Above the Noise Quotes

“In the mid-2000s—and specifically during my last two years of high school, 2006–2008, Compton had become an even more dangerous place to live. In those years, there was a war going on within the city. No, really, you can look it up. It was gang warfare on a level even Compton hadn’t seen before. The gangs were expanding rapidly, and there were a record number of shootings. All day and all night, the sights and sounds that would keep me awake at night as a kid were all amplified—gunshots, sirens, the constant hum of police helicopters. There were so many helicopters it was like the cops felt safer policing from the air. I could see why.”
― DeMar DeRozan, Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm

“There were plenty of times during that period where I’d leave my school—which was in an established Crip area—at the end of the day and there’d be, no exaggeration, thirty dudes surrounding the school, waiting for certain people to leave. I had friends in gangs who would always be leaving school an hour early to avoid getting jumped when the bell rang. One night I got word that a friend of mine who sat next to me at school had been shot and killed. I remember going to class the next day and looking over to see his textbook, pencil, and papers and shit still on his desk like everything was normal. I suppose in a way it was.”
― DeMar DeRozan, Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm

“The cycle was endless. I’d go to funerals for friends who had gone too deep into the gangs—or had been caught in the crossfire and died for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’d pay my respects, listening to the preacher talk about how we lost this life too young or that life too early, and bottle up the pain and frustration inside. I carried that anger with me everywhere I went.”
― DeMar DeRozan, Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm