0:00 What was the difference between Asian gangs and Hispanic and black gangs at the time that you guys were active? >> The difference? >> Yeah, what were some of the things that you guys did differently? Cuz you couldn't have all been the same. >> One thing I thought that was the a huge difference, I mean they have it too, but not as much as ours is like the hierarchy. Like you know how there's like die low and then there's like and then almost the next there's like a very clear generation, at least for the group that I was in. I don't want to say their name, but there's even a Chinese word for it which is gin. So like whoever you whoever you are, let's say you brought in someone else, that guy is is brought in with you. So if this guy ████ up too, it can be traced back to who is the one that brought him in. So there's like a very clear like responsibility. And you know, some black gangs they do have OGs and
0:51 stuff, but I think that it's different from like bringing that Asian structure to the gang. >> Uh-huh. >> Is there like you know how like Asian gangs are high like you just keep going up up up and then you just reach straight up Chinese Triad in Shanghai? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Did did Hispanic gangs and black gangs at the time have the same kind of like tower? >> The Well, it depends on what kind of Hispanic, but the the Mexican ma- ma- mafia >> Yeah, that was like cartel? >> Yeah, so any gang any Mexican gang that would tag with the number 13, they were loyal to that group and then they they paid taxes. So each unit was in charge of paying um not American taxes, but >> [laughter] >> Taxes to the gang. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Taxes. It's called taxes. >> So if they sold like weed or whatever, then however many percent they would
1:42 funnel it up to >> Like like how mafias kick up to the next guy uh >> It's very structured. >> Very structured. >> I'm impressed. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> And I liked how organized they were in terms of like let's say it's called green lighting which is like okay, go. You you have to attack these groups or whatever. And then I forgot why I think it was like some TRG dudes or like some Long Beach issue, but there was a green light on Asians meaning like all Mexicans were like every Asian gang >> [gasps] >> Um there's a war. And then so that means like you're you're just every city with a Mexican gang like they're they're ready to go to attack Asian gangs. And then so there's a lot of Asian gangs that were like what the ████ Like I have no idea what's happening cuz they all operate it's called it's a Asian
2:32 gang, but they're operating independently. There's no one >> It's not like talking to all of the yogurt lands >> No. >> to stop selling >> No, they're all Asians, but they're not connected at all. >> Right. >> So that's I think that was a big one cuz the Chinese ran more like organized crime. And then you know, they but then the eventually the young ones just splintered off and said ████ you guys, I'm going to do my own thing. >> And they went rogue. >> Yeah. Southeast Asians they they're to me they just kind of copied what was around their neighborhood with black and Mexicans and then they developed their own thing. >> Like Asian boys. >> Yeah, they had their own like >> What I thought was the coolest though is I I always thought it was so cool that the a lot of the black gangs just grew up in the same neighborhood. >> You thought that was cool? >> Yeah, because they'll have you know, like names named after the actual street
3:22 names and then so it's cool to be to grow up in the same neighborhood as your gang cuz you guys are like just proximity is way closer versus I think a lot of the Asian ones maybe they met at school or whatever. So some guys live on this part of town. This this this guy lives on this side of town. >> Well, cuz the black gangs always had territory in the projects they grew up in. So they they're on a block because that's everyone's in that housing unit. >> That's cute. >> we >> That's cute. [laughter] >> Like it's like on the same No, we don't have territory. Like nobody cared about territory. They cared about they cared about like territory like Mexican and black gangs they have areas that they controlled. >> Right, right. >> But Asians didn't give a damn about that cuz it's like we're not we're not on the corner selling crack. Like that's not the same hustle. >> Did you guys always mix up socially with
4:12 Hispanic gangs in the SUV cuz there's so many of them? >> One thing I thought was pretty ████ funny uh is I'm like how come all the gangs just kill each other? Like it's you like the biggest rivals of Asian gangs are Asian gangs, biggest is Mexican, biggest is black. So it's everyone just killing each other. And even yeah, even when I was in I was like that's kind of interesting. >> You're like boss, can I ask a question? >> Cuz like you would see like actual wars, right? Like in the in the world it's usually against other people. >> Sure, yeah. >> biggest rivals are >> in-house. >> Yeah, in-house. So I always thought that like >> But it's not like that in jail, which is weird. Everyone's segregated by race. >> Jail it's all racial, yeah. >> Cuz you could be rival on the outside and then go in there you got to coexist.
