A few years ago, Denzel Washington played the character Frank Lucas in American Gangster, a tale about a hustler who took the drug game beyond the limited scope of his fellow hoods. In the early portions of the movie we see that Frank was tutored by a man who they simply called Bumpy, played by Clarence Williams III. Well as much as the movie put Frank Lucas over as a mastermind and Denzel Washington inaccurately portrayed him as a cool, poised Gangster, most historians know that Bumpy Johnson deserved a bit more than a slight mention in the life of Lucas. It is convenient that Lucas was alive to make sure that they semi-accurately put him over in the movie, but his predecessor Bumpy was not afforded that luxury for  American Gangster. Well we are fans of old Elsworth here at the Hall, Bumpy represented a Gangster and Gentleman the way that it was meant… [Read more]

Are you into Martial Arts? Do you wish to become a better grappler? Or maybe you have a youngling in training to be a badass, roundhouse kicking Jedi. Then there’s a new product coming out to help you become said badass. The  Tommy Boi by inventor Tommy Jubei Knight is a solo grappler’s dream come true. You know, It’s one thing when you have a friend talk out his ass about what he plans on doing and then there’s another thing to have them actually do it. Tommy Jubei Knight (yup that’s his name) worked out at the same gym as me and we got to know each other through martial arts. As one of the only people to refer to me exclusively as “black dragon”, Tommy would recount to me his misadventures of sparring, fighting and squaring off against real opponents in multiple situations. Being of a stocky, hard and solid fighter’s stature, you… [Read more]

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If we’re going to talk badasses, I think it only appropriate to start with the man who comes to mind when I think of the congressional Medal of Honor. Audie Leon Murphy amassed a total of 33 medals in his day along with the congressional Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty”. Audie earned just about every medal there was to earn for being godly on the battlefield and then went on to star as himself in war movies before suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and clinical depression. Like many men of his time, Audie’s life was eventually taken by the one thing he couldn’t fight, a piece of crap private plane transporting him on a business trip. What makes Audie a badass? Well given the technology and advances in military weaponry you will never see a guy like this… [Read more]