Dizzee is out tagging when he's spotted by the police. He takes off running down the subway tunnel refusing to be caught. Mainly because, his dad said if he gets caught again he can stay in jail. He is snatched into a maintenance exit by some random white guy who helps him escape the police. He introduces himself as Thor and Dizzee introduces himself by his tag name Rumi. They're fans of each other's work, exchange tagger books and promise to do some legendary work.
We also get this cool explanation of what Rumi actually is. Rumi is an alien who always gets dressed up in his very best attire, with a top hat and everything. He leaves home to go to the opera, one of his favorite pastimes. However, he never makes it to the opera on time. But he also knows that even if he does make it there on time, they'll kill him for being different.
At the black market set up for stolen goods after the blackout the boys are looking for records. Shaolin buys a cane that holds a sword and now walks around like he's the shit. He is the shit but now he has a sword. The rest of the guys get chased by the Notorious Three, a DJ crew from Kool Herc's set. When they meet up with Shaolin they get cornered and he finds out about the Flash tape and takes off swearing he has to fix this.
We get a montage of Jackie in his apartment. He's crying and steady using more and more drugs as he sits at the piano trying to write Mylene a song, wondering where his creativity went and how he turned into a failure. He starts with just beer, moves up to hard liquor, then some weed, cocaine, better cocaine "not that bullshit from last night," and eventually he does heroin. Heroin is a drug he's never done before so he struggles to figure out how to do it, or how much to take. He finally takes some heroin and passes out without ever completing the song.
Meanwhile Fuerte makes a deal with Koch that he'll deliver voters from the Bronx. In return he'll receive 10 million dollars to rebuild the Bronx. Fuerte really can't stand Koch or his sidekick Herman Gunz. Mainly because Gunz called him a poverty pimp. To some extent he does make money from poverty, but on the other hand he forces people to deliver on promises. We've seen him ball out at an open air market buying stolen goods, we've seen him flirt with his brother's wife. Yet, on the other hand he really does care for the community. We've seen him break up gang fights, get texbooks delivered to schools, he bought his brother's church and brought him more more members. But, he feels that shutting his mouth and working with Koch is all he can do to fix his community. One of the requirements is that they hire someone from the Bronx as an intern to Koch and the Public Finance Committee.
Meanwhile Shaolin shows up and tries to apologize to Flash but the goons won't let him in so he keeps screaming that he'll make this right because DJing is his life. Shaolin then goes out and beats the shit out of everyone demanding to know who got the bootleg tapes. He finally meets with a limousine driver. By limousine driver I mean he drives a cool ass car with custom everything. Also he's a pimp and offers Shaolin some from services to calm his mind. When the prostitute puts in the bootleg Shaolin hops out and whoops the pimp's ass demanding to know where it came from.
Mylene suggests Zeke and he goes to an interview with Fuerte for it. It's basically a done deal. Mylene sits outside and watches them through a glass window. Fuerte smiles and asks questions like "are you fucking my niece," while demanding Zeke nod and smile. In the end they respect each other and Fuerte welcomes Zeke to the family. During the interview Shaolin pulls up outside, now being chauffeured by the pimp. He and Zeke head to Kool Herc's set to meet with the bootlegger, while Mylene looks on angrily as they leave.
Ra-Ra tells their parents what really happened to the shop because he had to learn from Shaolin that to be a real man you have to have your own code of honor. They cleaned the shop and decide they're going to Kool Herc's turf too because they think Shaolin and Zeke will need backup.
Mylene has teamed up with her friends to go see Jackie. It's at this point we find out that Regina is an abusive ass relationship. Her boyfriend gets upset she's leaving and states "I just bought you and your friends lunch and you just gonna leave," before she responds "what you gonna do? Hit me," to which he responds by raising his hand to smack the fuck out of her, to which she responds by getting ready to throw a punch. The only reason the two didn't start fighting is because Mylene and Yolanda pulled Regina away and Regina's boyfriend was stopped by his friend who grabbed his arm and asked the very good question of "dafuq you doing?"
On the train Regina reveals that their relationship has always been like this to which Yolanda and Mylene reply "dafuq is you doing." When they arrive at Jackie's he's passed out in the tub due to an overdose. Regina takes some ice cubs and either holds them against his sack or shoves them up his ass, so the cold temperature would shock him back to life. I don't know, all I know is she jammed some ice into his underwear and explained she learned how to do it by watching her mom do it to her father.
Jackie cries and apologizes, he doesn't have anything but the first few keys of a song. However, Fuerte expects to hear it tonight. So they hop on the train and the girls harmonize as he sleeps on his way to what he assumes is death at the hands of Fuerte. When they arrive he just has to confess to Fuerte, Mylene, Mylene's parents and everyone else that he doesn't have a song. Things look rough and Fuerte is pissed off.
They meet with the bootlegger and shenanigans ensue, including a foot chase. The fight eventually leads them to Kool Herc's anniversary party. Kool Herc has gained possession of the sword and is holding it to Boo-Boo's neck wondering why they're fucking up his party and chasing one of his close friends. Kool Herc is not playing with these boys, then the episode ends. They really hit us with a cliff hanger.
I think one of the cool parts about this episode is that we get to see Kool Herc spin some records too. It shows that his style is different than Grandmaster Flash's. While Flash focused on slow rhythmic beats Herc had a lot faster pace to his music. Flash had rhymers and so did Herc but the rhyming was different with Herc as there wasn't any real substance to it other than keeping the crowd hype. I also started to feel bad for Jackie. He's clearly being consumed by his demons and getting driven further and further into addiction, even when he's trying to do the right thing.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