5:02 And then it's weird because maybe there's not enough communication or whatever cuz then sometimes those dudes because they became close they come back out and that but on the outside they have that visibility and they're like oh dude, that guy's backstabbing so you got to smoke him. So they'll smoke the guy but they became like best lovers in jail. >> Like Romeo and Juliet. >> And they can't beef if they have to break up? >> Well, cuz they're best [laughter] lovers. They call it like politics, right? So now there's like additional dynamic you have to you're like well, it's because yeah, he's rival but then when I was inside he saved my life because of this but then now when we're out so you got to play like double politics. It's like it's it's confusing. >> It is like Romeo and Juliet. >> Can't say you're not a traitor if you like come out and you like oh I well I owe that guy a favor. so >> Well, you can't explain everything to everybody. >> Well, well, why not? >> Cuz there could be like 50 people or 20
5:53 people in your gang. >> Everyone. >> Listen, a Teams meeting could really fix this. >> They had Zoom, maybe they had a Zoom, yeah, a Teams meeting, but it's not all like it's not all communicated. So, you might have a youngster that's like, "What the hell? Why is that guy hanging out with that guy at ████ half and half or whatever?" And then the word gets around to the other person, and the other person just takes the the matter into their own hands. >> Oh. >> Oh, no. >> That's the part that's kind of mess mess >> Cuz that sucks, cuz it's cuz I would be like, "Wow, that guy really helped you in there? Like, okay, you know." >> That's what I thought was kind of cool with the Italian stuff, at least from the movies. You know, like once you get made, >> Yeah. >> you're untouchable. So, it seems like their communication system's pretty good. >> Well, what does made mean? Like, how do you get made? >> You're like upgraded to a status where if someone wants to kill you, they have to get special permission from like the
6:43 >> Cuz you're an actual member. >> So, they have people that are tryouts. >> Tryouts? >> it's like it's like being a general or something. >> How long are you in tryout? >> For a really long time. >> Until you ceremoniously get made. >> And there's no rule like there's no >> That's for Italians. >> There's no specific thing on like how you're made. It's just there's you can graduate at any time for any >> I think it's like based on for one part it's like based on earning. Like, you have to have earned a lot of You have to have your own operation already that's gotten so good at earning money that they upgrade you to like, "Oh." >> Like an entrepreneur. >> Yeah, really, yeah, cuz the money. >> I think you have to just be Italian, too. You can't be You can't be Irish or like Jewish or something. >> But, I've also heard of so many friendly fire cases. >> Oh. >> Right, it's like like you know how like some of the Asian gangs, they start having their own sides, but technically it's supposed to be one team or whatever, but then they start beefing,
7:34 or you just think someone's associated with whatever, and you hit up on someone, or a personal matter happens where like a a cheated with this guy. So, they never had beef, but now they have beef because this guy made it personal and of course their homies have to be blind loyalty. >> They have to be down. >> Yeah, they have to be down. >> Did you think that Asian gangs committed the same type of crimes as black gangs and Hispanic gangs or >> That was something I thought we were I was very proud of. I thought we were very smart. >> [laughter] >> So, I would say I would see say Southeast Asians. So, okay. You know, like um Road Warrior. >> Yeah. >> Like to me that's Southeast Asians. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Like the Vietnamese, Laotians >> The grittier. Uh-huh. >> No, man. Just wild.
8:24 >> They're like street gang. Like like just wild >> They were definitely wild. Yeah. >> You know, like Genghis Khan's horde. >> They're more unhinged. >> Yeah. And then you have like East Asians that are organized if you were able to stay within the triad system and a tong system, which is like kind of like the Italian mob. >> Yeah. >> They had juniors who weren't technically made. So, like they had these little gangs that they would use that are underage kids that run their ████ Like run like little burglary or whatever that they they do errands, right? But they're not officially They have names like like watching and stuff like that. They have names, but then they actually the top dogs are up here. >> Right. >> But these guys went off and said, "F███, we don't need you guys." But they used to be like the juniors. >> to answer to them. >> like the Cub Scouts to the Boy Scouts.
