I’ve been to New York a bunch of times. I’ve hung out in every borough except Staten Island (too isolated) and the Bronx (WHAT I NEED TO GO THERE FOR?). I had a pretty good time whenever I visit but I can’t say it’s any better than the fun I had in Los Angeles, Dallas or Atlanta. However, the one thing that separates those cities from New York is the fact that the natives of New York can’t ever seem to shut up about New York. Understand, I could never hate a whole group of people based off what city there from. NO, my hate is on a case by case basis but when I smell bullshit I got to call it out. I understand it’s the biggest city in the United States, but it isn’t the ONLY city in the United States. I continue to see a trend with most New Yorkers who roam out of town; they have an unnerving trend to constantly brag about the city in which they come from. I have been around transplant New Yorkers my whole adult life. Since freshman year at college in Durham, NC there was always somebody within arm’s length shouting out their borough around me. Now there’s nothing wrong with repping where you’re from, but it shouldn’t be at the cost of degrading where you’re at, “Durham ain’t shit, everything be closing all early. Yo, back in Brooklyn, son…Yo, you could walk like…two blocks down the ave and get a full steak dinner…for like 5 bucks, son.” Every conversation with them revolved around New York’s “superiority,” “Yo, ain’t shit in walking distance, ain’t no subway, the Chinese food here is shit. Back in Brooklyn, everything a nigga needed was within five blocks of the crib.”
NEW FLASH: This just in, this just in….YOUR NOT IN NEW YORK!
Me being an out of Towner from DC I understood I wasn’t home anymore. I understood we were all living in a scaled down, rustic version of Baltimore but I never felt the need to degrade it. It’s the ethnocentrism of New Yorkers that creates the false belief that everyone cares about what’s going on in New York all the time. Sometimes people from NY tend to tell you where they from without you even asking them. I was at a party one time and I saw this dude walk up to a fine ass chick at the bar, he flashed a smile and said “Hey baby, my name is Mike…from New York.” This chick’s eyes lit up and she quickly threw him to the ground and started fucking him in the middle of the club. Of course that never happened because she, like the many other people in the thousands of cities spread across the country, did not care.
I’ve seen the ethnocentrism of NY everywhere in NC. I’ve heard the stories of NY dope boys coming to town with the belief that their smarter than the average southern nigga. Me not being from the South (MD & DC doesn’t count),e NY niggas often felt free to rant and rave about Southerners around me, “These bumpkin ass niggas. If my boy’s from (Insert Borough) were here, we’d take over all this shit.” Of course there was the counter story from locals about how niggas ran out the NY cats from the city for what they called “lack of respect.” I’ve seen it happen more than once in all types of situations. Some nigga who weighed a buck sixty soaking wet thought he could knock out the big, neck bone eating, 260 country boy in the club, cuz well….that’s what Brooklyn niggas do. He was dragged with the quickness. That nigga caught an eye jammie so bad I thought he just came out a Chris Brown driven Lamborghini. I’m sorry but where you’re from doesn’t automatically make you tough, there’s a pussy nigga in every Projects and there’s a suburban nigga that will fuck you up. Every nigga out of NY does not know how to box.
The NY ego is heavy in HipHop. A few months ago I saw an issue of the Source that was dedicated to asking “What Happened to NY Hip-hop?” What happened to New York Hip-hop….IT GOT FUCKING WACK, that’s what happened to it. Other than established acts nobody is really checking for new artist from NY. Why is a NY based national publication asking this question? Did they dedicate an issue to the West when it was slumping? They did that issue because New Yorkers cannot accept the fact that nobody cares about something from New York. “Well Hip-hop was started in New York,” SO WHAT!!! Dr James Naismith was Canadian does that mean we’re supposed to turn to Toronto every minute for the next Kobe or Jordan? No, you go where whatever high school or college is popping to recruit.
I guess this rant is based on the recent news of the Lebron James signing. The mostly NY based sports news media put a strong emphasis on him coming to the Knicks or Nets. It got to the point that NY fans booed James for signing with the Miami Heat. The Knicks ain’t been shit since Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston were in their prime, WELL OVER A DECADE AGO. What made the New York press believe he wanted to go to either shitty ass rebuilding team vs. Miami, Chicago or what he established on Cleveland, especially after the $100 Million dollar contract for Ama’re Stoudemire (who is a matador on defense)? It’s the belief that the actual city was supposed to be more important to him than winning right now.
Respect is a two way street. I can’t say every single New York transplant is like this but I meet too many of them that are. If everything here sucks then why would you want to be here? As long as niggas show respect to other cities and the people in it then the problem should go away, but just remember as big and vast as NY is but one city in a country of 30,000 plus.
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