Being And Tymers A Phenomological Inquiry Into Being-in-tha-Hood By Ted Bendixson

The Necessity, Structure, and Priority of the Question of Dre.

The Doctor has been forgotten- although our time considers itself progressive in again affirming the overall sense in which all occurrences are “Nothing But A G Thang.” All the same, we believe that we are spared the exertion of rekindling a battle of emcees concerning this rap game. But what The Doctor touched upon is hardly an arbitrary matter. It sustained the avid research of Snoop Dogg and Earl Stevens, but from then on ceased to be lived as a thematic method for the fulfillment of true desire. What these two thinkers achieved has been preserved in various distorted and “camouflaged” forms down to The Doggfather and In a Major Way. And what then was wrested from The Doctor by the highest exertion of lyrical analysis, albeit in fragments and first beginnings, has long since been trivialized. A few great minds will have already realized that the fundamental problem of our current situation is that “motherfuckers act like they forgot about Dre.” Within the midst of this forgetfulness, we must find a way to reawaken the question of Dre. This is not a simple matter of examining the “life” of the doctor to find objectively present “facts” that we could reinterpret for the purpose of developing a more refined lyrical analysis. Although this method has been employed throughout the history of the rap game, it continually evades The Doctor’s question by having already interpreted the meaning of his message as one of objective presence. What we seek, in reawakening this fundamental question, is to have a face-to-face

!1

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time. Translated by Joan Stambaugh, (New York NY: State University of New York Press, 1996).

!

Doggy Dogg, Snoop. “Nothin But a ‘G’ Thang” in The Chronic. Deathrow Records, released on December 15, 1992. Compact Disc. [UWO: MCD 50611]. !3

Young, Andres et al. “Forgot About Dre” in 2001. Aftermath Records, released on November 16, 1999. Compact Disc. [UWO: MCD 490486]. All further references to this record will be cited as 2001.

encounter with the Being of The Doctor. Our analytic should succeed in discovering the fundamental way in which The Doctor is in the hood. Does this mean we are conducting an analysis of those “already existing” beings in the hood that are “similar” to The Doctor, so that we might gain insight into The Doctor’s being-in-tha-hood? We could do this, we could exhaustively search the hood for these beings that might reveal such a being-in-tha-hood to us, but just as the homies have failed time and time again in uncovering the Being of The Doctor through this method, we will fail alongside their footsteps. Instead of searching for specific beings in the hood, we must uncover the existential structure of being-in-tha-hood as such, and only one being, Dasein as being-in-tha-hood, is capable of revealing such a structure to us. It must be noted that Dasein is not a specific kind of being. Dasein is not first “found” in the hood, only for us to approach it and understand its relationship with its hood. These bustas who don’t know the streets, through their lack of a true understanding of “tha hustle,” have accidentally reversed the ontology of being-in-tha-hood. They have forgotten that Dasein is the ground of the hood, that from which an understanding of specific beings-in-the-hood is first made possible. Always with its being-a-ground-for-the-hood is the fact that Dasein is in the hood and Dasein has a hood. This hood is a shared hood where Dasein dwells alongside the homies, projecting itself toward the projects by playing the game. Those playas who have remained awestruck by the question of Dre have begun the project of uncovering the essential mode of being-in-tha-hood that constitutes a remembering of The Doctor. But their efforts have been, at best, incomplete. Despite this, they do offer incisive glances into a proper analytic of Dasein as being-in-tha-hood, understanding that the remembrance of Dre is a matter of phenomenological inquiry. It is only as phenomenology that

an ontology of being-in-tha-hood will be possible. Earl Stevens touched upon this when he engaged in his phenomenological description of Dasein in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner. This fundamental existential, which he nearly uncovered, is but one structure constitutive of Dasein’s being-in-tha-hood. All beings in the hood appear from a horizon of game. On the corner where Dasein marinates, in the house, and even to the farthest lengths of the hillside, we find the presence of game. Entangled in its engagements with the homies, Dasein as being-in-tha-hood continues to overlook this horizon. Proximally and for the most part, game is interpreted as an objectively present set of rules that Dasein must follow to attain a scarcely possible form of “hood richness.” In this inauthentic mode of representing its own game, Dasein fails to represent itself as an authentic being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker. We who understand that an authentic mode of being-in-tha-hood is possible must formulate a method for correcting this mistaken reversal of ontology. If we are to bring Dasein back up into the motherfucker where it dwells in the true remembrance of Dre, we must resurrect an analytic of Dasein’s being-in-tha-hood that, for the first time, considers the horizon of game to be a legitimate object of inquiry. Through carefully examining this horizon, we will encounter the fundamental ways in which Dasein projects itself toward the projects, where it dwells as a being thrown from the house and into the hood where it is, proximally and for the most part, marinating-on-tha-corner with the homies. The horizon of game will also reveal what is known as the hooded character of the hood. Having a certain hoodliness, or hood-hood, Hood as an object of experience for Dasein will be described within the complete analytic of Dasein as being-in-tha-hood.