9:14 Yeah, so it used to be the the small group. Yeah, but then they went off and did their own thing. My era is when they started moving away from organized crime, dressing like gentlemen, and Asians had a GQ gangster style. So, like they had like >> slacks >> turtlenecks >> They they bought nice clothes. >> turtlenecks >> [laughter] >> turtlenecks and chains >> Like baggy polo shirts or something. >> And then they started adopting more street thug style. >> She's [laughter] all laughing at this stuff. >> Freaking turtleneck. >> Yeah, like The Rock with the fanny pack. >> Like that [laughter] the Guwak Jai freaking movie. Young and dangerous. >> I feel like if I'm like trying to commit a crime like a turtleneck would be so suffocating. >> [laughter] >> Well, it's for the winter. >> Hey, sometimes it's a mock turtleneck. >> I would say so, you know, like Nick's dad was a straight
10:06 thug. >> Nick's dad, yeah. >> Who? >> Nick boy right there. >> This Nick? >> Yeah. >> His dad would like hold up uh tour buses and stuff and like arm robbery and like he was a gangster. >> now. >> Yeah, that guy was a G. >> Was he your boss? >> No, but >> [laughter] >> I'm trying to Okay, so the reason why I'm bringing that up is because their generation was like the organized crime like gen like the way they dressed, you couldn't tell that they were gang members. They looked like regular members of society. >> Uh-huh. >> That's odd cuz Nick looks like a gang member. >> [laughter] >> Our generation was more stupid and we wanted to look cool. So, that's when we brought in the whole like swap meet clothes. We love hip hop. We love you know, we want to we want to look hard. [laughter] We want to Yeah,
10:57 and then we a lot of we we grew up around Mexicans, so we adopted a lot of that style, too. And then so like that's when Asian stuff became you don't have one organized group no more. You have a bunch of these like kids that go ████ you, I'm not going to work for you no more. And then they try to start their own thing and then you have like Asian boys and stuff like that that's doing their own thing. And then they're more like a street gang. Yeah. And then so that's where the difference was. >> And then whereas Hispanic and black gangs were doing what in this exact same period? >> Well, the black gangs were like just a regular street like not regular, but they're street gangs. >> like street gang versus like organized crime. That's the part I was like it's pretty >> part that made you proud? >> made pretty cool. >> Yeah, but but then Asians have street gangs, too. Like like the black gangs. >> They had more entrepreneurial racket racketeering, huh? >> And like more like operation-based
11:48 stuff. >> Okay. >> Do you feel like that helped you like with your business mentality and building your businesses now? >> Maybe. It could have like opened my eye like subconsciously. So, the group that I was with our dielos had like a uh Counter-Strike PC banging place and and then so like a lot of stuff would happen through there, you know, like drug deals or whatever and then there would be a place that we could meet safely where uh oh yeah, we're just a bunch of kids just hanging out not a certain affiliation and um that to me was pretty cool to see like people that were like me have entrepreneurial like success. >> Yeah, and and do things big goals. >> versus everyone else is just like oh, this guy ████ works for AT&T or whatever. Like you just see the most regular jobs and then you can see an alternate route and see it like build. I mean, obviously I wasn't like
12:38 articulating this in my mind, but I think through absorption you can kind of see like what's happening. But in most of the other the like Mexicans and blacks it felt like they were all the street gangs and I didn't really see like operations. >> You know what it was is they had big operations, but they were all soldiers. So, like they weren't taught like we almost had mentorship where they would teach us the game on how to build your own. I think Asians are a little bit more business first >> Uh yeah. >> versus like when I saw how the other gangs operated um they're more about like hey, this is my crew and I'm going to fight you for the respect of my crew. >> Yeah. >> So, it's a lot of violence based on like I want to get my name out there. I want my crew's name to have infamous like it like I want I want famous like everyone
13:30 to know my gang's name. So then they'll shoot and kill and like for the reputation, right? So it's not business space, it's reputation. And then like but then they're running crazy big rackets. Like they're doing some organized ████ But everybody that's out there that's doing it, it's kind of like they're all soldiers and they're not taught how to play the game like their bosses. >> Cuz I knew there had to be a difference in the fact that like everyone that I knew from back then is still alive and rich. >> Yeah, cuz Asia I think Asian gangs had a better mentorship program. >> It's it's not the stereotype of like oh man, rest in peace my homie. Like all these dudes are ████ alive. >> [laughter] >> And they've graduated on to like doing really good legitimate business. >> We did have senseless violence though. >> Not as much. Not even comparatively. >> It wasn't based on like I'm going to do
