“If you can see the palm trees but can't find the beach, you might want to be careful.” Although it's far from a steadfast rule, this common admonition is used by natives of Los Angeles County's urban areas to highlight its most hidden danger–the deceiving landscape.
Inglewood is no exception. The economically diverse city is an area of contrasts. The affluent Ladera Heights neighborhood on the northside straddles the Inglewood/LA city border, placing its million dollar homes directly next to blocks flooded with reasonably priced apartments. On the southside, the Crenshaw-Imperial Shopping Center and Century Shopping Center serve as important retail hubs that compensate for revenue lost after the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers relocated from the Great Western Forum at the heart of The Wood, to it's current home at Staples Center in downtown LA.
Inglewood isn't the best neighborhood, but it's also not the worst, and it's young residents have learned to adapt to all the city has to offer–the good, the bad, and the ugly.
]
As typical of homicides that occur in Southern Los Angeles and
involve young black males, the possibility that the incident was
“gang-related” was investigated. That fact was thrown around by
journalists repeatedly in news stories.
Group members, resentful of the assumption, spoke out–first against
the random act of violence, second to clear their friend's name, and then
lastly to reveal a harsh reality of living in Inglewood. Violence
happens, sometimes just because.
What the hip-hop community was experiencing nationwide for the first
time was, in fact, a common occurrence there. Just last month,
22-year-old college student Shawn Bryant was shot in the back and killed
by two men while returning to his car parked outside of a south
Inglewood liquor store, while on his way to a birthday party at the
beach. His girlfriend, who was sitting in the passenger seat was shot
multiple times for screaming in reaction to the brazen act.
“It's scary,” Shawn's mother Cunetta Sims told NBC news cameras the
morning after the shooting. “It is so scary that you can get out of
your car ready to go to a store and never come back home.”
Sounding slightly callous but perhaps just a little jaded, “scary”
wasn't the first adjective that came to the mind of CSD group member
Smoove when asked about the murder. “I live over there by where the
shooting happened,” he said. “I didn't know the guy. It's tragic but
it's not a surprise. It's nothing new to us. Summer in LA is known as
killing season. My first tattoo in 08 was an R.I.P. tattoo and the next
summer I lost about 4 or 5 more friends.”
Whether you can agree with adopting apathy as a coping mechanism or
not, one thing is for sure, it's taken a lot of courage for Cali Swag to
realize that although the harsh reality of the streets may have crashed
the kickback, it definitely didn't stop the party.
In the weeks since the funeral, group members have demonstrated
remarkable resilience, honoring M-Bone whenever, wherever, and in the
best ways they know how. Keeping the party as Bone would say, “turnt
up!” Jay-Are, Smoove, and Yung recorded an upbeat tribute song “How to
Do That” that highlights Talbert's personality.
They even egged on his
grandmother to demonstrate the Dougie dance, which boosted the crew's
popularity at his open-to-the-public memorial service at Inglewood's
Faithful Central Bible Church. They kept the celebration of life going
all the way up to the BET Awards on June 26, shouting him out during a
presentation of a tribute to artists who've passed away in the last year
including Teena Marie, Gil Scott-Heron, and Nate Dogg.
“It was amazing,” said Yung. “We didn't even know we were going to
be doing that, we were asked right before the show but we were very
happy to do it, and happy that they chose to honor [M-Bone] in that way.
It was great.”
This same enthusiasm is being carried over into their work as well.
Riding off the heels of the release of their “Deeper than the Dougie”
mixtape, the trio is now promoting the their forthcoming debut album
The Kickback which hits store shelves this Tuesday. For the project, the
group traveled down to Dallas, Texas, the home of the Dougie, to film a
video for “Burnout,” the first single off the project.
Although the vid
features some locals demonstrating a new jig referred to as “South
Dallas Swaggin'” CSD maintains that there are no plans in the works to
replace M-Bone in their hearts, minds or on stage because though the
group admits that it's still difficult for them to perform old songs,
especially ones that feature ad libs and cues directed at M-Bone, the
show must go on.
Cali Swag District's album release party is this Saturday, July 9 at Slidebar (122 E Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton). The group will be hosting and performing at the event.