Before taking the existential structures of being-in-tha-hood into more detailed consideration, it must be noted that the hood can be a dangerous and uncertain place. Hustlas, playas, and pimps in the past have uncovered this primordial fact when they have been forced to face their death in the mode of being-dusted-and-disgusted. We must therefore avoid our desire to idly talk as if we have something to say, for these bustas often engage in this form of discourse. The project of opening up the question of Dre., and consequently understanding the structure of being-in-tha-hood as such, will not be accomplished if we are merely moving our lips to the already interpreted talk that the homies spit. And even though the language of objective presence gives us the sense of rootedness with the subject of our speech, we will find nothing but the absence of true content being expressed at the moment when we would expect ourselves to be saying the most. Our ontological analysis of Dasein as being-in-tha-hood will have become “just a bunch of gibberish” (2001). And we too, just like the rest of these bustas, will have forgotten about Dre.

“Marinating on tha corner wit’ a chip in his phone, You can tell that the hillside was his home, Mo’ scratch than tha rest of tha pushas, Because he got a chop suey in da bushes” -Earl Stevens, Chip in da phone

Dasein and inauthenticity, marinating-on-tha-corner

We find ourselves in the peculiar position of having to resurrect an analytic of the lostness of Dasein in its discourse with The Homies. As a thrown being always already present to the homies, Dasein ek-sists the potentiality of no longer dwelling in its essential realm. Dasein marinates. Marinating Dasein can be phenomenologically described through three existential structures. Each of these structures is not to be considered more “fundamental” than the others constitutive of Dasein in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner. They are, rather, to be thought of as equiprimordial to all other modes of Dasein’s being-in-tha-hood.

! 4.

Stevens, Earl. “Chip in Da Phone” in In a Major Way. Jive records, released on March 14, 1995. Compact Disc. [UWO: MCD 41558]

The tripartite existential structure of marinating-on-tha-corner is to be understood in the following way. (1) There is first a marinating-toward, which describes the project of Dasein as Dasein projects itself toward the projects, where the homies always already dwell. (2) We also find that Dasein marinates on the corner in such a way that it is always already a beingmarinated-into. As being-marinated-into, the hood permeates Dasein’s own game-playin-hellaskrilla-makin-space. In order for Dasein to avoid being consumed by the game that the homies play, Dasein must maintain an outward silence while participating in its own “hustlin’ ass” discourse. This discourse, having the character of inwardness, is only given attention at the moment when Dasein’s potentiality-for-hustlin’ becomes a matter of concern for it. (3) In addition to this we must understand that Dasein, in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner, is a marinating-for-the-sake-of-which. The for-the-sake-of-which is a for-the-sake-of-the-skrill, constituting the fundamental way in which marinating Dasein plays the game. When combined, these equiprimordial modes of marinating-on-tha-corner define Dasein in its lack of a proper dwelling place as being-marinated-into-marinating-being-toward-the-hillside-always-already-forthe-sake-of-the-skrill. We have at this point finished our preliminary description of the three existential structures involved in marinating-on-tha-corner. A more informative account of marinating-on-tha-corner will be available to us once we have carefully considered each structure in isolation. (1). Dasein, dwelling inauthentically, marinates both on and from the corner. Such facts have been systematically overlooked by even the most notorious players of this rap game. The interpretation of Dasein’s marinating-on-the-corner has for too long been dominated by a metaphysics of objective presence. Dasein does not merely marinate on the corner in the same

way in which a chicken breast marinates in a Tupperware container full of fresh spices. The chicken breast, objectively present in the Tupperware, can only take in the surrounding spices without reflecting on their own hoodly character. It lacks the existential structures that make possible the marinating-toward of inauthentic disclosure. For us to then reinterpret Dasein as a being that marinates in a similar fashion would be for us to rob Dasein of its relationship to the hood as well. Proximally and for the most part, Dasein marinates on the corner in an essentially technological way. The chip in the phone serves as the de-distancing device that constitutes the towardness of its inauthentic discourse. Projecting itself toward the projects, Dasein as being-intha-hood plays the game. Losing itself in this project, the projects no longer take on the character of being a project for Dasein. Belonging to a pre-established interpretation of game dictated by the homies, Dasein fails to recognize itself as a big-tymer, and the projects become a project for someone else. The lostness of this interpretation of game reveals to Dasein that only the homies project themselves towards the projects in such a way that the projects can become a project for them. Marinating from the corner, Dasein interprets playas and hustlas in their being-a-part-ofthe-game. Each playa has its own place within a rigid and sterile mathematical ordering where beings are dealt with in a biznasslike way. Even Dasein’s ownmost potentiality for having game is described in quantitative terms. “The game is to be sold, not to be told,” as the homies always already remain on-the-scene to make certain that game obeys a presupposed economic law. Dasein then, as being-in-the-hood with the homies, marinating-on-the-corner through the chip in ! 5.

Shakur, 2pac et al. “Peep Game” in Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. Jive records, released on February 16, 1993. Compact Disc. [UWO MCD: 50604].

the phone transfers its game-units to other playas and hustlas, having only the vague and silenced hope that it might some day participate in the temporality of being-a-big-tymer. Within this ordering, Dasein’s responsibility for slangin’ is proximally and for the most part absorbed by the homies. Concealed in the bushes, the “chop suey” redirects the burden of the game that the homies play. Objects of slangin’ are “slanged-toward” and “pushed” onto the chop suey, who in turn, continues to diffuse its own responsibility for the game out toward the homies. In being-a-part-of-the-game, everyone is a chop suey and no one is himself. The accumulation and “flow” of “scratch” is made possible because of this essential fact. Dasein must both slang its responsibility onto the chop suey and be slanged-toward by the homies through the chip in the phone if it is to be slangin’ at all. (2) Equiprimordial with the structure of marinating-toward, being-slanged-toward is one of the ways in which Dasein, in the mode of marinating-on-the-corner, is being-marinated-into. When the hood is interpreted as a slangin-space where the game is played, Dasein becomes absorbed in the mood of caution. The kind of cautiousness constitutive of being-marinated-into is always a cautiousness with respect to the game. Because Dasein as being-in-tha-hood is always already entangled with “them po’s” and the homies, Dasein proximally and for the most part silences its inner discourse, fearing that it will encounter its death in the mode of beingdusted-and-disgusted. Targeted by the homies, Dasein as being-in-tha-hood falls prey to the game the homies always already play. By taking in the game as it engages in the outward inauthentic marinating discourse of being-in-the-hood-with-the-homies, Dasein becomes consumed by the game, which always already infiltrates the corner where Dasein marinates. It is through taking in the game that

Dasein begins to interpret itself in its being-a-part-of-the-game. Hustlas, big-tymers, and even the smallest of playas are understood as the supports of an impenetrable game-structure that can topple onto Dasein as a result of even the slightest of movements. When Dasein cautiously marinates on the corner with the fear that other hustlas might put an end to its game by removing Dasein as a player of the game, Dasein can only express its fragmented true desire to be a big-tymer by slangin’. In the mode of slangin’, Dasein temporalizes itself in an inauthentic way. The thangs that Dasein truly desires to hustle, instead of being-hustled-up-in-this-motherfucker, are merely ready-for-slangin as Dasein can only hope that through playing the game, the skrill will arrive at its own pace. This form of awaiting-hoodrichness is characteristic of the “in-timeness” with respect to which the homies are marinatingon-tha-corner. But what remains present as Dasein is being-marinated-into, playing the game in the mode of slangin’, is Dasein’s ownmost inner discourse. This is a discourse that can only be described as “hustlin’ ass.” Although it is mostly muted, the hustlin’ ass discourse presents to Dasein its own true desire to be a big-tymer. Always in the background of Dasein’s marinatingon-tha-corner is the understanding that if Dasein truly desires to participate in the temporality of being-a-big-tymer, Dasein must hustle. The hustlin’ ass discourse, then, is the inward expression of this desire. This reminder of its true desire to be a big-tymer by hustlin’ in a major way directs Dasein away from the inauthentic marinating discourse taken in through the chip in the phone. As Dasein no longer participates in the marinating discourse of the homies, the hood loses its fearful character and is reinterpreted as the “Hella-skrilla-makin-D-game-playin-space,” or that toward which Dasein must hustle if it is to be timely in the mode of being-a-big-tymer. Signaled

by the call of booty, the interpretation of the hood as the hella-skrill-makin-D-game-playin-space reveals to Dasein that it is not simply a part of the game, but rather a player of this game, which can either be a game that other beings-in-tha-hood play, or as an existentiell of its being-in-thahood, Dasein’s own game. (3) Lastly, in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner, Dasein is always already a marinating-for-the-sake-of-which. When Dasein is merely receiving its understanding of game through the chip in the phone, the for-the-sake-of-which of marinating-on-tha-corner is always the skrilla. Sustaining Dasein in its marinating-on-tha-corner, the skrilla allows Dasein to continue in the inauthentic marinating discourse that the homies spit. Some playas and hustlas in this rap game have asked, will we not have to logically conclude that Dasein as being-in-thahood, marinates only for the sake of marinating-on-tha-corner itself? Has our analytic already become “stranded” by its own circularity? If our intent is to use logic as a way of describing being-in-tha-hood, then the answer will always be yes. However, when we closely examine Dasein in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner, we find that by playing the game, Dasein slangs in a calculative way, always exchanging its thangs for precise and pre-calculated amounts of the skrilla. Even if Dasein were to implicitly understand that, proximally and for the most part, it uses the skrilla in order to persist in its marinating-on-tha-corner, Dasein will still be slangin’ for the sake of the skrilla but only with a less-deficient understanding of the way in which it ek-sists this existential. We began this phenomenological inquiry with the project of both uncovering and restoring the true desire of Dasein through a remembering of The Doctor. We have now found that true desire, as expressed by the hustlin’ ass discourse always already is a mode of being-in-

tha-hood, even when Dasein is merely marinating-on-tha-corner. This discovery, which is the closest at hand and yet the farthest away, presents us with the need to fully describe the way in which Dasein as being-in-tha-hood can attest to its ownmost authentic possibility. As a mode of marinating-on-tha-corner, Dasein’s being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker must be taken into consideration. But before this can be done, we must first explore Hood as an object of experience for Dasein. In doing this, we will be able to provide the background for an understanding of the ownmost authentic possibility of Dasein as being-in-tha-hood.

Dasein and environmentality, the hoodliness of the hood: It has already been shown that, proximally and for the most part, Dasein as being-in-thahood is thrown from its essential dwelling place in the house, out into the hood where it ek-sists in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner. Slangin-with other hustlas, pimps, and playas, Dasein inauthentically dwells in a shared Hood. The fact that Dasein always has the chip in the phone ready-to-hand makes this even more apparent. Hood is that in which these hustlas, pimps, and playas play their game in the mode of sprinklin’. But what is it that continually lies unassumingly dormant in the background of this ever-present Hood? What gives rise to the shape that first makes the ecstatic structures of being-in-tha-hood possible? Those who first “started this gangsta shit” questioned the phenomenon of Hood only to a minimal extent (2001). Earl Stevens, in recalling the world in which he grew up, unknowingly

caught a brief glimpse of this phenomenon before his voice was silenced by the inauthentic marinating discourse of the homies: “I remember when the world went crazy, back in 1985, I remember when rock cocaine used to be a rich man’s kind of high, ‘Till one day in my neighborhood, muthafuckas started packin’ fetti, They were hangin’ on the corner yellin’ ‘base rocks nigga!’ Bumpin’ Too Short’s Blowjob Betty”

Before the hood, and its hoodly character, came into unconcealment, there was World. Earl Stevens correctly remembers the presence of worldliness before it became hoodliness. He remembers when the world went crazy. He remembers the introduction of a rich man’s kind of high into this world, fracturing the neighborliness of neighbors, leaving in its wake an environment we call “Hood”. But this tymer has still forgotten that Dasein as the ground of the hood is always already responsible for the hoodliness of the hood. In forgetting this essential truth, he relinquishes himself to the oblivion of a potential knowledge of the hoodliness of the hood. Other hustlas and bustas have taken a different route, abandoning the question of the hoodliness of the hood altogether. They claim that the concept of ness-ness is too complicated and circuitous for Dasein to understand. Their confusion, however, does not arise from the concept itself, but is rather derived from the fact that they have already interpreted the concept in a metaphysical way. For when Dasein thinks logically, the concept of the hoodliness of the hood becomes absurd. How could there be some “property” that is itself an expression of what it is to

! 6.

