. While the stories in this book are true, some names, and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.

Published by

Royal-T Publishing, LLC

PO Box 600

New York, NY 10030

Email: [email protected]

ISBN 10: 0692396889

ISBN-13: 978-0-692-39688-9

Harlem Heroin(e) Credits:

Written by: Ms. Tee

Edited by: Salih Israil and Ms. Tee

Cover Concept: Tonia Taylor-Bragg

Title page

Thank you

Start of book

I want to thank everyone who stood by and supported me while writing this book. I want to thank them for their blessings. To my sister Shanda, aka Boop, you are my baby girl. You have been through everything with me. Mommy only gave birth to you. You were and still are my baby. You have seen it all. You were always there when I needed you. Even though we’re six years apart, since you were a child we’ve been inseparable. You are my best friend. I love you.

To my big sister Janine, Thank you. To my mother, my world who worried many nights, but knew the power of prayer, I LOVE YOU LADY.

To my daddy, Jamaica’s finest. R.I.P. You always taught us to be leaders.

To Tiana, mommy’s angle. You are my world, the air in my lungs and the reason I do what I do. I love you and will always be proud of anything you do.

To my nephews Chris, Terry Jr., I love you.

To my niece princess Rhyan, I love you.

To my other brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, I love you guys.

To my brother-in-law Mel, I love ya. You are a good dude.

To Lou, thank you for your love, support and helping me with this. You have been awesome.

To my uncle Stan, with ya big head, thank you. You never told me no and maybe that was the Goddamn problem. LOL

To Unique, thank you for your blessings. You have always made us smile. Thank you for a Good MF time.

Maine I love you man. You were my motivation 10 years ago. Thank you Baby Jay. R.I.P

To Shelli, my partner in crime, we have done some thangs. Love you to pieces.

To my GG’s, Love ya’ll.

To my friend/sister/twin April Pringle. R.I.P. You'll live in me forever. GG for Life!

To my baby daddy, the one and only Ace, thank you so much for your support and the info. I know you got ya feet kicked up lying in the sun kid.

To Demetrius, thank you.

To Marquette and Salih, thank you for everything. You guys were the wheels that kept this machine going. I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you again. My feelings really can’t be put into words.

To the Almighty, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has spared my life of many occasions, thanks for your Grace and Mercy.

Last, but not least thank you to the Hood. Not so much the people, but the experience. You have made me the strong woman I am today. If it weren’t for you this book would not exist. You have introduced me to some wonderful people and some crazy ones too. SMH. We’ve been through a lot together. We have had good times and bad times. You stuck with me through thick and thin. I love you for the experiences. They will be long remembered. There is no college degree in the world that could have given me what you have given me.

TO THE FALLEN: Unfortunately there are so many to name.

Rest In Peace, Some of you left us far too early. GOD Bless.

It’s not my intentions to glorify the street life in no way shape or form. It was just my reality at a time in my life. This isn’t just another one of those made up hood stories. The fact is that for most of my young life I was surrounded by and/or involved with people who were involved with the street life on some level.

Most of my relationships were with alleged killers and hustlers. Did I plan it that way? No. Do I wish things could have been different? Maybe. Do I have any regrets? No!! Let’s just say that I’m disappointed about a few things, but I have no regrets. My environment made me the strong woman I am today.

Ten years ago I began putting the events of my life on paper. Yes 10 long years. This story is about what Harlem was to me and my experiences. It’s my truth. There may be someone that has their own version of how things were to them. I’m not the only one with a story. There are hundreds of Real hood stories out there and some quite interesting too.

This is a true story about my life in Harlem and the life of a lot of girls from the hood that desired to be with men that led a not so desirable lifestyle. Well to some people (police, church folk, the government, etc.) it would be considered undesirable. To us it was "THE LIFE". My environment was filled with sex, drugs, money and murder. That was Harlem.

For those of us who wanted the life, we probably got more than we bargained for. But we lived through it. Some of us survived it and some weren’t so lucky. Although I’ve been shot inches away from my spine, tied up and robbed at gunpoint another time, and under investigation, I happen to be one of the lucky ones. I know you’re wondering what was lucky about all that… I’M ALIVE and FREE.

