Dear Culture takes a look at classic Black films that have shaped the culture and we start with John Singleton’s ‘Boyz N The Hood.’ More specifically the story of Ricky Baker, who died on the streets of South Central Los Angeles in the early ’90s. With the help of various guests including Doughboy aka Ice Cube, Panama Jackson examines what Ricky’s tragic death meant to the Black community.
READ FULL TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified.
Panama Jackson [00:00:08] On October 13th, 1991, one of the most promising lights in the Black community was extinguished on the streets of South Central Los Angeles. This was a light who shone so bright that today, according to our research, he’s the first and only person to take the SATs on a Saturday morning and receive his fully scored test results on a Sunday afternoon delivered by the postman. This is somebody whose import is so substantial to who we are and what we stand for as a community that he’s simply known by one name. Ricky! This is significant moments in Black history with Dear Culture.
Michael Harriot [00:01:11] Well, I think when you think about Ricky Baker, he is a tale, even if you don’t know the story of Ricky Baker. We’ve all heard the story of someone like Ricky Baker who’s, you know, killed after their high school graduation at a convenience store trying to buy some Hot Cheetos or somebody who was, you know, just hanging out at the mall and got in the wrong got in with the wrong crowd, or.
Ricky Baker [00:01:45] I’m still trying to find out.
Michael Harriot [00:01:48] You know, Ricky Baker is the example of a cautionary tale that everyone has heard about. There’s always one star athlete who he could have been the one, if only he had been gunned down outside on the strip or if only he had stayed in the books or hadn’t got involved with the wrong crowd. Oh, my goodness. My name is Michael Harriot. I am a columnist at theGrio. I can remember going to the guys in my neighborhood and in breaking the news and how they poured out a little bit of their 40 for him. At the time St. Ides was the thing. And I imagine that same I made a hefty profit from just the little bit of beer that was poured out and people had to replace that by by, of course, another 40 ounce.
Monique Judge [00:02:46] I am Monique, Judge. I am a storyteller and a writer from Los Angeles, California. I knew Ricky because his girlfriend is my ex-boyfriend’s cousin. I mean, he was well known for football, but also because, you know, like his brother was also really well known. So.
Doughboy [00:03:05] We got a problem here? We got a problem?
Monique Judge [00:03:08] The two of them together. Like if you mentioned why you mention the other kind of thing, I mean, you know, they were brothers and you knew that they cared about each other, but because they were so different, you know, Ricky was into football. He really was like focused on that. And I Doughboy was in the gang, you know what I’m saying? So they were at odds in that regard. Plus, like, I don’t know if you know the mama, but she kind of like favored Ricky over Doughboy.
Mrs. Baker [00:03:37] I always knew you would amount to something.
Monique Judge [00:03:39] And I think that probably caused some tension to, too, because, like, Ricky was like her golden child and Doughboy was just like, you know, the screw up.
Doughboy [00:03:47] Why you hit me?
Dookie [00:03:50] Yo, Dough. Why she hit you?
Monique Judge [00:03:52] He went to jail, all that kind of stuff. So that I feel like addict to it or whatever. But at the end of the day, that was Doughboys brother. He was going to be down for him no matter what. You know what I’m saying?
Panama Jackson [00:04:04] People in the community talk about what it meant to them, what the death of Ricky meant to them. And you obviously came up quite prominently.
Ice Cube [00:04:12] What they said about Doughboy?
Panama Jackson [00:04:14] Well, that’s funny you mention that.
Michael Harriot [00:04:16] What’s kind of unsaid here is that, like, we know that Doughboy and Ricky had different daddies. Like, you could just look at them and tell because, like, Doughboy, why didn’t Doughboy play any football? Why was he, like, the opposite of the athlete that Ricky was? I don’t think that has anything to do with the father in the home. I think what this tale, you know is about is sure, like, if Ricky had a father home, maybe Doughboy wouldn’t have been a gangster.
Doughboy [00:04:50] That’s why fools be getting shot all the time. Trying to show how hard they is. Ignorant.
Michael Harriot [00:04:56] And if Doughboy wouldn’t have been a gangster, maybe his brother wouldn’t have got shot. But if you flip it around, like, what if if Doughboy and Ricky had a father in the home and Trey didn’t?
Furious [00:05:10] You have to think, young brother.
Monique Judge [00:05:11] First of all, his daddy wasn’t having that. I don’t know if you know his dad, but, like, Furious was not going to let Trey be for the streets.
Furious [00:05:18] You my only son and I’m not gonna lose over no bull****, you hear?