Stevens, Earl and Whitemon, Marvin. “World Went Crazy” in Game Related. Jive Records, released on November 7, 1995. Compact Disc. [UWO: MCD 41562].

experience properties themselves? What kind of meaning can we derive from a “sense of senses?” Do we, then, in our restorative project, become too quick to interpret the hoodliness of the hood in a purely historical way? Hopefully not. Hood-hood was never brought into presence by the occurrence of one event among many. It is not only the fact that slangin’ has become a potentiality for Dasein that Dasein ek-sists amidst the hoodliness of the hood as a primarily marinating being. We have already affirmed that all modes of hustlin’, whether they are pushinthem-thangs, quarterbackin’, or even glorifyin-your-paper-route, are existentials of Dasein’s being-in-tha-hood. If Dasein were ever to ek-sist in such a way that hustlin’ is no longer one of its possibilities, we would agree that Dasein no longer is in the hood. Nevertheless, “base rocks,” “fetti,” and other objects of hustlin’ still play their own role in the interaction between Dasein and the hood in which it ek-sists. The tymer Earl Stevens may have mentioned the presence of these objects of hustlin’ in his discussion of hood-hood, but he failed to mention the way in which they are first encountered as objects of experience for Dasein, either in the modes of marinating-on-tha-corner or hustlin’. The kind of high allowed to the rich, in its presence within the hood, does not constitute “tha hustle” itself. “Base rocks”, “soft,” and “hard” can only present themselves to Dasein in their potentiality-for-being-hustled, and without these real hustlas who encounter them, their being cannot be made intelligible for the project of hustlin’. We can only arrive at one side of the duality constituted by the hustla and the object hustled through a process of abstraction. Dasein as being-in-tha-hood must first have already experienced an interaction between the hustla and the object of hustlin’ in order to create the empty notion of base rocks that cannot be slanged or

pushed. In essence, thangs taken in isolation are meaningless, and just as we cannot understand the hustla without “tha hustle,” it makes no sense to attempt to abstract the hustla from the object of its hustlin’ or vice versa. Earl Stevens is thus correct when he claims that the hoodliness of the hood arose through a historical unfolding of interactions involving the objects of hustlin’ known as “base rocks”, but he goes astray by placing too much emphasis on these objects. When we understand that the beings which are hustled have no meaning without the hustla who hustles them, we find that there is only one being left who can claim responsibility for the destruction of the neighborliness of neighbors, and that being is Dasein itself. Engaging in its potentiality for marinating-on-thacorner and pushin-them-thangs, Dasein seeks out base rocks or any other entity that it can slang in a similar fashion, and it is through this project that Dasein has ruptured the being of its neighbor along with the neighborly character of being-in-the-neighborhood. Earl Stevens also mentions that he remembers a time, before the hoodliness of the hood could be experienced in its phenomenal character, when “rock cocaine used to be a rich man’s kind of high.” This being so, could we not say that the price of base rocks, which is wholly independent of Dasein, has destroyed this neighborliness instead? Hardly. Even though the price of the entities to-be-slanged initially appears to Dasein as objectively present, it is always already Dasein as being-in-tha-hood who has first made entities to-be-slanged more available to itself, causing the rich man’s kind of high to be encountered as the type of high now affordable to those beings who dwell in the hood alongside Dasein, unknowingly ready to take on the project of transforming World into Hood.

Having come this far, we have still not yet grasped the hoodliness of the hood as a phenomenon. How does Dasein, in its everyday marinating-on-tha-corner, encounter hood-hood? In the previous section, we discussed the way in which Dasein slangs for-the-sake-of-the-skrill, keeping both the thangs that it slangs and the chip in the phone ready-to-hand. In the exchange that occurs through marinating-on-tha-corner, blunts are hoobanged and broccoli is smoked as Dasein, proximally and for the most part, takes its thangs for granted. It is always assumed that the homies, through their continuing presence in the hood, will bring more entities to-be-slangedfor-the-sake-of-the-skrill with them. However, when the supply of thangs that Dasein slangs becomes exhausted, Dasein experiences a disruption in its everyday marinating-on-tha-corner. This disruption is a breach in the project of slangin’. Without its thangs, Dasein encounters itself, in an explicit way, as a being that is projecting itself toward the entities to-be-slanged so that it may once again ek-sist in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner with the homies. The only way Dasein can have this understanding is for Dasein to also know that only a being thrown into a Hood can be marinating-on-tha-corner or husltin’ in this fashion. Knowledge of the sort that has just been described is constitutive of an understanding of the hoodliness of the hood. We must recall that it is only because Dasein projects itself toward the projects in the mode of slangin’ that the neighborliness of neighbors has been lost with the homies. By understanding itself as a part of this project, Dasein also understands the way in which Hood has become present to it as the environment in which it dwells. When the first hustlas emerged from the ruins of the neighborhoods within the world that Earl Stevens correctly recalls, there was once talk of a “Hella-skrilla-makin-D-game-playin-

