Dedric Hammond, once known as "Bad News," a notorious figure from Harlem's St. Nicholas houses, who transformed into "Be | dG1fM3RhR0ZjV0VkdE0
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Hey, what's going on, y'all? How y'all feeling?
00:04What's good, King? Everything good. How you holding up?
00:06So they know me from when I used to be called Bad News.
00:09I used to be the one selling drugs, shooting people, kidnapping people, all types of other stuff.
00:15Let's go.
00:17Now I'm known as Beloved.
00:25When I got shot, I really didn't even know I was shot.
00:28It put 24 holes in my intestine.
00:31Shootings was like every other day.
00:34It was almost to the point where a lot of us wouldn't go to sleep if we didn't hit no gunshots.
00:38What's good, King?
00:40We've been through so much trauma that that's just a normal way of life,
00:44that we don't feel comfortable when we're not feeling traumatized.
00:48Me and you on the street, I got a gun on my waist.
00:51I'm like, yo, hold this for me real quick.
00:54Being shot and doing shooting helped me with the work because I experienced both.
01:00Being a credible messenger really means the community acknowledges you.
01:05You was out there day in and day out, on the ground.
01:08I could speak for this. I saw you in action.
01:11I saw you dealing with mothers, dealing with fathers,
01:14dealing with people from the hood who came to see their boys shot,
01:18and you gave the bad news to them that their loved ones didn't survive.
01:22That was you.
01:23You was out there trying to prevent it before that person lost his life.
01:27I'm talking to you, blood.
01:30All the ills that's going on inside our community that they ain't get to the hospital for yet,
01:36we dealing with that in real time, day to day basis.
01:40We street doctors.