I remember before we became the Lo Lifes, we would see each other on the trains, we used to plot on robbing one another for the Lo item we were wearing. It never came to that though.
It was on the Deuce (42 street and Broadway), when we first clicked together. There were a lot of movie theaters and game rooms there. There was mad girls from all over. One of the main attractions on the Deuce was the photographers with all the different backgrounds to take your pictures in. We were steppin’ up to take a picture one Saturday night when “Ralphies Kids” were already on the Polo background. Their wears were crisp, but that was the one thing we had in common. So, nigga’z was like “Yo!! lets take this flick together.” So both mobs got in one flick together. Little did we know, it would make history according to Brooklyn’s streets. “Lo Lifes” were mainly known for boostin’, running up in stores and just snatching everything. We made this common in our everyday activities. We turned it into a lifestyle, and to this day it is still the way some original members put food on the table.
When we traveled, we would roll at least 50 or 60 deep and could be recognized by the rainbow of Ralph Lauren labels. By 1989, we grew and had members in the “90’z” (East Flatbush) and East New york. We would get all dressed up just to go out and commit crimes. Sometimes we would go to clubs wearing like 5 different polo shirts each. We would wear one on top of another and switch shirts. All night while walking around the nightclub, your prop status was rated on how much “Lo” you had and how big your heart was.
When Lo Lifes first united, it was a mutual respect from Brownsville to Crown Heights. We did everything together. Boost, fight, party, look for girls and basically shared the same problems inner city youth face. Everyday was a fashion show and a shop lifting spree through upstate malls, Manhattan stores, even fast food restaurants like McDonalds were hit. We stole everything from our deodorant to our milk and cereal for breakfast. Sometimes we got confused for the Decepticons. They did their thing too. The only difference between us was the attire. We stayed extremely “dipped.” Our whole mentality revolved around staying “dipped”. My man “Shills-Lo” was telling me the other day that he is who he is, because of his Lo Life experiences. The “Lo Life” experiences gave him his pattern of thinking and showed him means for survival and ways to help Mom’s pay the rent.
Boostin’ became a culture. We don’t claim to be the first to ever do it . All we are saying is that we made it go mainstream out on the N.Y. streets and even out in Philly where Boostin Bill, an original member established a whole other episode of Lo Lifes. There was the uptown LoLifes who were Chris, Ibit, Rob, and a whole bunch of Bronx heads who did crime so fast we used to have to race them to the victims, word!! When we first established the Lo Lifes, a lot of us were very young. Ten years and counting have gone by and Lo Lifes spread so much, that many people none of us even knew claimed to be Lo Lifes. On the streets, in the Rap industry, even ABC’s 20/20 was planning to do an episode on Lo Lifes. They held a meeting over at ABC and some how we found out about it and got there an hour late. We walked into a room full of different rappers and boosters who claim affiliation to Lo Life. There were even Lo Life hats made which was featured in a “Source” magazine advertisement. None of us had anything to do with it or whom ever designed it. Lo Lifes is a title each original member has lived by and some died by the name. So rightfully, the name is ours.
The Lo Lifes list is endless. There are so many members from both sides that never even met each other. Whether you were part of Ralphies kids or Polo USA, once it was established everyone instantly became Lo Life. Even if you never met the other side.
We would terrorize 42nd street on Friday and Saturday nights. We were always so deep we would never pay to go into movies. There was so many of us, you would be stupid to try and stop one. Even at the stores in the same area, we would steal every 40oz of Old English 800 by just picking them up and walking out. We would be responsible for 75% of the crimes committed up there. As for the department stores we hit, Manhattan was a regular target. Macy*s, B’Altman’s, Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Ave, Trump Towers, Century 21, BFO’s, and like I mentioned before even McDonalds. Our main target was Polo. Either putting it in back packs or stuffing it down girdles. Most of the time when there was so many of us, we would just rush the store and take all you can carry. Leather and Shearlings stores were hit also along with Womens gear stores. This would always be the quickest shit selling and that was how a lot of heads made their money. One thing we all had in common was the love for true hip-hop. We would go to a lot of the most popular hip-hop clubs. We never paid for drinks. We would steal the bottles from behind the bar and stay drunk all night for free. We usually left the club after getting into some shit or taking somebody’s shit. A lot of the things we did resulted in consequences. In prison, official heads wore as much polo in jail as in the streets. You had to be a real nigga to be able to keep your Polo in the prison system where inmates would rob each other for expensive clothing.
Empire Skating Rink in Brooklyn was were we met every Sunday. The rink would close at about 5pm. Lo Lifes would unite out front and walk toward the subway headed to Manhattan to get paid. The ill shit was that the entire skating rink on Sundays was composed of boosters. It was a big fashion show. After a while, when we would leave on Sunday, other boosters in the rink knew where we were headed and what we were up to. So, a lot of others would follow us and add on to the chaos. Everybody wanted to be down and every Sunday was a repeat of last week. Except for one week we said we would hit the stores in Manhattan before the skating rink opened Sunday morning. So we went to Manhattan had a quick rush at Lord and Taylor’s for all kind of flavor Polo bath robes. Then we went to Empire skating rink, there was at least 40 or us in the middle of the day at a skating rink wearing bathrobes. Of course, we always got the girls. They even got with the program so we had Lo Wives. Stealing was a sport and a source of income and from the way some turned our 10 years later, it is all they may ever know. In the streets we weren’t always the culprits, we were preyed upon as well by jealous people who wanted what we had (our Lo) and just didn’t know how to get it the way we did. In conclusion, some of us were killed and some of them killed and so on. Ignorant, but the truth. Ten years later, traces of Lo Lifes spread to California and even Japan. Rappers are getting free “Tommy Hilfiger” to advertise, and we are still wondering what ever gave D-Lo the idea for their clothing line? HMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!, it was the original Lo Lifes who started using the word Lo after their names. “The Million Man Rush” is what we call our story just like the “Million Man March”, a movement many claimed to be a part of, but only a chosen few can say that “I WAS THERE!”The Lo Life Story, brought to you by Rack-Lo, Thirstin’ Howl (Vic-Lo) and on behalf of the many other originals via: vintage gear addicts
Download: The Face-Living the Lo Life.pdf (5 Page article on Lo’Lifes)