Monique Judge [00:05:21] Know what I’m saying? So as much as Trey wanted to hang out and be down with everybody, his daddy really had him, like, in a house doing his homework, get good grades, raking leaves. We would pass by and he’d be outside, like mowing the lawn and rake it up leaves and stuff because his dad just putting him on that, you know what I’m saying? Being like, when we got to high school, he got his little job in a mall or whatever. He thought he was doing something.
Doughboy [00:05:44] Heard you like Mr. GQ Smooth, now.
Michael Harriot [00:05:46] When the news about Ricky first broke, what I heard about it is the thing you hear about, you know, every time somebody Black dies that it was gang-related. And of course, that could mean any number of things. If you Black in America, you know what gang-related means. That means the police don’t know what happened, so they just said probably the gangs. Probably, you know, the other Black dudes.
Cop [00:06:12] What set you from? Look like one them Crenshaw Mafia mother.
Michael Harriot [00:06:15] So I think that was the first story that came out. And then, you know, because of that, all kinds of conspiracy theories, you know, rose up. There are some people who say that Ricky was never killed, that he changed his name and, you know, started hanging out with a new group of friends. A lot of people say they saw him in the nineties at a wedding as the best man. They say he changed his name and played for the New York Giants and hung out with those friends to this very day.
Doughboy [00:06:51] Ignorant.
Michael Harriot [00:06:52] So, you know, there’s so many conspiracies because the first thing that we heard was gang related and we knew Ricky wasn’t in the gang. Ricky was too smart for that. So the first initial news, I think, was just rumors.
Panama Jackson [00:07:05] Where were you when you found out Ricky was shot and killed, allegedly by Ferris, so I’m not asking you to snitch if you actually know who shot him. But, you know, where were you when you found out Ricky was shot?
Monique Judge [00:07:19] So we found out that Sunday night on Crenshaw. Like everybody, every Sunday, we all go out on a show, you know, riding up and down. And we were riding up and down Crenshaw that Sunday night. And people was asking, you know, where’s Trey? Where’s Ricky? Like, you know, where’s everybody at? Because we all would, like, gather at the same spot and they weren’t there. And then after someone came and told us that Ricky had been killed, coming back from the store or something. But he got got in the alley.
Panama Jackson [00:08:03] And how did you feel when you heard that news that Ricky was shot?
Monique Judge [00:08:09] Man, when the news of Ricky getting killed hit the neighborhood, everybody was sad, you know what I’m saying? Because it’s like, here’s this dude, we all grew up with him, we knew him like, you know, and like I said, he just he was a cool dude. He never bother anyone. He just mind his business and go to school, play football, and that’s it. And, you know, when something like that happens, it’s kind of like traumatic because you start thinking about it could be you next, you know what I’m saying? Look, I’m not saying I know who did it.
Boyz n the Hood [00:08:40] What am I supposed to do? Fool roll up, try to smoke me, I’m going to shoot the mother****** if you don’t kill me first.
Monique Judge [00:08:47] But what I’m saying is that person, you know, they just be out there any way, wilding. The person that they say did it right. I’m not going to say their name, but, you know, and so you start thinking like something like that might can happen to you. Like it’s a lot of kids in our neighborhood. So don’t nobody want to have to worry about some dude riding up and down the street shooting people. You know what I mean?
Michael Harriot [00:09:14] Well, I think Ricky’s death, if he died, symbolizes the fragility of life in general. I think it is the limitations and the ceilings put upon us by circumstance. If Ricky lived in the suburbs, who knows, he might not have been involved with the few. From news reports and from rumors, it seems that he really didn’t have anything to do with. And so I think it is it is about circumstance. It is about the violence of Black neighborhoods, existence in the first place. The idea that we are herded into these, you know, metaphorical cages in neighborhoods. And, you know, during that time, there was the gang life that was sprouting up around America. And one would hope that many people took away from that, that if you get involved in that kind of life or even, you know, get associated with it on the periphery, then you could end up like Ricky. You could end up shouting, one of your friends shouting and crying in in an alley over your dead body. You could end up with him punching at the air while his girlfriend comforts him.
Monique Judge [00:10:46] I feel like Ricky Dion had an impact on Black America because he was like a symbol of promise. You know what I’m saying? Like, that boy was really putting on do something. In the NFL, in the world. You know, again, he had a son and that that baby grew up without knowing, you know, his daddy because he was just a little baby when Ricky died. And I think that it just makes us think about how precious life is and how we need to, you know, be careful. The things that we do, the places that we go, the people that we hang around. Because you never know what can be waiting for you around the corner.
