With all this resurgent talk of gangsters past and present as Denzel Washington and Jay-Z’s latest is upon us, it’s important to remember the life of a drug dealer is all good in the sense of visceral entertainment, but in real life the drug game is far less glamorous.

Over the weekend I read Azie Faison’s autobiography, “Game Over.” Along with Rich Porter and Alpo, Azie was among Harlem’s biggest cocaine dealers in the mid-late 80’s. You may have heard their story in Dame Dash’s movie “Paid in Full.” The movie was originally called “Trapped” which Azie wrote not just to tell his life story, but to show the unglamorous things aspiring dealers would find once the ‘high’ of having money, cash, and hos wore off.

Azie met up with Dame Dash to get the story produced. His 189 page screenplay would have resulted in a 3 1/2 hour movie, so it needed some editing, but Azie felt it got watered down too much. He loved the acting but not the story.

I’m not sure who wears FUBU or if it’s even in stores anymore, but Daymond John, the founder of FUBU (actually he has two partners but he’s the ‘face’ guy) has written a new book called Display of Power: How FUBU changed a world of fashion, branding and lifestyle. Released a few weeks ago, it’s fresh on the shelves. I’m pretty sure Karl Kani is fuming over the implication that FUBU started the for us by us urban fashion train.

Karl Kani was the first to take urban fashion from the fruity colorful Cross Colors stage to something a grown man wouldn’t mind wearing. FUBU was second in the door, but they made a couple of moves that left Karl Kani frozen in place. The key shift - marketing. Remember all of those FUBU ads featuring the hottest rappers of that time? And Karl Kani stuck to featuring himself. Only later did he make the switch, but it was too late. FUBU was THE brand to wear.