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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Nicky Barnes: 'American Gangster' not the straight dope
#7624757 - 11/12/07 07:59 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Nicky Barnes: 'American Gangster' not the straight dope November 12, 2007 - nydailynews.com
Legendary Harlem drug kingpin Leroy (Nicky) Barnes wants you to know who the real "American Gangster" was.
Speaking from his undisclosed location that the federal witness protection program assigned him, Barnes tells us he's not cool with the way he's portrayed in the new blockbuster, in which Denzel Washington plays Barnes' heroin-dealing competitor, Frank Lucas.
Barnes says, "I like Cuba Gooding Jr.," who has a minor role playing Barnes as a loud-mouthed buffoon. "He probably did the best he could. But they depict me as a footnote in Frank's life when it was the other way around.
"This whole thing about him being an entrepreneurial genius is nonsense," says Barnes. "I didn't see it. I did business in all five boroughs, Atlanta, D.C., Philly and Baltimore. Frank had 116th St. and maybe a few places in New Jersey."
Barnes also disputes Washington's characterization of Lucas as articulate and understated, in contrast to Gooding's pimped-out dimwit.
"I wore flashy clothes, but not outrageous," says Barnes. "Check out the photos of me at the time. And have you listened to Frank talk? Frank is functionally illiterate. I've read all of Shakespeare. I can quote his sonnets. I read Dickens, Melville, Emily Dickinson. I won a poetry contest against inmates from the entire prison system.
"I did things Frank is incapable of. They took attributes of me and gave them to Frank. He was an empty vessel."
Barnes, the subject of a book and a documentary, both titled "Mr. Untouchable," has heard his badness touted by Jay-Z and other rappers.
"They said I approached Frank for his dope," says Barnes. "I always got my drugs from the Italians. They have this scene where Frank yells at me for using the name of his dope - 'Blue Magic.' It never happened!
"This business about him being the protege of Bumpy Johnson - I never heard anything about Frank and Bumpy.
"Frank never went to Southeast Asia to get Ike Atkinson to bring him to a general in the Golden Triangle. Ike told me he won a bag of dope from some guys in a card game and unloaded it on Frank. His dope never came in the coffins of G.I.s from Vietnam. Check the public record!
"They're showing Frank as credible by undermining me. It's mythology. They portray Frank as their strident Afro-centric guy standing up to the white mobsters. Did you see Frank on Charlie Rose's show? He was the only one saying, 'Mister Rose.' He was like a lawn jockey."
A Universal spokesman said the studio "has every confidence that the material facts are conveyed truthfully in 'American Gangster,' from abundant research with direct sources and from the public record."
Lucas did not return calls by deadline.
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DebuteMachine
Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 6,457
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Re: Nicky Barnes: 'American Gangster' not the straight dope [Re: veggie]
#7624948 - 11/12/07 09:37 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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*yawn* "Hey this guy thinks hes better than me!? Let me just start talking myself up!"
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thedudenj
Man of the Woods
Registered: 08/18/04
Posts: 14,684
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Re: Nicky Barnes: 'American Gangster' not the straight dope [Re: DebuteMachine]
#7625077 - 11/12/07 10:22 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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id be pissed if they made a movie with me in it and they totally misportrayed me.
-------------------- "You all are just puppets... You have no heart...and cannot feel any pain..."" you may think thats pain you feel but you must have a heart to feel true pain and that pain wont be yours
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em_bre_O
shroomery'sEmbryoticAsshole
Registered: 05/27/02
Posts: 2,312
Loc: In the stages of develope...
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Re: Nicky Barnes: 'American Gangster' not the straight dope [Re: veggie]
#7628846 - 11/13/07 03:19 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'll listen to Hollywood before a bitch ass SNITCH
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