How We Move

As told to Zuzana Bracok and Akintola Hanif
Images by Akintola Hanif

Corey Hamlet, a.k.a. C-Blaze or Blizzie, grew up in some of Newark’s most notorious housing projects and started gangbanging in his early 20s. After losing his college football scholarship, he went on to become a high-ranking member of the largest Crip set on the East Coast, the Grape Street Crips. In February 2016, the U.S. Attorney General charged Blaze, 38, with conspiracy, linking him to four murders, three attempted murders and other criminal acts. Before he was arrested, he talked to HYCIDE about maintaining order, what it takes to be successful in the music industry, and why he considers the gang his extended family. The following is an excerpt from a piece that ran in HYCIDE's Survival Issue.

Everything you do, you gotta be a people person. Whether you working in Checkers or you de-escalating a situation between individuals who you got love for. If you’re giving someone incorrect change, they’ll become irate. But to restore order—the customer is always right. Never let it spiral out of control in your presence. I don’t like chaos. That shit doesn’t register when I encounter it. I’m the type of person that addresses it as soon as I get wind so I know what needs to be done.

I always stood for my team, so my team knows I ain’t gonna stand wrong. And if I ask something of them, something simple like “Follow me to the club’’ or “Come with me to one of my events,'' I have expectations. It’s just one hand washes the other. I don’t like using the word “gang.'' I prefer the words “extended family.” Because gang is the word derived from society when it comes to their problems, but it doesn’t apply to certain situations. Let me give you something hypothetical: You go to jail, right? Why is it that they treat the mob like they’re fucking super-duper superior? But if you Blood or Crip, you’re a low-level criminal? You doing the same shit. Except the mob do shit on a grander scale. The mob is more organized, more structured. Society will never let a street-level gang get that big because they would have to call in martial law to get control. It was proven with the riots in California, even in Jersey when they had the riots in the ‘60s.

Anything society can’t profit off of or control is considered taboo. You can have two or more individuals together and it’s considered a gang. Y’all could be talking about spirituality; y’all could be talking about the Lakers beating the Knicks. By society’s standards you are considered a gang. But that doesn’t mean you’re indulging in negativity. There is no crime belonging to a certain family. It's when you commit criminal activity that society perceives you as a problem, because you’re talking about destruction and you ain’t got no structure. And when you ain’t got no structure, you’re considered chaotic. And they want to put you down. And when I say put you down, I mean jail. You gotta be on your square when it comes to it. With my brothers, we have a unique bond and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Laughter is the cure for any pain and I consider myself funny as hell, so we stay laughing. We a bunch of laughs, but we’re serious when it comes to our business. I’m blessed to have the great family structure that I have. I ain’t gotta say I got a headache for me to get an aspirin; I ain’t got to hear a stomach growling for me to know my brother is hungry because I know how he eat. That’s when you in tune with yours and that’s how we move. We’re really one unit. I know where my brothers at basically all times and they know where I’m at. I’m never going to say I’m over here when I’m over there—we don’t deviate. We always 100.

You can’t bring certain kind of elements around me and my people and not expect a certain kind of reaction, especially when it’s at the expense of mines. We kinda, like, no tolerance. The only people who get the benefit of the doubt is family. So if you ain’t got our best interest, please do not interact with us, because someone in my family going to sniff you out. We’re very family-oriented and we don’t tolerate BS. That’s what I want the world to know.

With an alpha male, you must be respectful. I’m so cocky because where we come from, we never had nothing. What we accomplished allows us to be arrogant because we them dudes. It’s undeniable. Anybody who's fortunate enough to have a conversation with us, they walk away with a different, profound respect. I am a man and I shouldn't have to safeguard what comes out of my mouth due to the level of your sensitivity.

We came from the era where the generation ahead of us were bank robbers, dope dealers, and dope users. We admired the hustlers in the hood. We didn't wanna be like Shaquille O'Neal. Why? Because I'm not seven feet tall. Some things weren’t realistic. We ain't wanna be like the individual on TV who, chances are, we would never meet. We wanted to be like the hood stars, coming through driving the big Benzes and BMWs, going on elaborate trips.

But we didn't know the means it took for them to accumulate their things. Only thing we did was praise them because it was so close to us. Their reality was our reality. As a little kid in the ghetto, if you living in the projects, your mother ain't got no Benz, your father ain't got no Mercedes. You gravitate to those individuals who take a liking to you. You pick up on their etiquette, their lingo. You might walk like an individual because, shit, he was Robin Hood. He gave you something to look forward to. Why? Because you knew that he was gonna come out flyer today than he was yesterday.

But those individuals never taught us how to live. They only taught us how to survive. They tell you, “You got your first ten thousand, little man? Congratulations! If you got a little girl who got some credit, man, put this money in her hands. You go get you a little BMW; just maintain a car note. So now when we pull up to the club, you looking good.” But then when you can't pay that note they're all gonna laugh at you. You can accumulate things, but no one is teaching you how to keep that shit. They not teaching you how to feed your family or take care of your kid five years from now.

- Edited by Carrie Stetler