14:20 it to just grow the name of my group. It was always like oh well this guy's messing with this guy's business or whatever. But yeah, I think that would be the biggest difference. And then we did have a big brother little brother system that you were in charge of. They they have it too. It's called like OG like whatever, right? But I don't think they have an actual system of like teaching the full on game. We're building franchises. So like every youngster should now be able to go off and build their own business and then kick, you know, kick the money back into the group. >> also which a lot of people don't realize like you know, there were there were gang members that were in school with me and they were getting good grades. >> Oh yeah. >> [laughter] >> You know what I mean? Like Asians were still whe- whether they were in a gang or not, we're still excelling in school which I
15:10 thought was odd. >> a guy that I knew he uh it was pretty funny when I heard but uh his older brother didn't let him bang until he did his homework. This guy, I don't know if you remember, there was a shooting at Dave & Buster's. He was the guy that shot the guy at Dave & Buster's. So, equally as >> So, he did do his homework. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. So, >> Oh, he had good grades. I know who you're talking about. >> good grades. He had good grades, went to UCI straight out of uh high school. So, he didn't transfer, but he was also smoked the guy at Dave & Buster's cuz he was just such a great multitasker. >> Cuz I think in in most cases >> I like the lesson we're putting out. >> [laughter] >> In most cases though, it was because at they're trying to upgrade each time. >> Yeah. Even within the brothers, you know? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:00 >> Cuz you're the end game was always organized crime. You're just a you're just a teenager doing petty crime because you can't play with the big boys yet. But, everyone's trying to teach you to level up and then >> to infiltrate bigger >> Yeah. >> situation. >> You're onboarding. You're onboarding. >> Yeah, you're onboarding, yeah. >> [laughter] >> And I don't think that they had that >> bring the corporate voice. >> Yeah, and I really don't think they had that in the other cultures. Of like >> They didn't have it as much, for sure. >> No one was getting them ready to become organized crime, like a like with a system. >> Like one of the craziest ones I saw was are you familiar with Hop Sing at all? >> Just mostly through what you guys have. >> So, they're from Chinatown. And uh you know, all the older dai los, they're they're like actual dai lo looking people. Like they look like my dad. >> Yeah. >> Like whereas my dai los are probably just 25 or something. These guys look
16:51 actual old guys. They look like cooks in the kitchen. You would never think they're in crime. They owned a restaurant in Chinatown. And I think when the rave culture came through, they found a way probably through the youngins. So, the youngins looked like they banged. Slicked-back hair, tails, whatever, baggy flannels, that kind of ████ They probably told them, "Hey, like if we're not using this space at night, why don't we turn it into raves? We could charge like uh the door price, and we can also slang. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, every Friday, Saturday night >> Dang. >> I would see them cuz I would go there too to hang out. They flipped the tables over, you know, those big circular tables with the lazy Susans. >> Yeah. >> They flip it, roll it out, move all the chairs and so you see all these Asian thug looking dudes hanging out with the old guys telling them, "Oh, yeah, just do whatever." And then the old guys all look innocent. Cuz they just look like my people's dads.
17:42 >> Right. >> And I was like, "Holy ████ you guys as die lows are like real die lows and you can't even tell." And then they would turn into a rave and then when the rave was over, they bring the tables back cuz now it's going to be a dim sum restaurant in the in the morning. And I don't I don't know if I really saw that like sophisticated of operation through the other cultures in in the street gangs. >> Oh, man, I saw that operation one time with cops and detectives coming in and we thought that it was going to be shut down. They went upstairs, had a conversation, shook hands and then the party was on. >> That's good That's good policing. >> Dang. >> That's good police work. >> No, I mean like they >> That's networking. >> Yeah. >> I didn't realize that the police was actually >> Like in on it? >> I don't know what was going on but it
18:32 blew my mind that I was like the like you guys have that kind of like ability to make police go away and we can just still continue partying and doing drugs. Like that's what blew my mind. Cuz I was like, "Usually when a cop comes the party's over. Everything's done." >> Maybe they paid the tax. >> That's what That's why I was like, "Yeah." >> people. >> That's a different level of like >> That IS A DIFFERENT >> YOU GUYS can negotiate. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, they're like diplomats.
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