"I can feel it in the air tonight."

It was the year 2000, HighLand Park and BSK were fully established and well known. My crew and I were hanging out on Avenue 52 and Grenada, which was well known territory for HighLand Park. My friend Lazy had this house that was in the center of my neighborhood. It was a party spot, but also a place for us to conduct business. In this two block radius, fifteen of our homies were posted up. You couldn’t see them even if you tried, but they were around, keeping a lookout for rival gangs and cops. 

On this particular night, I was sitting on the porch smoking weed and drinking, when I noticed my boy Green Eyes show up. Green Eyes was a good-looking guy. Half white, half Mexican, 5’10 and cocky. I’ve known him for most of his life, he’s a cool guy. He’s left-handed and a mean fighter because of it. We’d get into these brawls and the only way I could ever beat him was if I could hold back his left arm. Anyways, I’ve been waiting to see him come around, he owed me a bit of money and had been dodging me for weeks. 

“Hey, Sammy, uh… you think we can squash this debt if I hook you up with some LSD?” He asked hesitantly.
“Well, how much LSD you got?” I responded bluntly.
“I got nine tabs, two for you, and seven for the debt.” He handed me two, walking away. 
Without any hesitation, I popped them in my mouth, “fuck yeah,” I thought to myself, “this is gonna be a good night.” I see Green Eyes heading back towards me with his arm extended.
“Here’s the other two,” he said, opening up his hand.  
I looked at the tabs of LSD in the palm of his hand. “What do you mean two? You just gave me two?” 
Green Eyes twists his head, trying to make sense of what I'm saying. “No, that was seven for the debt, here are two for you to have some fun.”
“Nah, dude I’m telling you, you just gave me two tabs, give me the seven,” I know he’s fucking around with me, he has to be.

We go back and forth for a moment and I felt myself starting to panic, realizing what had just happened. Fuck. I just took seven tabs of LSD. Being in the hood on seven hits of LSD, this is bad news. The homies at this point are all laughing at me, knowing how fucked up I’m about to be. They all decide we should hit the beach and have a good time, and head towards their cars to start their night.

“Fuck it, we’re gonna post up,” I shouted to the boys, while looking over at Green Eyes, insinuating that he was staying behind with me. Green Eyes glanced over at me agreeing to hang back, and popped five more doses of LSD in solidarity. I grabbed his arm trying to stop him, “No, we gotta be in our right mind if we’re gonna post up.” 

“Too late,” he shrugged. 

I’ve taken LSD numerous times, so I know what to expect, but I don’t know what to expect on this much, and it doesn’t take long for it to kick in and the hallucinations to start. Fuck. 

We decided to hit the corner and start hustling dope, and we were both strapped with an AK47. We had about twelve of our pitbulls roaming around the streets and it was dark outside. We used to shoot out the street lights to make sure our block stayed pitch black. Green Eyes had this stereo system set up and he was playing this DMX song on repeat. It was the remake of Phil Collins ”In the air tonight.” It was blasting loud and on repeat for what felt like two hours straight, and as the LSD hits us fully, it almost felt as if we were putting this song into existence. I’m so fucking high and it’s so fucking late. 

“I can feel it coming in the air tonight,
Hold on,
I've been waiting for this moment for all my life,
Hold on, hold on,”

Business was coming through as usual, but it was real slow that night, so we decided to pack it up and stand on the front corner and keep our heads on a swivel, caddy watching. We were in this vibe like something was gonna go down, but it was probably just the LSD making us paranoid and aware as fuck. Hyper aware. Where we were standing, when you looked up Grenada Street, it went up a hill, then directly at the top it dropped down into an alleyway. My eyes were locked at the top of that hill and, sure enough, a few moments later, I saw headlights pop up. Once the car reached the top, it started to slow down and shut off its headlights.

“Enemies!” I shouted to Green Eyes. He came to my right, trying to spot the car. We were now both looking up the street, squinting hard, trying to see through the darkness. Soon after, we spotted another car, and the same thing happened. The car slowed down and cut out its lights once it reached the top of the hill. I quietly motioned to Green Eyes to get behind one of the parked cars and I got behind another. We were positioned perfectly, AK’s ready. The two cars kept creeping closer to the point where we could see the guys inside. 

“It's the enemy,”  Green Eyes whispered to me.
“Yeah, it’s them,” I thought to myself. I’m now watching the cars go up and down Avenue 52, crawling silently. They were searching for something, or someone. But they still didn't see us. That's when I noticed one guy reached his arm out the window to open his door, and he was visibily holding an AR-15, or maybe it was a Mini-14. As soon as he opened the door, he aimed his weapon at my homeboy's spot and opened fire. We immediately started shooting back. They didn't see us coming and were so stunned. Not even a minute passed before they took off.

I don’t know if it was the LSD that night, but that was the craziest exchange I've ever had. In less than a minute, over a hundred rounds of gunfire were exchanged. It felt like a scene in a movie. I remember the next day, the streets were covered in empty shells, chunks of the concrete from the stairs falling off and the house was covered in bullet holes. It looked like a war zone. 

This was just how LA was, this was my life. The idea of losing your life was a thrill we’d chase, it was fun. But it’s real life shit and it’s bad. The hood is seriously bad. It just felt like there were no other options for me, there was no idea of a future, the world seemed unattainable. Where, or how am I going to pay my rent with no education? I was just living day to day. It felt like there was no other way to make money. I’d get up every morning, load my pistol or automatic weapon, stick it in my waistband knowing that anywhere I went at any time I could be killed, and I welcomed it. 

But where I am at today I look back and see that we lost people we loved because of what exactly, hood fame? These choices I made ruined my life, but the majority of these guys were my best friends that were willing to die for me, so I chose to do the same.