Ever hear of Romeo and Juliet? Well, This is the story of the Romeo and Juliet of Times Square.
This is the story of Eric and Jeannette--Jeannette is a project girl from the Marcy houses in Brooklyn. Eric Sampson, also known as "Hustle", also known as Harlem Hustle, also known as Double H, is a throwaway kid from 128th Street.
If you've ever been in or passed by The Thomas Jefferson houses, the Weldon houses, the Washington Houses, the Robert Wagner Houses, The "Where's my Check at?" Houses, you may know a little bit about their world. This book tells you a lot more about their world.
Harlem Hustle is good at two things: he's an excellent Shoplifter, and he's good with words. He's good at Rhyming and rapping and that's a gift he's had since he was in the fourth grade stumbled on a Rhyming dictionary in the school library.
He's good at shoplifting because he's got to be. Life never gave him nothing. The only thing life ever gave him, is...away. His parents gave him away to relatives, and they gave him away to a family down the street. And where he finally wound up, at 14, was staying with his best friend Ride's family, that's his real family, the only real family he's ever known.
You see, when it comes to boosting retail merchandise from midtown clothing stores, Hustle has been given the gift of invisibility. 5-0, security guards, store detectives of all gender, description and race just never seem to notice the stocky little guy leaving the store wearing three shirts, two pairs of pants and at least one high-end hoodie.
Oh he's gooood. And just like all really good shoplifters, comes the day when he gets nailed. You see, he missed school that day the NYPD outreach squad came to school to give the talk about those new sensors they hide in the collars and seams of the stuff people like to take. And just like all great shoplifters, comes the day when he spends his birthday in jail. His 17th. Rikers Island. He doesn't like what he sees here. Staring at the grey ceiling of his cell, in the crowded, noisy solitude of jail, he takes the hollow oath of all theives: Never Again. Does he mean it though?
Jeannette and Hustle have a lot in common, but they live in different worlds. They're both from around the way and both sets of both of their parents are crackheads who abandoned them at a very young age. They're both smart and funny, but in completely different ways.
You see, Jeanette got dealt a different hand in the abandonment lotto. She got left with her grandmother, Nanna, who's a strict, no-nonsense school teacher from the old school. Under the vigilant eye of her Nanna at all times, Jeannette has never missed a day of school and never not turned her homework in on time, and as a result, she's been given a full scholarship to Ridgefield. That's A private school up in Poughkeepsie. The kind with rolling green hills and horse stables to accomodate the students who ride or play competitive polo.
Jeanette and Hustle's world's collide in Times Square. They were friends as kids, but haven't seen each other in quite awhile. When they run into each other on 47th Street, they feel the spark of something much more than coincidence. Jeanette is on her lunch break from her summer job at a prestigious publishing house. Hustle is in the area to sell a gold chain he's boosted in order to get the money to cut a demo. You see, the rhyming thing is not just a fantasy for Hustle. He didn't get that name for nothing. He's a doer, not a talker, and he has determined to cut his demo and go straight to the top of the music entertainment industry.
When Jeanette brings Hustle home to meet Nanna, she couldn't be more disgusted with the look of Hustle. The sag and the rag. The name! He's basically her worst nightmare. Just when things couldn't get more uncomfortable, he breaks out in his latest rap for her: "Backseat Shorty" which is so hardcore I can't even really go into it too much here.
Eventually, Nanna sees something more in Hustle, and sees him for who he really is. She even gives him a book containing some urban poetry of a different era, a collection containing the work of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, among others. That's when his world really begins to change.
You see, he sold the demo alright, only in the music entertainment industry it turns out he's s sucka, not a playa. He even gets jacked for his gold chains on the subway by three girls from the projects. But when he's true to the talent for words he's nurtured since long before he ever boosted his first merchandise, Hustle finds a world he never dreamed could exist for him and it's one he doesn't have to experience alone.
Everyone's good at something. Eric is good with words, and he's good at boosting merchandise. Jeannette is just plain good at everything.
I'm going to ask a question and I'd like you all to think of the answer and keep it to yourselves until after class: What are you good at?