Live From Behind The Wall

                               Jail is foul. 

  

 Everything about it is designed to break your spirit.  

   I mean from the stink smells, to that ' frying electric chair' sound that the doors make when they open and close, to those funk looks on the CO's faces......... even little shit like the colors they use to paint the walls.   

 

Foulness. 

  You know from the second you pull off the highway onto that long, secluded road in the middle of the straight up Ozark woods that this could never, ever, never be a place that any human would willingly choose to go to.  

   Midstate Correctional Facility is in upstate New York, about 4 hrs away from Manhattan.  So in order to get there with enough time to see the god we had to be on the road by 6 A.M. sunday morning. 

 

Mind you, 6 A.M. sunday morning is arguably still saturday night, depending on your grind level.

  So, when 5:30 arrived I found an open vein, intraveneously attached a Starbucks I.V. to my arm, and after a proper caffeine doping,  I was off..... 

 1st stop:  pickup  Pee's wife Kiki.   

         Kiki typed the adress into the robo navigator device and we hit the highway.

   Then we drove.......and drove.....more driving......trees....streams....driving more......a homemade beef jerky shack.....bigger trees.....more road.....The Erie Canal?  goddam they got my homey way out in the boondocks....... Im looking at the exit names........

Schenechtedy, Rome, Utica? 

  Im wondering if we're still in New York.  I don't even think those places are in America. 

      On the way there Pee's wife and I talked, of course my stupid ass had to roll one up (who smokes weed on the way to a jail?)  The regular asshole routine.    It wasn't until we saw the exit sign for the facility that it really hit me........Damn............ we weren't driving to a do a show, we weren't driving to Atlantic City to throw dice and bug out for the weekend. 

 Nope.  This was not a vacation.   We were going to visit P in jail. 

 But nevertheless, I wasn't down.   I hadn't seen Pee for a minute so I was hype. 

       We made a stop at the market for some canned vegetables that Pee wanted (you already know the food in there is straight dogshit) and about 20$ in quarters so we could take pictures.

  They got a little vending type machine you put quarters in, only takes quarters, and it gives you a voucher for a polaroid photo.  (more ridiculous, demeaning shit they do to try to break your spirit) Then you take the voucher to polaroid man (another inmate whose job it is to take pictures) and he pops a quick flick wherever you'd like in the visiting area. 

Later, when we took one of the pics, Pee put up his trademark two-fingers-together peace sign, and polaroid man waved it off.  Said something about 'you know I don't give a shit but you know how these dudes are in here.  They gonna think its a gang sign.'  jail.

  

       When we finally got to the end of the road to nowhere and pulled up to the place I was kinda surprised. 

 It wasn't what I expected.   I guess when I think of prison I think of big square, grey brick buildings.   

 The shit looked.....colonial, for lack of a better word. 

 It was old school!   Not Afrika Bambatta old school either.   I'm talking George Washington old school.   The only thing that made it look like a jail was those crazy looking barbed wires that surrounded every section of it.       

      Not that i'd know what a busy day was like, but the visitors center didn't seem too packed. 

 I didn't know there was a limit to the comissary ammount.  50$.  Thats it.  They ain't letting you stack chips in jail. 

  We filled Pee's to the max, and after filling out papers and going thru the whole search process,  we walked over to the visitors room, where two doofy, cartoon-looking, balding COs sitting behind a desk assigned us to an indoor table to sit and wait for "Johnson",  I guess Pee's new temporary name.    

 

  It was clear the the outer shell asthetic of Midstate Correctional Facilities was nothing but a 'colonial' throwoff, as the minute you step inside of one of the buildings you realize that, yes, this is very much a jail, and very much like how you envisioned the inside of one of those big brick, square, grey buildings that you always thought jail would look like would be.  

 Dirty. 

 Huge electric sliding metal doors.  Cameras.   Shitty bricks.  Corroding steel.  Loud asshole voices.   Jail.   

