74. Interview with Wayne “Classic” Price: Part 13

11 July 2011

– Man, Earl ain’t tell me shit while he was in the pen. Only thing I knew while he was locked up was—the nigga was locked up. That’s it.

– Remind me a this time—hold up man. You been askin’ all types a questions and shit, like you tryna get this nigga Earl. You sure you ain’t no fuckin’ poh-leece?

– Whatever. Yeah, Earl ain’t tell me shit. I ain’t even find out he was locked up ‘til the day he called. Nigga’d already been in ‘bout a month by then.

– I was runnin’ some shit to this nigga Raul’s crib over in Queens that day. I remember ‘cause the poh-leece pulled me over like three times comin’ back through the hood ‘cause my taillight was busted. Almost got me with a ounce the first time too, son, ‘fore I had dropped the shit off.

– Shit was like a warnin’ bruh, you know what I’m sayin’? [Wayne seems amused] How that look? I get pulled over three muhfuckin’ times on the way back to my crib, then I get in and my phone rangin’, pick it up and they tellin’ me I got a collect call from Wakulla County Correctional Institution?

– Yeah, man. And I’m like, the fuck is a “Wakulla County,” you know what I’m sayin’? Never heard that shit before in my life, son—but I done heard “Correctional Institution” before, know what I’m sayin’? That shit came in loud and clear, and the bitch on the phone asked me if I accept the charges and I’m like yeah, even though I ain’t know who the fuck it was callin’.

– But I ain’t goin’ deny a brother in the pen a outside voice, know what I’m sayin’? I know plenty a niggas locked up right now, and I’d take calls from any one of ’em, let ‘em know shit’s aight on this side a the bars, know what I’m sayin’? I feel for them niggas in there sometimes, son.

– Yeah, I accept the call and there’s all this static and yelling and shit and I’m like, who the fuck is this? And here come Earl’s voice, all deep and shit, like bein’ locked up a couple weeks done turned the nigga into a grown ass man, know what I’m sayin’?

– I’m surprised as fuck when I hear him. Thought somebody was fuckin’ with me.

– My little cuz, my little movie-crazy, big-headed, smart-ass cousin done got himself locked up? You must be out yo goddamn mind. [Wayne shakes his head] Shit wasn’t no joke, bruh. Earl was locked up. He ain’t tell me on the phone that day what had happened neither.

– When you talkin’ to a nigga locked up, you got five minutes. Operators don’t be asking no questions, givin’ niggas no breaks. Five minutes, then yo line’s cut. All Earl told me that day was to tell his ma he got a job overseas, some emergency shit. That he ain’t have time to call or tell her nothin’.

– I told him his ma—my Aunt Sharon—she ain’t stupid. She ain’t goin’ believe that shit. He said she got to, told me to make some shit up if I had to, then he told me he’d holla at me when he got out and that was it.

– I ain’t hear from the nigga again ‘til he called me to pick him up at the bus station two years later. By then, his ma’d already passed and my ma wasn’t talkin’ to me no mo’, so I was the only fam he had.

– Two years son. That’s a long time not to hear from a nigga who been locked up. Time like that, prison time, that shit do a lot to a nigga.

– What I heard, two years in the pen, that’s like ten years out here. Ten years a getting’ shitted on by every nigga with a badge or a rap sheet.

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