RIP Erick

You was you, like a ghetto king, a black rose – you were different.

You use to be you, but you were different then. You taught me streets – confident energy, pavement dialogue, poetic rhythms delivered straight to the chest. But we were different then. You got swallowed by a system that used you as bait then chewed you up and spat you out – you were rejected by your blood, flesh and bones. You were different then. You were adopted by the extended appendages of God’s greatest love; you were God-mothered, God-fathered, surrounded by the deepest blood family. We were different then. You fled from pillar to toast and right back again; from institution to road and back again. Things was different then. You were freed. You were exalted. You were loosed from the agonizing devil grip. You were allowed to catch your breath. And then you never had to catch it again. You are different now.

Nuff, nuff luv my brother