I watched Shaolin say that he was using the record for The Get Down, I knew of The Get Down from associations that I have had but I never went to one. I never really wanted to. He looked surprised that Zeke didn't know what it was, "You don't know what the get down is? You're a natural, and you don't know who Grandmaster Flash is? Oh, shit. All right, punks. Y'all want to go to the flyest secret underground party in the entire Bronx you follow me. You decide." He jumped over the back of the rock and disappeared before Diz said .

We all started following Shaolin, I stopped Diz halfway there and asked him to stand with me while I changed out of my dress and put a shirt on and new shoes. I always wear shorts under my dresses, never know when you're gonna have to run your ass off.

We followed Shaolin to this abandoned building. There was loud music coming out of it, Shao got us in and we all looked around. They all looked scared, and I rolled my eyes as Shao had to tell them that they gotta look like they know what they're doing. This was just another underground party to me. I made my way over towards the stage where Grandmaster Flash was scratching his records, I smiled and climbed onstage before some guy tried to stop me; he said I wasn't allowed to be up there. "Yo, Flash!" I shouted and he looked up smiling, the guy looked at Flash and he nodded. I walked over to him and smiled, "Oh hey stranger." I spoke laughing, "Funny seeing you here."

"I should be saying that to you, it's been a long time, grasshopper." He retorted smiling back, "Osu, I am not your grasshopper anymore, Flash. We are just friends now. And I was busy, getting money up, and I finished school." He smiled and shook his head, "That's what I'm talking about." Shao came over with the record as Flash spoke to him, "You're late Grasshopper."

"Hold up, this dude is your new mentee?" I asked looking at Shao, Flash shook his head yes, "I see potential in him, like I saw in someone else once." He looked at me when he said 'someone else once' and I looked down and chuckled a little, "There's no need for the unnecessary shade Flash." He laughed and continued to scratch as Shao was surprised; "Wait, Grandmaster. You know this bitch?"

"Don't call her a bitch, Grasshopper. She is a very talented person. She was once a Grasshopper, like you. She mentee'd under me for a year. She learned everything I know, as will you." Flash replied before Shao handed him the record, "I got the Pakoussa."

"I'm impressed, but have you found your wordsmith yet?" Flash asked running his fingers over the record before turning back around to his turntables. "I think I found him tonight. So, can you teach me how to DJ now? I'm ready right now, Grandmaster. Just show me the magic."

I shook my head, learning what Flash knows takes time, he wants to learn it all right now and it's going to go in one ear and out the other because you have to be patient.

"Tomorrow we begin. But tonight? We party." A new mix started playing and everyone cheered, I watched Flash work his magic and Shao disappeared. When I looked around again, I saw him next to Zeke on the fire escape. I saluted quickly to Zeke as Shao talked him, Cowboy got on stage and started spitting,

"Yo, Flash, I think I wanna tell some people, y'all listen to Cowboy. Yeah. Yes, yes, y'all To the beat, y'all Freak, freak, y'all To the beat, y'all Yes, yes, y'all And you don't stop." Everyone was live as Cowboy continued to spit, he called out to any Wordsmith that could match him and I saw Ra, Diz and Boo push Zeke towards the stage. He tried to get away from the stage as Cowboy grabbed him and said, "Nah, Nah, Nah. You think you a wordsmith? Kick a fly rhyme. Get up here."

He grabbed Zeke and pulled him on stage and handed him the mic, Zeke put the mic to his mouth after a few seconds, "To the beat, y'all. My name is Zeke and I'm a treat, y'all." I shook my head, "No, Zeke! What are you doing?" I shouted at him as another guy grabbed the mic and started spitting, "Yo, disco faggot, you don't belong here. You fucking suck! Get that motherfucking disco duck the fuck outta here. Before he ruin our party! And fuck his duck-ass burger-ass crew, too!"

I saw the crowd turn against them and start pushing the boys out, "Aye man, that's not cool!" I shouted to the guy on stage, "You want some too?" He retorted back chuckling before Shao jumped in the middle of the circle and I heard a recording, "Shaolin Fantastic."

Shao looked at Grandmaster Flash and Shao started dancing as Flash played the Pakoussa remix, the B-Boys started battling Shaolin as Flash continued to scratch the records, "Master my Shaolin style, and you, too, can reach Olympian heights. There are none who can match him."