For those females who think or thought they wanted to be a hustler’s wife or be affiliated with the life, it wasn’t always what it seemed. For those dudes that are still trying to hang on to what use to be, it’s OVER. For those who never got that chance to experience that life, consider yourselves lucky.

Many street legends have preceded us in death. A lot of my people didn’t make it. Many of those deaths were senseless. But that’s what the life was all about.

Some names have been changed, but the stories are real. The words alleged and allegedly will occur often in this book for obvious reasons. Besides the fun I had growing up in Harlem, my reason for writing my story is to Inform, Enlighten, Enrich, Empower and at the same time Discourage young men and women who may be thinking about adapting to the lifestyle of being a hustler or hustler’s wife. It’s also for those who wonder what it was really like. One thing I can say for sure is that- IT’S OVER… THE GAME, THE LIFE is over. Let it go. Times have changed and things are much different.

It’s time to be legit….. Go hard or Go home…... It’s time to preserve the Black family.

Let’s Talk.

Although a lot of my story starts way back in the 80’s, I have to start with the year 2000. I mean, I had seen and been through a lot of stuff in the streets before then, but on the night of June 23, 2000; my life changed forever. It was a clear and beautiful Friday night, a couple of days into summer. I was home looking for something to wear to the club. I picked out a linen dress and some black sandals. Me, my sister and my brother Maine and his people were hitting this club downtown called Blue Angel, I think. We’d been hitting that spot for the last few weeks. That’s how it was in Harlem back then. A spot started poppin’ and that’s where everybody went until dudes got stupid and forced the owner or the police to shut it down. It didn’t matter though, because Harlem always found another spot. We’d make it hot and then some asshole would spoil it for everybody once again. But hey, that’s the way it was.

Anyway, I called Maine up that night before I left the house. What’s up for tonight? What time ya’ll gettin’ to the club?

Sis, we chillin’ tonight, he answered. I think that kid Memphis Bleek is having a party there.

Alright then, me and Tee Tee are going to get something to eat, I told him, referring to my daughter. She was eight at the time and since I wasn’t going to the club, I decided to take her out to dinner. We went to Amy Ruths Soul Food on 116th Street. The food there was slammin’.

You know how people say they get bad vibes when something just doesn’t feel right? Well, I didn’t get that, but the next phone call I got caused excitement, fear and brought so much pain to my heart that I couldn’t think straight. I hopped in my car and raced uptown to 5th Avenue and 133rd Street and found everybody standing around with looks of fear and pain on their faces. I also saw looks of shock and surprise. It had happened so fast, Maine never knew what was waiting for him in the darkness. The boogieman was waiting and Maine never even had a clue.

It’s crazy how someone can have control over your destiny and you don’t even know it. It might as well have been a ghost that got Maine. It appeared in the night and disappeared just as quickly. Its intentions were to kill and destroy and that’s exactly what happened. It killed Maine and destroyed the rest of us.

Someone out there told me that Ken threw Maine in the Escalade and took him to Harlem Hospital. I raced over there and stood in the lobby thinking about the first time I saw Maine’s handsome little face as a young kid. I wanted to go back to those days, the days when he was happy and having fun. That’s the only thing I wanted to think about. I didn’t want to think of anything else. I didn’t want to hear anything but his laughter in my mind. I didn’t want to see anything except the images of his smiling face in my mind. I just wanted to hear him say Tee or Sis again. I wanted to see him walking out of that hospital. That’s all. That’s all I wanted. I just wanted Maine back.

****

Whenever I think about what happened to Maine, whenever I think about losing him, I can’t help but to think about this one dude. I knew this dude and his family since he was young. HE was always a cool kid. HE went to school with my little sister. I went to school with one of his older sisters. HE did pretty well at school too. HE loved basketball and got along with everybody. HE was a lovable little guy with the cutest dimples.

HE and I remained cool over the years. HE eventually became a rapper, got down with a major record company and infamously became known for wearing shiny suits. LOL. HE also started a record label of his own and was successful with it. We saw each other from time to time. HE tried to holla once, but HE was still like a little cousin to me. HE cracked me up. We both got a kick out of it. You know how it is when dudes start getting money. They start thinking they can get anybody. It was cute though.

I think the last time I spoke to him was in 1997 after Biggie got killed. HE called me and we talked for a long time. That experience scared the shit out of him.

I’m never going back to L.A., I remember HE kept repeating.

