CHRONICLED BY PROFESSOR BLACK PACINO
Those who have seen the movie Paid In Full and study street-lore know the true story of Azie Faison, Richard Porter and Alpo Martinez. In the late 80’s, the three cohorts were raking in millions of dollars as Harlem’s most notorious drug kingpings. Their once-powerful empire splintered when Azie was shot seven times in a botched robbery attempt and Alpo was jailed after murdering Porter, a man he once considered a friend.
Azie survived the hail of gunfire and disavowed his life of crime. In 1989, a year before Richard Porter was killed, Azie formed a rap group called MobStyle with his associates Gangster Lou, Pretty Tone Capone and Whip Wop. The word “gangsta” is some made-up, superficial Hip-Hop shit. The members of MobStyle, however, were bona-fide gangsters with heavy street reputations. Check out the cult-classic 1995 HBO documentary Lock Up: The Prisoners of Riker’s Island and you’ll find an unscripted moment with Gangster Lou chillin’ in a holding pen, shouting out MobStyle. In the streets of Harlem, Pretty Tone Capone had even the hardest niggas shook… and with good reason. He was known as an outrageously wild muthafucka; this was reflected in the maniacal way he spit rhymes.
Although they were too underground and too damn real to receive their props, they’re basically the first East Coast gangster rap group. Their debut album was named The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and it was released by an indie label called Grove Street Records. MobStyle were very vocal in their dislike for N.W.A., who were extremely popular nation-wide at the time. MobStyle considered them phony long before it was discovered that Ice Cube went to college for architecture and Dre wore make-up and sequins.
Did Eazy-E take a jab at MobStyle on N.W.A.’s joint, “Real Niggaz?” (“Back, the good the bad the ugly, see?/A lil’ streetwise nigga you know me/Rollin’ with some real niggaz playing for keeps/but you muthafuckers know who run the streets.”) In NYC, us MobStyle fans thought so. After all, legend has it that Pretty Tone Capone set it on N.W.A. when they performed at The Apollo theater in Harlem. Mad niggas rushed the stage and the boys from Compton fled.