Zeke froze for a few minutes while Shao continued to battle, when he finished; Zeke grabbed the mic from Cowboy and started spitting like his old self, "All right, y'all. Let me catch Shaolin's pass. Shaolin's fantastic, nothing but class. With you and your wack style, I should wipe my ass. Yeah. Knick knack, paddy whack, Give a dog a bone. Spank him like his daddy, and send the boy home. Shots fired, now you really should pause. But since your mouth's open, you can taste these good bars."

"Woo! Go Zeke!" I yelled standing next to Flash, all the boys hopped on stage as Zeke continued to spit, "Dressed in my disco clothes and still kill it. The best in the Bronx. Eventually you'll get it, Let me introduce you to the Get Down crew Ra-Ra, Dizzee, Shao and Boo. Y'all beneath us. We got nothing to prove, follow instructions when you step into school. Rock to the beat, and it just don't stop. Fly girls in the house, Make their panties drop." I clapped my hands smiling at my brother, I was so so proud of him for finding his voice, and standing up for who he is.

"Say Dizzee rocks the house, Say Kari rocks the house. Say Ra rocks the house, Say Boo-Boo rocks the house. Shaolin rocks the house and Flash rocks the house. Yes, yes, y'all, and you don't stop. Yes, yes, y'all, and you don't stop." The crowd cheered and I clapped my hands, this was a moment that I wish my mom could see; Zeke standing up and finding his voice after so long of being quiet.

After a while; we left and went to Shao's "place." It was one of the many abandoned buildings around the Bronx, he had it done up. Diz hugged me and smiled, "We did it, Kari. We met him, aren't you happy?"

I shrugged my shoulders before smiling a little bit, "I guess, he's kind of arrogant and rude. I didn't think he would be like that." Diz put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my cheek, "Every artist has their quirks."

I looked over to see the guys looking around, Shaolin was staring at me and Diz, I stared back at him til he stopped. "Yo, we's got comics!" Ra shouted to me holding some up, I laughed a little and went over to the window to look at the view.

"Yo. Everybody, gather around. Gather around. This is the Aladdin's Cave. No one else has seen this before." Shao spoke gathering us around a metal cabinet with a chain on it. Shao hyped the boys up and I just watched him take the chain off and reveal a collection of records. I was surprised to say the least, it must have taken him years to collect that many.

"This is my lifetime collection, man. Alphabetized and everything." Shao stated that sentence very proudly, I could tell why Grandmaster Flash wanted him to be his mentee. But Grandmaster Flash wouldn't tell anyone that, he would just say, "The winds of fate led him to me so I could teach him my ways and pass on my knowledge to someone with as much passion as me."

I sat down on a chair in front of the window and stared out at the beautiful view of the Bronx, it was still gorgeous at night. But when day hits, it was a whole lot of ugly with all the abandoned buildings and buildings burning. Shao came over and pulled up a seat next to me, "So, you know Grandmaster Flash, you know Cadillac. How come I have never seen you before?"

I ran my hair through my thick curls before glancing at him as he studied me, "I keep my business on the low, I keep my associations on the low. There are a lot of people who do want to hurt me because I make my hustle however I can. I don't let people know I associate with Cadillac. I never even told my brother, he hates gangsters and drug dealers. Hell, he's mad that I carry a .45 but I have to protect myself out here on these streets from niggas who think they can do whatever they want and not have no consequences." Shao nodded understandingly, before continuing to pry about myself, "But how do you know Grandmaster Flash?"

"What does it matter to you, Shaolin? I'm a bitch, remember?" I retorted letting my gaze fall on his features, he wasn't ugly at all; he was alright looking. He looked tired, just like I did on my worst days. "You ain't like no bitch I've ever met, most bitches are strung up and high maintenance. You're street but not street enough to be a full blown gangster. So I want to know."

"You wanna know how I run the street. But you not prepared to hear this treat. Everything I spit is true, but is it worth me proving to you? Flash was a teacher, saw me and thought 'Teach her'. Wordsmith, Dj, Artist too, I only spit what I do." I spit words back to him, he looked at me surprised before I continued talking,

"Grandmaster Flash's Caesars caught me in the wrong place and the wrong time, a while ago and they took me straight to Flash. Me and him talked it out and he found out I was a Wordsmith as well as an aspiring Dj. He told me he would mentor me if I would be his Wordsmith in exchange he wanted me to stop running the streets. And I did for a while, he taught me everything he knew. He even got me to meet Kool Herc, Herc liked me just as much and wanted me to mentor under him but at some point, I just stopped, you can't take the hood out of the girl. I went back to running the streets. Flash was upset or mad, but he never let it show but I spent everyday with that man and I knew him like the back of my hand. He wanted me to aspire and be great like him but I can't, I can act like someone I'm not but in reality; I'm just a ghetto female from the Bronx. I want more. Eventually, I would love to leave this city so I can do great things and people won't see me as a hoodrat anymore."

