Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I got robbed by a crackhead on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1998.
While I wish that prior sentence was the beginning of an opening monologue of Tyler Perry’s next blockbuster film, “Return of the Mack,” the redemption story about a man named Mack who worked at McDonald’s and went to jail for killing a crackhead that robbed him for a Big Mac — on Sept. 29 — I actually was robbed by a crackhead on that date. I remember this so specifically because my crack-ish neighbor who happened to live in the crackhouse two doors down from my house (I realize how ridiculous this sounds; shouts out to the west side of Atlanta) stuck me for Jay-Z’s “Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life,” Outkast’s “Aquemini,” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Love Movement,” three albums I’d just spent no less than $60 in total to purchase on what felt like the most insane hip-hop album release date in my lifetime. Because I was a college student and thus not rich, I left Brand Nubian’s “Foundation” and Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s “Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star” on the shelves at the Circuit City (most likely) at Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta.
Since I’m sure you have questions about the robbery, I assure you it was my fault. As I said, I lived two doors down from a crackhead in my collection of rowhouses. I got home and put my CD Discman with accompanying wires under my seat but I guess I left some exposed. About an hour later, I got a knock at my door and my crackhead neighbor tried to sell me BACK the three CDs he’d just stolen out of my car. I walked to my back porch, looked at my car, saw broken glass and then told him I wasn’t about to buy back the albums he just stole out of my car. He said he didn’t know anything about any stolen goods but figured I would have a specific…
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