New York Rappers Talk Their Worst Summer Jobs - Part 2
El-P
"Construction--that was shit! I worked that when I was 17-years-old, just hauling rubble out of a ten-story building with no elevator. That was a real shitty one. But the last real job I worked was in '96 right before Funcrusher, the [Company Flow] E.P., came out. It was at Tower Records, in the mail-order department, which was on Lafayette Street, right above Tower Books when that used to be there. There was two sections: [Fellow Company Flow member] Bigg Jus was in the ordering section, which was an 800 number--it wasn't even online then. Then in the back were the ex-cons and the work release program dudes boxing up Bone Thugs-N-Harmony CDs and smoking weed.
That job wasn't the best in the world, but I got the five-finger discount every day. I don't think they knew about it. I also learned how to scam Fed-Ex. Between Jus on the computers and me in the shipping department, we were running things. We sent out every single Company Flow vinyl promo to any D.J. that wanted it, and sent it overnight delivery via Fed-Ex. That shit got there immediately! They never knew about it. So I learned how to be a scam artist out of that. I can talk about it now--I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations is up on that one."
Tanya Morgan's Von Pea and Donwill
Richard Louissaint
Von Pea: "I was doing promotional work where I had to hand out flyers for the Tribeca Film Festival. I had a supervisor who was a real close talker. He was literally on my neck all the time. I was supposed to hand out these papers to people going to see different films. He'd be across the street telling me, 'You can't stand against this wall, you have to smile a certain way.' And this went on from like 6 p.m. until midnight that day, and by that point there was no way I could smile and greet anybody cause the dude was driving me crazy.
Then I worked at Radio Shack in East New York. People would come in the store and basically turn out the store almost every day. It was on Pitkin Avenue, a really bad part of Brooklyn, an area known for being a place where you don't want to shop cause people will steal your stuff. There was a girl who worked in the front of the store who would always come in the back saying, 'These guys have come in, they're gonna rob the store, don't say anything!' I worked there for three weeks--I realized that one day they were going to come in and really do something serious to the store and I didn't want to be around that. But I'm one of those dudes that's had a million part-time jobs; I'll take a job for the discount. I've had a billion jobs in retail--I worked at Footlocker once for two days just to get the discount!"
Donwill: "I've had a lot of jobs in my life, but my worst summer job was working at the Cincinnati Zoo. I was a parking lot attendant. Pretty much all I did was stand in the middle of an asphalt parking lot, which was blacktop so it's hotter than usual in the sun, and do a four-to-five hour shift where all you do is stand and point. You can't move from your post either--you had to get people to bring you water.
I also worked at UPS but I didn't last long there. I'm a little dude but they have you load these trucks, just load and unload boxes. It was torture. You couldn't do it at your own pace. Your work was based on how fast you could load and unload your truck. If you could do one truck an hour, you were the man. That was the only job I've ever had where I made a big scene and walked out. You know that phrase Biggie said: 'Don't be mad, UPS is hiring'? Rappers, do not go to UPS!
"Construction--that was shit! I worked that when I was 17-years-old, just hauling rubble out of a ten-story building with no elevator. That was a real shitty one. But the last real job I worked was in '96 right before Funcrusher, the [Company Flow] E.P., came out. It was at Tower Records, in the mail-order department, which was on Lafayette Street, right above Tower Books when that used to be there. There was two sections: [Fellow Company Flow member] Bigg Jus was in the ordering section, which was an 800 number--it wasn't even online then. Then in the back were the ex-cons and the work release program dudes boxing up Bone Thugs-N-Harmony CDs and smoking weed.
That job wasn't the best in the world, but I got the five-finger discount every day. I don't think they knew about it. I also learned how to scam Fed-Ex. Between Jus on the computers and me in the shipping department, we were running things. We sent out every single Company Flow vinyl promo to any D.J. that wanted it, and sent it overnight delivery via Fed-Ex. That shit got there immediately! They never knew about it. So I learned how to be a scam artist out of that. I can talk about it now--I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations is up on that one."
Tanya Morgan's Von Pea and Donwill
Richard Louissaint
Von Pea: "I was doing promotional work where I had to hand out flyers for the Tribeca Film Festival. I had a supervisor who was a real close talker. He was literally on my neck all the time. I was supposed to hand out these papers to people going to see different films. He'd be across the street telling me, 'You can't stand against this wall, you have to smile a certain way.' And this went on from like 6 p.m. until midnight that day, and by that point there was no way I could smile and greet anybody cause the dude was driving me crazy.
Then I worked at Radio Shack in East New York. People would come in the store and basically turn out the store almost every day. It was on Pitkin Avenue, a really bad part of Brooklyn, an area known for being a place where you don't want to shop cause people will steal your stuff. There was a girl who worked in the front of the store who would always come in the back saying, 'These guys have come in, they're gonna rob the store, don't say anything!' I worked there for three weeks--I realized that one day they were going to come in and really do something serious to the store and I didn't want to be around that. But I'm one of those dudes that's had a million part-time jobs; I'll take a job for the discount. I've had a billion jobs in retail--I worked at Footlocker once for two days just to get the discount!"
Donwill: "I've had a lot of jobs in my life, but my worst summer job was working at the Cincinnati Zoo. I was a parking lot attendant. Pretty much all I did was stand in the middle of an asphalt parking lot, which was blacktop so it's hotter than usual in the sun, and do a four-to-five hour shift where all you do is stand and point. You can't move from your post either--you had to get people to bring you water.
I also worked at UPS but I didn't last long there. I'm a little dude but they have you load these trucks, just load and unload boxes. It was torture. You couldn't do it at your own pace. Your work was based on how fast you could load and unload your truck. If you could do one truck an hour, you were the man. That was the only job I've ever had where I made a big scene and walked out. You know that phrase Biggie said: 'Don't be mad, UPS is hiring'? Rappers, do not go to UPS!
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