space”. Talk of this sort has spread in wider and wider circles, especially because Dasein, in the mode of marinating-on-tha-corner, always already has access to the chip-in-the-phone. And as the talk has spread, the notion of the hella-skrilla-makin-D-game-playin-space has become more and more tranquilized. By now, the concept has almost been completely replaced with the notion of a “slangin-space” where it is understood that Dasein must play the game by marinating-ontha-corner with the homies. Having already abandoned the A game, B game, and C game, we must look toward this “hella-skrill-makin-D-game-playin-space” by making an effort to describe Dasein in its most authentic mode of being-in-tha-hood. As a being that can be called up out of marinating-on-the-corner, from a source other than the chip in the phone, Dasein always already carries with it its ownmost potentiality for being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker.

“They can take you from the game, But not the game from you.” -Richie Rich, 415

The attestation of an authentic being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker and the temporality of Dasein as a big-tymer Having arisen from a once present World, Dasein dwells alongside the homies as a being thrown from the house into the remnants of a fractured neighborhood. The hood, and its history, are littered with occurrences of Dasein continually falling prey to the inauthentic marinating discourse that the homies spit. We must recall that our phenomenological inquiry started in ! 7.

Rich, Richie. “415” in Greatest Hits. Big League records, released on April 25, 2000. Compact Disc. [UWO MCD: 2000].

forgetfulness. Dasein, having already forgotten the Doctor as a mode of forgetting its own game, inauthentically experiences game as the game dictated by the homies. Silencing its own hustlinass discourse, Dasein plays the game with the homies in being-a-part-of-the-game, both marinating-toward the hood and being-marinated-into through the technological device known as “tha chip in tha phone.” Always with Dasein’s being-lost-with-the-homies-as-marinating-on-tha-corner lies its potentiality for being taken up out of the inauthentic interpretation of its own game. Before Dasein engages in this possibility, however, it must already be marinating-on-the-corner, projecting itself toward the projects in the mode of marinating-toward. On the corner, with the chip in the phone, where beings come to presence, hustle, and depart, Dasein as being-in-thahood discovers that toward which it must attest its ownmost authentic being-back-up-in-thismotherfucker. What presences itself through this discovery forces Dasein to thrust the for-thesake-of-which of marinating-on-tha-corner to the side, disclosing to Dasein its potentiality for being-in-tha-hood-for-the-sake-of-the-booty alone. When booty comes to presence within the hood, Dasein encounters itself as a primarily distracted being. Essentially speaking, booty is always experienced by Dasein as a call. Still lost with the homies, dwelling on the hillside, Dasein does not have to respond to this call. Dasein can, and often does, ignore the call of booty in favor of the calls taken in through the chip in the phone that constitute Dasein’s entanglement in the inauthentic discourse of the homies. Slangin’ for-the-sake-of-the-skrill, Dasein as being-in-tha-hood continually allows booty and its call to be passed over. Catching only sideways glances of booty, within a space dominated by the project

