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My name is DaJuan Davis. I am 11 years old.
My name is Cassius Plummer. I am 18 years old.
My name is Ernez Campbell. I’m 12 years old.
We interviewed James Gales on July 19th, 2018.
I’m from the Hill district. I was born and raised at Robinson Court, then moved up Chauncey Drive when I was young. My mom and dad raised up 4 kids, so it was a little tough, but we made it through. Me and my brother actually hang every day. That’s like my best friend. And he’s like all that and I have two sisters. Both my sisters are older than me and my brother is the youngest. Everybody joke, everybody looks out for each other, take care of each other’s kids, siblings. So we’re-we’re real close.
Never really had any mentors. My dad was in my life. He was more of my mentor. My dad used to take me to work with him. He used to work at a pizza spot. Got to sit there, eat slices of pizza and back then they had the little games inside the restaurants. I would sit there and sit and play the games, eat slices of pizza, fall asleep at the table, then he would take me home midway through the shift when he’d seen I was tired.
I play high school basketball for Schenley. I played a few years up Ganard for the neighborhood. We hung out, we played basketball, we ate, they fed us. It was a place for everybody to get together and have fun for a few hours and actually be kids and not have to worry about getting in trouble for it. I kind of struggled with school. I wanted to play sports and do everything else. I didn’t like the schoolwork. It wasn’t that I was stupid or dumb, I just… I didn’t like to sit there for hours. I didn’t like the way certain teachers taught. It just… school was hard. But I got through it. But I-I did not like school.
I always liked music. It was just something about music, the way it made me feel when I was younger. Music was like a getaway to me. It was a way of expressing myself. My one friend, Roy, he was in college, and he made a mix tape, and he came home, and I told him “I’m gonna write a verse.” He said “man, you always say that.” So he went back to college for, like, two months, he came home for summer break, and when he came up for summer break, I had a whole mix tape wrote and recorded. He couldn’t believe it. He actually gave me my first opportunity in the studio. Shout out to Roy.
My kids are the real reason why I’m the way I am today. If it wasn’t for my kids, I probably wouldn’t be here, honestly. My kids is my world. Real funny, greedy… My son, he actually plays football for the hill. This is the second year up there. I got 2 boys, 2 girls. I’m about to be a grandad, my daughter’s 20. She’s pregnant, so should be interesting. If you can, wait a while to have kids. When I was 16, I was like a full blown dad, like, all in. So it was very tough because, you know, at that age, you still wanna run around with your friends. You still wanna do this and do that, but you have a whole responsibility to take care of and kids are expensive. And at that age you really don’t have a job or to take care of a child the way that you would like to take care of a child.
I love every part of the Hill, every part. It wasn’t as rough as it is now. It was a lot nicer. We had a lot more to do. We had a lot more places to go. If we opened up more businesses in the Hill District and supported each other’s businesses that would help. If there are any changes, I think we should make the changes as a community, the one’s that’s from the Hill District. I would bring back a lot of the youth places, especially at the Boys and Girls Club down here at Crawford, right there, I would definitely… I would bring that back. We had so much fun. Boys playing basketball, girls Double Dutching and jump roping and tag, and it felt like a community then.
Stay focused. Try to stay away from as much negativity as you can and the negativity that do come, try not to let it get to you, cause it’s gonna happen. Stay focused. Stay positive, no matter what. Work hard and stay humble.