Excerpt: Straight Dope by LeRon Barton

4:45 AM | Labels: Excerpt

What was it like taking that ride on the highway with all that
weight on you?

This was my mentality, I didn't even think about the consequences of getting knocked. When I talk to people they tell me, when you in that mode, ignorance maybe, but you don't know whats up. You can...... When you first think something bad is going to happen, it probably will (laughs).That kind of energy was not even around me, so it was like we are just taking a trip to Atlanta and just bringing a package back. It wasn't no, oh lets be careful. We drove the same way, nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't know the game, I was a square and it was the bottom line really. I was welcoming all comers because I had the best ticket in town and I could be down to Atlanta and be back in one day. All I was thinking about was the bottom line. Now me being stupid, Godbless, I was taking all comers and it got off the hook. It was to the point that I was selling 100 'em a week and I really needed 200.

This is what I didn't know, when I cranked up to buying 100 pounds, he would knock the price down from $7000 to $5500 each. It only cost me less than 100,000 to drive down there, so that ain't nothing. I then did the Walmart thing before Walmart: I'm making people commit to buying from me. I had couple of power players who were buying 15, 20, and 30 pounds a week. I also had these stragglers that were only getting three and five a week, so what I did was put all the stragglers in the power-players pockets so that I only dealt with the big buyers, and I dropped the price down from $1000 to $800 for them. I make them buy the same amount from me every time. I don't care if they had five dollars in their pocket, you buy the same amount or the price goes up. I was never as a street level dude. My mentality was, if I am getting into something, there has to be some paper involved. Let me tell you the ticket to the weed game: if you got the best product, you got the key! All they want to do is make money, so if you got some wiggle room, you can have the hottest ticket in town.

Before I quit my job, I worked at Jergens making good money and my Mom would always tell me, real estate, buy real estate! I'm buying Benzes, I'm young, going to the club, so right before I went into the weed game I bought two pieces of property. My real estate agent was a old dope boy who showed me the real estate game and got me living in a duplex for free. The next piece was from this older lady who had broken her hip. She wanted to dump her house so I bought it from her. It was a two bedroom, fully furnished for $35,000. The house was worth $70,000. My real estate agent was always getting me those type of deals.

I couldn't take all the money I was making to the bank, so I kept it with friends, family, stereo speakers... anywhere I can find. The thing about making that kind of money is that you are so paranoid of the robbery boys coming to get you, and they will come, you try to hide the money the best way you can. Thats what I learned, if you are the man, the robbery boys will scope you out like the FBI. They called me nine lives because I was never affiliated with any gangs in the Natti and I knew every key man in that hood. I used to hoop and DJ, so a lot of people knew me and I was one of the very few that could go to every hood and get love. Back in the day, Cincinnati's mentality for black people was, oh man he's from Detroit or he from LA. We didn't have a rep so an out of towner could come in, sit, and after three months leave with million dollars. I seen it, they would come to our city and turn it out. Now that aint happening, it's the jackboy thing.