of slangin’, Dasein proximally and for the most part remains oblivious to its ownmost potentiality for being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker. When Dasein does answer the call of booty, Dasein projects itself toward the projects in a hustlin’ ass major way. Through this project, the projects become a project for Dasein. No longer silenced by the homies, Dasein’s own hustlin’ ass discourse is given its long overdue attention as Dasein understands its true desire to be temporal in the mode of being-a-big-tymer. The hood, once interpreted as the slangin-space where Dasein marinates for the sake of the skrilla, is now interpreted as the hella-skrilla-makin-D-game-playin-space, always already containing the potentiality for being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker through the project of hustlin’. This project, referred to by some hustlas as “glorifyin’ your paper route,” or “quarterbackin’,” presents to Dasein, a certain form of unhomeliness with the homies. Exempting themselves from a relationship to their own temporality, the homies lack a proper understanding of “tha hustle,” which Dasein as a player of this game must always be attentive to. But Dasein, in the mode of hustlin’, is free from the fear of being-targeted-by-the-homies. By interpreting its game as this game, Dasein acknowledges the contingency of its presence in the hood as a hustla, understanding that its essential dwelling place does not lie on the hillside where the homies eternally subsist sub speciae marinatis. Fleeing from the illusion of eternal marinating-on-thacorner, Dasein, in the mode of hustlin’, projects itself toward its potentiality for being-in-thahouse, where the booty always already dwells. Hustlin’, Dasein plays this game. Different from its everyday interpretation of game as the game, the interpretation of game as this game gives Dasein the understanding that Dasein can always stop playing the game it plays in order to play some other game. Dasein is never not

playing a game. Even when Dasein is experiencing the “pallid” lack of being a player in a game, Dasein is still playing the kind of game where it can win by getting back into the game. Having the understanding that it can play many different games besides this game, Dasein takes on a new relationship to the rules of game. Where once the rules of the game could not be broken, or Dasein would end up being-dusted-and-disgusted, Dasein now understands that it can, and will, stop playing this game only to play another game with a new set of rules. This, however, does not mean that Dasein, in the mode of playing this game, completely disregards the rules of this game. Quite the contrary, Dasein understands that these rules must be respected, but also that there are many kinds of rules to many kinds of game, and these rules are only mutable during the transition from one game to another. The game and this game are not the sole ways in which Dasein as being-in-tha-hood interprets game. From out of its being-a-part-of-this-game, Dasein in the mode of hustlin’ can also encounter, for the first time, its potentiality for the attestation of a complete authentic way of interpreting game. Up in the hood, bringing glory to its paper route, Dasein makes possible an understanding of the way in which Dasein always already is sprinkling its own game. This game, which Dasein plays in the mode of hustlin’ through its movement in the hella-skrilla-makin-Dgame-playin-space, becomes Dasein’s ownmost game when the hood is glorified as Dasein hustles. Other playas, hustlas, and beings-in-tha-hood recognize this hustlin’ ass movement, asking of Dasein that it sprinkle them with its game so that they too may be glorified in Dasein’s project within the projects as a being hustlin-toward-tha-house. Whether Dasein is simply marinating-on-tha-corner or engaging itself in the authentic project of hustlin’ for the sake of the booty, Dasein always already carries its game with it. From

out of the horizon, all beings in the hood are disclosed to Dasein in their being a part of some game, whether that game is the game, this game, or Dasein’s game. Each interpretation of game has its own for-the-sake-of-which that constitutes the way in which beings in the hood appear to Dasein in their readiness. Taking its game to the corner where it sprinkles in the inauthentic mode of being-in-tha-hood known as marinating-on-tha-corner, beings in the hood are disclosed to Dasein as merely ready-for-the-sake-of-the-skrilla. But, up in the hood, having answered the call of booty, Dasein sprinkles its game in such a way that these beings, which were once understood in their being-ready-for-the-sake-of-the-skrilla, are now ready-for-the-sake-of-booty. As a hustla, Dasein projects itself toward these beings, interpreting them as a part of this game, bringing its own understanding of the kind of game that only hustlas know how to play by sprinkling the hood in the mode of glorifyin’ its paper route. Serving only as a means toward being-in-tha-house, the booty is easily discarded by Dasein once it has already interpreted game as that which can only be its own. Returning from the house where Dasein’s essential dwelling place lies with the booty, Dasein as being-in-thahood understands that all modes of game-playin’ are modes of game-sprinklin’, and it is this understanding which, in part, constitutes Dasein’s ownmost being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker. The second part of this twofold understanding is the for-the-sake-of-which of Dasein’s game. As a being back up in the motherfucker that is always already sprinkled with its own game, Dasein plays its own game for the sake of game itself. Possessing a full understanding of its contingency and potentiality for being-dusted-and-disgusted-in-the-hood, Dasein in the mode of being-backup-in-this-motherfucker chooses to play the game that it sprinkles, knowing that each of these possibilities is a part of its own game.