Michael Harriot [00:11:26] I think about Ricky when I see a football game and wonder, like, what if that team, what could that team have been if Ricky would have been playing for them?
[00:11:41] Catch. Man, you sorry.
Michael Harriot [00:11:48] You know, I think about Ricky when, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but you know, from the reports that I’ve seen and you know, the word of mouth on the street is that Doughboy eventually moved to Chicago, opened a very successful barbershop. You know, after spending a while, just kind of, you know, they said there was a period when he just hung out with a guy named Smokey. Smoking weed all day. And then he got fired on his day off.
Friday [00:12:20] Damn.
Michael Harriot [00:12:22] Got his life together and went to barber school. And you have to think like, you know, there were reports because, you know, there are Black reporters in Black media who, you know, kept up with Ricky’s family. And I remember when there was a report about Doughboy in danger of losing his barbershop, and you wonder if Ricky had made it to the league, would Doughboy have been in that kind of financial distress? So I think of many things that make me think of of Ricky Baker, of his circumstance, of the fragility of Black life in the ghetto.
Panama Jackson [00:13:04] You know, Doughboy died two weeks after Ricky too. He was murdered in the street two weeks after Ricky.
Michael Harriot [00:13:10] Well, I heard that they say they say Doughboy died two weeks after Ricky. But again, like. Like we really don’t know. They’ll tell you anything because, I mean, I’ve seen those pictures of that dude, that bought that barbershop, and he looks a lot like Doughboy. Who knows, right? Like, maybe those killers were arrested and Doughboy and Ricky were in witness protection. You know, you never know. Because a lot of people say that COINTELPRO had a lot to do with Ricky’s death to prevent the rise of a of a Black running Black Messiah. So, you know, it’s really hard to talk about this without acknowledging that a lot of what we heard may not be true.
Panama Jackson [00:13:56] As one of the most significant deaths in the Black community, what did the passing mean to you, my brother?
Ice Cube [00:14:01] It meant that it’s not going to be a sequel. Cause when I walked across the street, John was going to fade my ass the Black too, man. You know what I’m saying? I’m like, damn, I thought I was going to have a sequel. Either they don’t know, don’t show, I don’t care that there ain’t no sequels in the hood.
Michael Harriot [00:14:20] I think ultimately when I tell young people or tell, you know, my children about the story of Ricky Baker, I tell them about a guy who worked hard, who had a promising future, who was held down not by financial problems or his neighborhood, but by his family. And I think that it is a cautionary tale about how we must all lift each other up. Right. If you’re going to be a gangster, that’s your personal choice. But you have a responsibility to protect literally your brother from harm. You have to send him home. And I also think it is about the need to understand your circumstances. I think we should teach the little kids that if somebody shoots at you, you know, you have to run in a serpentine fashion. And I don’t know if that would have saved Ricky’s life because, of course, it wasn’t alley. And if you know anything about double barrell, but that was a Winchester 500 shotgun double barrel that Ricky was shot with, which is a smooth boy shotgun. So when you shoot buckshot, they spread it out. So, you know, I’ve heard people say that he should have run in a serpentine fashion. We don’t you know, he probably would have been hit any way. But, you know, when you look at the logistics of what happened to him, it wasn’t just stopping to pee that doomed him. It wasn’t being affiliated with a brother. I think maybe it was about splitting up. And see, that’s a metaphor for life. Right. When Ricky and Trey split up. Everybody knows, especially if you’ve Black, that you don’t split up. Harriet Tubman told us that like 200 years ago. Never split up, splitting up metaphorically and in the case of Ricky Baker, literally would doom you. You are your brother’s keeper. Never split up.
Ice Cube [00:16:44] What’s funny is I was arguably John Singleton on the set saying, Why they split up? Why he going to go this way and he going to go that? That don’t make. John. John, John. He was like “Man, they split up. They split up.” I was like, “Okay. Okay. Okay.”
Panama Jackson [00:17:00] If you could say something to Ricky right now, what would you say to him?
Monique Judge [00:17:04] Ricky, you should’ve never got that girl pregnant. You knew I had a crush on you. You should’ve got with me instead. But that’s okay because what’s done is done. And now you’re not here. And I miss you. I hope you’re resting well. Why, you make me laugh, man?
Panama Jackson [00:17:23] That’s not where I thought that going. Oh, I wasn’t prepared. That was awesome. Next week on Dear Culture’s Tru’ish Black Stories.
Dear Culture Tru’ish Black Stories [00:17:31] When you think of sheer artistry, sheer creativity, the ability for someone to bring Black people together in the most fundamental ways, it’s, you know, I would say of my four, Randy Watson’s my number one.