Shao was speechless taking in everything that I had just relayed to him, I surprise people from time to time, this was one of those times. "Yo, Shao. This where you stay at?"

Shaolin got up and walked towards the guys, "You know, other than staying at my girl's crib. That's where I keep my custom AJ Lesters." I rolled my eyes at his statement, of course this man had a girl.

The boys started asking him questions about the electricity and water, and they were flipping out because the city didn't turn off either yet. I noticed it was time for the sun to start coming up, just as the thought popped into my head, Diz asked Shao if we could get on the roof to see the train. When we got up there, Diz handed Shao his book and asked for an autograph. "I'll do one better, I'm retiring from writing, gonna be a full time DJ. So all my stuff downstairs, it's all you, Rumi." Dizzee was so shocked and happy at the same time, it made me joyful to see my best friend so happy and so excited that he met his idol.

"I'm about to introduce you to the three kingdoms. Okay? We got the west. There's the land of DJ Kool Herc-" Boo cut him off with the most obvious question in the world, "Who's Kool Herc?"

"If you don't know who Kool Herc is, you need to ask someone." I added in as Boo looked at me then Shao as he nodded, "Well, I am asking somebody." Shao looked back out over the horizon and twist flipped off the piece of concrete he was standing on before continuing, "Let's just say he has the biggest sound in the Bronx. Over here are his rivals. Bambaataa and the Zulus. And here we are in the kingdom of Grandmaster Flash."

"Yeah, but what about our kingdom?" Boo asked rubbing his chin, thinking about it, Zeke looked to Shao for the answers. I stood with Dizzee watching them interact. I liked to people watch sometimes, studying people is how I learned their emotions. "Well that's a good question. Y'all want your own kingdom, or you wanna be peasants in someone else's kingdom?" Shao asked crossing one leg across the other while sitting in his little roof chair. Zeke looked at us then back to Shao before confirming, "We want our own kingdom."

Shao hopped up from his chair like he was some kind of Bruce Lee motherfucker, "Then so it shall be! Stick with me and we'll run shit. We'll be musical kings. Fantastic Four plus One. Running shit from Hunts Point to Riverdale. Large and in charge."

"Wait, wait," Dizzee stopped him after counting what Shao said, "What about Kari? She's apart of the group too." I grabbed Diz's shoulder and shook my head, "It's okay, Diz. You can't force the ignorant to make females included. I'll still come with you guys, I just won't be apart of the group."

"This is going to be our kingdom, no bitches allowed. All they do is try to fuck shit up-" Shao started before Ra cut him off quickly jumping into the soon to be argument between him and I. "Now wait, I don't want to be apart of this if Kari isn't involved. It isn't right we've been friends for years. She's always been apart of the group." Shao sighed before looking to Boo who shook his head agreeing with Ra and Zeke just mumbled a 'yeah'.

Don't know how to stick up for his own sister, men are pussies. I swear. Shao crossed his arms over his chest before giving in to everyone's demand, "Fine, we can be Fantastic Four plus Two. BUT she isn't performing or anything. She isn't even really part of the group. More like a groupie or a fan."

"Whatever, ain't no groupie, Nigga. Fuck outta here with that shit." I mumbled as I rolled my eyes, "You can be my number one fan," Shao said smirking at my expression of distaste for what he said, he is so cocky! Someone needs to hit him off his high horse, it might be me if he keeps making those ugly ass jokes. "You are so arrogant that it's kind of disgusting, I can't believe you were someone I actually looked up to and wanted to be like. If that means being an asshole then I'm good."

"You already are one." Boo said laughing as the rest of the guys joined in joking on me, I snapped my glare to Boo, "Keep it up, Lucky Charms, you're gonna be dangling from this roof pretty soon too. Shortstack."

Boo lost his focus when he heard the train coming, he started shouting 'Train!', we all rushed to the edge of the roof as the train came by. Diz grabbed my hand and pointed to our two cars, "That's our train, Kari!" I smiled widely at Diz as we scrambled to get a better angle of it, Diz's read; 'Where There is Ruin, There is Hope for Treasure.' I saw mine and started cheering, it was beautiful. REVOLUTION.

