Music Video: Kingpin Slim - Looking At the City and a mini reflection

It's funny how I saw the link for this video on Twitter just now because I actually was having thoughts relevant to the content of this joint last night. For the record, I grew up in Prince George's County, MD which, for those that don't know, borders Washington, DC from its northeast to southeast perimeter. Growing up during the Crack Era that affected many U.S. inner cities, I viewed the goings-on of DC at the time as a nearby outsider each evening after school on local news stations. During this time I was spending a lot of weekends with my sister who lived in Southeast DC, not far from where Southern Ave. Metro Station currently resides, so I saw activities and individuals who weren't a part of my Monday-Friday reality. Although I had no interest in actually "living hard" or "growing up in the hood", I did always wonder why there were folks who had to live like that (Keep in mind I was about five years old at the time). Some may argue that Prince George's County, or "PG County" as it's more commonly known, isn't so safe either. I agree but twenty years ago it was a little better. Anyway, as time went on and more interactions occurred/friendships developed between myself and many DC residents who lived in or came from a disadvantaged environment, my questions were being answered before I even got out of high school. This is probably why PG County, as a locality along with many of the residents, annoy the hell out of me but that's a topic for another day though. I'm not writing this to say I have some type of "pass" that many of my PG County peers do not, but as a testament to the fact that I too remember DC as Slim describes it in "Looking At the City".