Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects residents reflect on Jay-Z before the fame
Residents of the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn have reflected on Jay-Z before he was famous.
Hov grew up in the neighbourhood during the crack epidemic and sold crack cocaine to survive. Today, he’s a billionaire.
News12 recently caught up with those who still live in the projects and knew the rapper before becoming one of the biggest rappers of all time.
Robert Taylor Johnson, also known as Coach Chip, said, “I always called him Jay. A lot of the older people called him Shawn.”
Derrick Tinsley, who grew up in the building across from Jay-Z, said that the rapper hasn’t changed his personality at all.
“The guy he is today is the same person he was back then: humble,” he said. “He’s one of the top emcees in the world. To be from right here, it means a lot to us, especially coming from a place where there was nothing but hard times.”
Jay has opened up about the Marcy Projects in the past, describing the dangers that came with living in the area.
“You have these three columns of buildings, with four people on each floor, six floors, you know,” he said. “So you had people to the left of you, right of you, on top and on the bottom of you. It’s a very intense and stressful situation. Everyone is going through different things, and in between all that stress and angst and, you know, having to deal with one another in such close proximity, there’s so much love.”
He continued, “And there was playing in the johnny pump, and there was the ice cream man who – coming around. And there were all these games that we played. And then it would turn – suddenly, it just – violent, and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.”