It was also my last piece that I was going to spray all-city for. I didn't need to anymore, I got my messages out there and now it was up to the people who saw them to take heed.

"Yo, we gonna be bigger than Les Inferno. We gonna be bigger than the Yankee Stadium. We gonna be bigger than the whole fucking Bronx." I heard Shao say to Zeke as they stood away from us staring at the sun rise, Zeke smiled and did one better than the Bronx, "We gonna be bigger than the world."

I smiled at my brother before the guys started heading back downstairs, I sat on the edge of the roof looking at the sun rise, higher and higher. "You coming, Kari?" Diz asked stopping at the top of the steps, "Nah, Diz. I'll be down in a little bit, I'm going to stay up here for a bit and just think."

I heard him descend down the stairs and back into the building, I brought my knees to my chest and stared at the sunrise, being around my brother and his friends is always adventure, we always do crazy shit and today was tiring between school, Les Inferno and meeting Shaolin. I felt so tired, exhausted actually. I started thinking about my life again, my parents, my Aunt and Leon and Zeke. He is going to hate me when I leave, I felt tears prick my eyes; "Mind if I join you?"

I looked to my right, Shao was standing there looking at me; I quickly wiped away the tears that were in the corners of my eyes. "It's your place, you're gonna do whatever you want anyways." He chuckled dryly and added, "Actually it's the property of the Bronx, I'm just renting it."

"Oh yeah? How much is rent?" I rolled my eyes, smiling a little at what he said; "I got a discount, it's called Free-99." I laughed quietly, mad at myself that I'm laughing at this man that disrespected me the whole night. "Don't make me laugh, I don't like you."

Shao hopped up onto the edge with me and did the same knees to chest motion that I was doing, he looked fake shocked, "What did I do?" I glared at him, he is so annoying sometimes; I swear. "You disrespected me in front of my friends, my brother, and Grandmaster Flash. All three of those hold a high amount of respect for me. And it took a lot of self control not to punch your ass tonight. You pissed me off so bad."

He looked down and was quiet for a few minutes, I sighed loudly before getting down and started walking towards the stairs, he grabbed my wrist and stopped me, "Alright, I'm sorry that I disrespected you in front of Books, Grandmaster Flash, your friends and your man." What? Man? What is this dude talking about?

"Man? I don't have a man." Shao looked at me like I was lying and said, "Dizzee ain't your man?"

Shaking my head, "No, he is my bestfriend." He came to realization of what I saying, his face made me laugh really hard. I started walking down the stairs and he followed and continued to talk to me on the way down. "So you're single?"

"Does it matter, Shaolin? You have a girl, remember?" I said before looking at him and smirking, he stopped me before I climbed back in the window. "I don't really have a girl, I just said that. I do have some custom AJ Lesters though." I laughed and shook my head, climbing back into the window.

Diz, Ra and Boo got ready to leave as did Ezekiel, "Are you coming with us, Kari?"

I sat down on the couch and looked at the group, shaking my head. "Nah, I'm gonna kick it a little bit with Shaolin, if he doesn't mind. I'm not ready for the wrath of Wanda and Leon." Diz came over and hugged me, "Alright, be careful." I waved goodbye to the boys as they walked out the door. Shao came over to the couch and sat down next me, "Did I say you could sit next to me?"

He laughed before I started smiling, "Girl, if you don't-"

Mocking him, I stretched my legs out to the table that sat in front of us. "So, tell me about you." I sighed and looked up at the cracked, stained ceiling. "What's there to say? I mean I'm basic." He raised an eyebrow, "There ain't nothing basic about you."

"Boy, please. I want what every girl wants minus the glitter, and unicorns." I replied chuckling as he opened a small box and pulled out a joint. He lit it up and puffed on it before passing it to me, I smiled again and took it graciously. I took a big hit before passing it back. I don't get to smoke a lot, only with Markie because my brother doesn't really smoke and neither do our friends.

"And what's that, girl?"

"Nigga, that's a loaded question. I want to get out of the Bronx, I want a better life. I want to be able to stop slinging drugs and get a good ass job. Get my name out there, be happy. Find a man who isn't a trash ass nigga." I replied running my hand through my hair, I felt myself getting drowsy and I leaned my head back and took another hit of the joint. He leaned his head back chuckled at my reply, "Everyone in the Bronx wants to get out of the Bronx."

I yawned loudly, like a domino effect; he yawned right after me. I closed my eyes and felt myself slip away to my drowsiness. I guess the weed really did the trick.

;;

Sorry if it is too short or it sucks.