Our phenomenological inquiry is still lacking one essential piece. We have discussed the notion of Dasein’s game and how it leads to the twofold understanding that constitutes Dasein’s being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker, but we have not described the sense in which Dasein as being-in-tha-hood can be back up in the motherfucker where it always already dwells. It is easy to understand, as many playas and hustlas have in this rap game, how Dasein can be up-in-thismotherfucker as a mode of being up-in-tha-hood, but how is it that Dasein, called up out of marinating-on-tha-corner, can already be back up in this motherfucker when it has just returned from being-in-tha-house for the first time? By participating in the temporality of being-a-big-tymer, Dasein engages itself in a temporal circle, each part of which it is always already “back” up in. Hustlin’ for hella skrilla toward the house only to return back into the motherfucker where its game is sprinkled, Dasein understands that it is the quarterback of its own game. The booty, sprinkled with Dasein’s own game, continues to call Dasein from out of the paper route that it glorifies, seeking Dasein’s being-in-tha-house. Once Dasein as being-in-tha-hood answers the first call of booty, it has answered all calls of booty. Not merely persisting in its being-a-big-tymer, Dasein hustles toward the booty and its ever-present call, attesting at each moment in the recurring cycle its own beingback-up-in-this-motherfucker. A brief discussion of Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence will be useful here. Although no Dasein will ever be able to discover that the course of its own being-in-tha-hood will repeat itself, the thought of this recurrence is enough for Dasein to affirm its own being-in-tha-hood as that which cannot be surpassed. This principle applies to Dasein’s ownmost potentiality for ! 8.

Nietzsche Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated by Walter Kaufmann, (USA: Penguin Publishers, 1976).

being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker as well. Already back up in this motherfucker after its eternal return from the house, Dasein affirms that the hella-skrilla-makin-D-game-playin-space, constitutive of the hood in the mode of hustlin’, cannot be surpassed. In this way, when Dasein as being-in-tha-hood answers the call of booty, Dasein is yes-saying its being-a-big-tymer. No longer marinating-toward the game, which bears the illusion of otherhoodliness, Dasein says yes to its own game by affirming its true desire to be a hustla in the hood, projecting itself toward its own project of being-in-tha-house-with-the-booty, knowing that game is that which is sprinkled, and beyond the game Dasein plays, there is nothing. Our exploration of the existentialia of marinating-on-tha-corner and being-back-up-inthis-motherfucker, has lead us to one final discovery. If we are to fully engage ourselves in a remembrance of The Doctor, we must understand that all modes of being-in-tha-hood, whether they are hustlin’, marinating-on-tha-corner, or sprinklin-game, are only possible because Dasein as being-in-tha-hood always already is the game that it plays. Even in the mode of slangin’, being-marinated-into by the game dictated to Dasein by the homies through the chip in the phone, Dasein still ek-sists its relationship to the hood in playing the game that it is. Contrary to what the homies spit, game can neither be exchanged nor sold. For it is only by being game, that Dasein as being-in-tha-hood can be said to have game. Sprinkling the game that it always already is, Dasein in the mode of being-back-up-in-this-motherfucker endows the hood with its presence as a hustla, having no expectation that the hood give a “return” on its game, but only that “tha hustle” might guide its way toward Dasein’s essential dwelling place up in the house. We stand in the midst of the oblivion of that which is closest to the being of Dasein as being-in-tha-hood. Having forgotten what The Doctor and Earl Stevens allude to in their lyrical

analyses of the hood, Dasein as being-in-tha-hood continues to take game for granted. Proximally marinating-on-tha-corner, Dasein still interprets game as that which is objectively present in the hood, and for the most part, Dasein fails to understand the true potentiality for game that has always been dormant in the background of the ever-reaching Hood. It can only be hoped, then, that by understanding the modes of being-in-tha-hood uncovered in this analysis, Dasein will return to its essential dwelling place in-tha-house, remembering the true sense of being-in-tha-hood through a remembering of The Doctor. But for as much as we can hope that Dasein will once again dwell in the house with the game The Doctor once sprinkled, by having full knowledge of the game that it is, Dasein also dwells in a hood that is permeated with uncertainty. Perhaps, then, our discussion of the fundamental way in which Dasein ek-sists its game in the hood is too preliminary for it to influence a widespread return to Dasein’s essential dwelling place. With this possibility always remaining, The Doctor may be forever lost in the oblivion of the game that the homies play as Dasein merely slangs, subsisting in its eternal marinating-on-tha-corner.