I know he’s been back since then, but at the time I understood why he felt that way. I would’ve felt the same way.

HE and Maine knew each other, but I really don’t know how well. One thing’s for sure, as kids growing up in Harlem, neither of them knew their lives would eventually cross in an unimaginable way. Neither of them could’ve known that so much tragedy, death and destruction would consume their lives; making one of them seek GOD and the other actually see GOD.

Theirs was a feud I will never ever forget. It’s going on fifteen years since Maine’s death and I wish that whole beef never happened. My heart ached for years. It still aches, but it doesn’t ache as bad as it did back then. It aches to know that Maine’s daughter will never really know how funny and how sweet he was. She’s older now so I’m sure she hears the stories, but it’s not the same as her being able to witness her wonderful father firsthand. I guess it’s good that she can at least look at photos and see how handsome he was. I mean, my heart doesn’t just ache for Maine. My heart also aches because two of the other victims of this feud were friends of mine too, even though the beef kinda’ divided us.

This started with Maine and HIM, and it could’ve ended there. But when you’re not strong enough to stand on your own and you enlist others to hold you down, this was the result. SIX DEAD!!!!! Some people wanted to blame Maine for this. NAH!!! He just chose to take on whatever came his way. HE should have done the same thing. The result could’ve been two men standing with their issues resolved or one man left standing. Those of you who know, probably know who would’ve been the one left standing. I’m just saying. That being said, I would’ve definitely stepped in and hopefully both would’ve been able to step off with their issues resolved. I loved Maine, and HE and I were cool enough for that to have been done. He could’ve contacted me, but I truly believe HE allowed others to influence his actions and decisions. Maine was no saint by any means, but he would’ve listened to reason.

I wish we could go back to the old days when men fought, got up and went home. Someone had to win and someone had to lose. Sometimes it was a real good fight and we called it a tie. Black men have to learn how to let things go. They must realize what’s more important. They care too much about what the next person thinks. They’re scared to lose a fight. More importantly Black men need to learn how to talk and resolve their differences like MEN. They care more about egos and impressing others than preserving life.

No one won this fight. Everyone lost in this feud. When it was all said and done I asked the question, Why? Why did six people have to lose their lives? What was it really over? Jermaine’s death has been the discussion in magazine articles, among rap industry insiders, and on Hip Hop related radio and internet programs. All these people speculate about what happened. But do they really know? Do they know how many people were killed because of this beef?

What was the beef really over? Could it have been prevented?

MAYBE. Why did HE really leave New York? Was HE involved in Maine’s death? Why did HE really seek out GOD? Was it because HE felt guilty about something?

Maine’s departure from this earth is what turned my life around. He’s the reason why I put pen to paper. It’s what made me realize that I had some unfinished business in my life and that I needed to get right with GOD. Without him, the Street Life wasn’t fun anymore. Death caused too much pain. After a few years of dealing with the pain of his loss, I felt like I was losing control. I was stressed over the fact that there was nothing I could do to bring him back.

I ended up leaving New York in 2006. The years had taken a toll on me. I felt like the walls were closing in on me. It had been five years since Maine died, and I still had no control over how I felt. I needed to get myself together and I realized there was something that I did have control over, MY LIFE.

Again, the night of Maine’s death changed my life forever, but the truth is that Maine was actually the last of a long line of real, smart and handsome street dudes I encountered along the way. Now I’m going to take you on a journey back to my life on the Streets of Harlem, a journey that intertwines the stories of many Street Legends. You may have heard about many of the street beefs in Harlem in the 80’s and 90’s, but I was there for some of them. I had a firsthand look at who was who and what was what, and this is my story. From the big-time hustlers and gangsters from back in the day, all the way to Maine and his crew, get ready for an inside look into what Street Life was really like in Harlem.

And by the way, I’ll get back to Maine’s story later, but first we have to take it back. Way back.

Harlem was poppin’ in the mid-eighties. Everybody from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and from out of town wanted to be a part of Harlem. If it was a popular restaurant, they wanted to eat there. If it was a party, they needed to be there. Dudes from other boroughs envied dudes from Harlem. Yes, ya’ll know ya’ll did. Don’t front. But let’s be clear, there were definitely other reasons why Brooklyn showed up. Yeah, they were trying to