As an author myself, one thing I like to see is other black people documenting their realities in the written word. This is why I enjoy reading books such as The Crack Era by Kevin Chiles, Eskiboy by Wiley, and even Don’t Dumb Down your Greatness by my good friend Anthony Frasier. That is partly why I knew I had to check out Somethings I Been Thru by Jamil Lindsey a.k.a Gully TV. Someone whose content I’ve paid attention to for some time.
Jamil is the well-respected owner of the Gully TV platform. And he’s been in the presence of some serious people. Through the pure love of journalism, he’s found himself in some dangerous situations involving documented killers. Some of these names include Alpo, Haitian Jack, and Sean Branch. He’s also had heated phone calls with the likes of Jimmy Henchman. This book, Somethings I Been Thru is Jamil’s memoir where he documents some of these situations in detail.
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The memoir starts off with a brief history of Jamil’s (Gully’s) upbringing. Jamil grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania learning the ways of his father, who was all about making money and providing for his child. As with any inner-city that has been purposely made devoid of opportunities, the youth will gravitate to what their peers in the neighborhood are doing to get by. Jamil walked the street life that many of our people were subjected to back in the 70’s and 80’s. This led to him spending some time in prison, where he discovered his true gifts.
In the memoir, Jamil talks about writing stories in prison and finding out how gifted he was at painting a picture. His inmates would request stories from him, and soon enough, this led to him landing a ghostwriting gig for a popular author and publisher of urban literature. When Jamil was done serving his time, he landed a writing deal worth thousands of dollars. Something that made his mom proud.
But Jamil explains in the memoir that he had bigger ideas. He was watching the success that other street media platforms were seeing at the time. This was the mid-2000s when the likes of Smack DVD, Big Fendi’s The Come Up DVD, Sub-0’s series of DVD’s, and French Montana’s Cocaine City were selling in waves all around America. In fact, I used to buy these DVD’s all the way over here in the UK.
Jamil knew that the way these DVD’s depicted the raw and gritty street life was the future of black independent media. At the time, no one else around him understood the vision, but Jamil saw it bright as day. That’s when he brought the idea of Gully TV to his publisher, who was sponsoring his work at the time. Failing to understand the idea and its potential, they rejected the offer. Leaving Jamil to go into business for himself.
Jamil went on to form Gully TV and began shedding light on some of the most infamous stories in black communities all over America. As Jamil details how he navigated these various interviews, it’s clear to see that he has deep intuition. He has a clear understanding of people’s psychology, and he’s able to use that as a tool to make them feel comfortable telling their truths. His work was so thorough that he himself embodied the brand. People began referring to Jamil as Gully TV.
In the memoir, Jamil’s detailing of meeting Alpo will likely send chills down your spine if you’re familiar with Alpo’s story. Jamil wrote this part so vividly that I felt like it was me meeting Alpo in Harlem. Like it was me looking into the eyes of a killer while he tells me not to cross him.
Jamil has no doubt been through some things. And it’s these things that make this book so content-heavy. Saying too much will give away the weight of the experiences as you read the stories. But just know that through Jamil’s work, he’s been threatened by some serious people (and some not-so-serious people). And he was threatened to the point where Jamil’s own family and friends backed away from him, fearing for his (and their) lives.
One of the documentaries that Jamil / Gully TV is well known for, is the one on the infamous street legend, Haitian Jack. Jamil spent some time at Jack’s mansion in the Dominican Republic, and in the memoir, he talks about Haitian Jack’s demeanor. He speaks on some of the things they talked about. Things that may or may not have made it to the documentary. But one important thing to know is that Jamil doesn’t just tell you how the documentary came to be, he also reveals how his professional relationship with Jack took a turn for the worse sometime after the documentary’s existence. These are the stories you never hear about when it comes to journalism, specifically in black culture.
And speaking of our culture. This memoir shows how we have a problem with how we treat our media platforms. You see, in our street culture, being in the presence of snitches (or “rats”) is strictly prohibited. And this taboo extends to media platforms, who are often ridiculed for allowing snitches to share their experiences. But the problem with this logic is that mainstream white-owned media is allowed to interview these same people without any negative blowback from the community. And in turn, this behavior restricts the growth of our black-owned media platforms.
Jamil shouldn’t be held accountable for reviewing snitches, because he himself did not commit their acts. He is simply documenting these truths so people understand the consequences. And as Jamil states himself in the book, after he shared with the world that he spoke to Alpo, it was as if he gave the green light for all other black-owned channels to begin speaking about Alpo. Everyone was too scared to do so before Jamil did, because of how they’d be viewed.
Jamil has a lot of knowledge to share in this memoir. He shares a lot of insider knowledge that people have shared with him publicly, such as details on the Tupac robbery on November 30th, 1994. If you want to be in the know on many of the urban legends in hip hop, you’ll definitely want to read this book.
Another thing I enjoyed reading about was Jamil’s perspective on Wayne Perry. I can’t put it better than the man himself, but I do understand his theory that Wayne Perry perhaps shouldn’t be so celebrated. He was a man that bullied and murdered his own people in Washington D.C, on the command of a man who was from out of town—that man being Alpo Martinez.
When I originally saw the number of pages in Somethings I Been Thru, I was expecting to read brief summaries on the various interviews that Jamil conducted. But I was pleasantly surprised at how full of jewels this book is, considering it’s under a hundred pages. There’s plenty of meat in these pages to sink your teeth into. There are no dry spots so it ends up feeling like a book that was 300 pages long. And you’ll still be left wishing for more true stories.
On a further note, if you’re currently following the murder of Alpo Martinez like I am—this death signifies the end of an era—just know that Gully TV was the first media platform to confirm the murder. His connections allowed him to break the story before everyone else could confirm that Alpo was the victim. It’s years of hard work and dedication that grant you connections like that.
Salute to Jamil “Gully TV” Lindsey for sharing a part of his story in these pages.