      The room was pretty big,  had about 40 visiting tables,  most of them filled with people on visits.   On the side was a bunch of vending machines, the polaroid voucher machine, and a microwave,  so if you want, you can sit up and have a nice cup of soup or a microwavable buffalo burger with your peeps.  Box lunch, kid.   

   They got a black line on the floor that indicates the area where the inmate can walk.   They must stay within that line.  The vending machines are beyond the line.  So the inmate can walk up to the vending machine, look at it, say what they want, but someone else has to get it for them. (any chance the get to fuck with you in there they do).    

   A steel door slid open, and Pee rolled in, unaccompanied... with the H.N.I.C. bop, maroon shirt with the state greens, and a pair of all black rebooks like just another day holding it down as usual.  

He rolls up to the dickhead desk and waits for them to point him to our table.

Now one of the dickheads barks at him.  Tells him to step back until he calls him to the desk.  Pee steps back, and 2 seconds later he calls him up.   

 Im thinking, 'that man is a dick.'   But I guess I keep forgetting that its jail. 

   Pee reminds me that they dont have to be corteous to you.  Theres nobody you can complain to for poor customer service.   Not all of them are dicks tho, he says.  A couple are cool. 

  But still all the little demeaning bullshit they try to do in there doesn't seem to be affecting Pee.   Shit, it made me feel like things weren't really that bad.

  But he's a motivator like that, just by him being himself, leading by example.  Thats just how he is.    

   We sat and talked for a while about everything.  we talked music.   He told me he was proud of me for the Lil Wayne joint, and that he was actually building with Weezy alot right before he went in, which I had no idea.

  I told him about the video I made for our record "Key To The City", where his son plays him.   How Lil Pee Killed it!  How I got on my "Pee shit" and just grabbed a camera and shot the shit myself, edited it myself, everything.  Renegade style.    I was all hype trying to describe to him how it looks.  I know he'd like it.    I wanted to just bust out my iphone and play it for him, damn.  Or just to show him the new iphone even.    "Its allgood", Pee said.    "Just drop that album, thun!"     

   I told Pee that the illuminati video is crazy (goodshit Broadway), and we discussed ways to keep the HNIC 2 album popping.  Tours, remixes, collaborations, promo etc. 

 Even in that dirty ass visitor's room we were able to sit and build creatively, and for a second, as we were coming up with ideas, it felt just like we were back sitting in the lab.  

  We came up with some crazy ideas! 

  Id rather not spill the beans now, but lets just say that we're up to some things............uh..  music related things..   (this doesn't mean were planning some great escape from prison, but yes, that would be the shit)

   Of course Pee has been reading and writing.  Not just writing rhymes either.  Books, movies, etc.  His health is good, and as you can see in the flick, the god had gained some pounds. 

  I let him know that his internet presence is still heavy thru the blogs and hnic2.com. .......

Oh yea, for those that were confused or in thug dreamland, no there is no computer room in prison, and no, you cannot go online in jail.  

 He did let me know that he does read all the mail that comes to him from fans,  and every so often he writes back.  So if you got love for Pee write him. 

 ALBERT JOHNSON

 DIN #08A1481 10-2

 PO BOX 2500

 MARCY, NY 13403

   As far as him coming home,  it's looking like Pee will do just another year.  Its hard to believe, but he's already been in for six months.  He probably wouldn't say the same, but it seems like it's moving fast. 

 

  I gave him some time with the wifey and ate some Doritos off to the side for a while, just bugging on the whole predicament of the human cage that they got my friend and many other peoples friends in.   Shit is wack.    But I must say, its not affecting him.   Pee is pushing thru his bid like a G.   

  We stayed until they kicked us out, around 3 pm.   I asked him where he was at in the writing of his autobiography, he said he was almost done.  The last thing i told him when i left was, "don't finish it, save some room for when u come home!  The story ain't over!"  

  Here's a little unreleased old Alc/Prodigy treat.  Its only right.    FREE P

                                     

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