Earl Flynn
wooshie
490 Posts
I hear a lot of detroit rappers talking about earl flynn'in or errol flynnin? lines like "Earl flynn'n out in berlin".What is the meaning of this slang? what is the reference to Earl Flynn all about?Peas
Comments
A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Flynns">Errol Flynns/A>
The Errol Flynns were a criminal organization, or street gang, founded on the east side of Detroit, Michigan during the 1970s. Reportedly the gang appropriated their name from the Hollywood film star Errol Flynn because they fashioned themselves as flamboyant gangsters in dress and ???jitting???, or using hand signs to identify themselves publicly. This semiotic use of hand gestures to display gang membership, common to contemporary American street gangs as well as hip hop culture, evolved from dances such as the ???Errol Flynn???, which were in themselves territorial gang symbols. In the 1970s, house parties in Detroit could be identified by gang affiliation through the type of dance party-goers performed, whether or not they were actually in the gang.
The Errol Flynns evolved, like other Detroit street gangs, out of the racial and economic unrest that transformed Detroit in the late 1960s and 1970s. As people and capital left Detroit for suburban communities, the city's social and economic infrastructure buckled, leaving the community fractured and impoverished. As the murder rate soared to the highest in the United States, and the city became increasingly viewed as dangerous and in perpetual decline, gangs began to cease territories.
The Errol Flynns were regarded as perhaps the most notorious group for several reasons. Firstly, they took great pride in their physical appearance and style which attracted many young people to their parties. The poverty and urban decay percolating through Detroit made the gang lifestyle attractive to many. Secondly, Detroit underwent a dramatic demographic shift called white flight in the 1970s. Many of the public housing projects such as Herman Gardens went from a racially diverse community to a homogenous black residence in a few short years. Thus gangs appealed to racial unity and pride, admidst the racial intolerance and strife afflicting the city. Moreover, The Errol Flynns became a wealthy organization that monopolized many criminal rackets including extortion, robbery, and drug trafficking. Yet they were also linked to several notorious mass robberies, including a hijacking and robbery of concert goers at a rock concert in Cobo Hall in 1977 that drew the Detroit riot police. Accordingly, the gang grew to include almost four hundred members. Yet this prominence brought police, public and political attention and many gang members were eventually jailed.
The gang eventually collapsed in the 1980s, partially because of the rise of crack cocaine, which undermined the Flynn???s heroin trade, as well as the successful prosecution of many gang leaders who remain incarcerated today. One member who made a successful transition from thug to honest citizen was Greg Mathis, a lawyer and retired Michigan judge who has his own television show Judge Mathis. He published a memoir Inner City Miracle in 2002 partially chronicling his time in the gang.
damn, the unsung victims of the crack epidemic:
the former heroin kingpins made obsolete by the rise of rocks
I was searching for earl flynn, I knew who Errol Flynn was, I kept thinking it must be a reference to one of his movies where he is in Berlin or some shit...
...Interesting!
my folks named me after Errol Flynn, after my Dad read his book "My wicked, wicked ways" and found out how much of a ladies man he was. He supposedly died on a 70 foot yacht with a 17 year old girl.
He actually died with 17 girls on his 70 foot cock....