I got involved with Pound, for whom I’ve written a few columns under the heading All In The Game, due to corresponding with one of the editors and co-owner, Rodrigo Bascunan. At the time we met, he was visiting San Francisco to both interview 50 Cent, as part of the press campaign prior to the release of The Massacre, and to interview folks for a book he was working on with the other editor and co-owner, Christian Pearce. As I understand it, they are also the cofounders.

In any case, the book is much closer to completion and is called:
Enter The Babylon System – Unpacking Gun Culture: From Samuel Colt To 50 Cent

While it’s a mighty big title, it’s also a mighty big topic that’s apparently also leading to a film version, though I just discovered this fact while checking out their website. The site’s one of those partially constructed phenomenon that seem to be proliferating but they have posted audio files of interviews with Immortal Technique, Russell Simmons, Hu$tleman and USC faculty member Dr. Malcolm Klein.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the interview with Russell Simmons but I’m hoping the topic took him out of his usual soundbite headstate and into something real. However, there’s a brief transcription from an interview with Bun B that suggests that the book and film are going to be really hot. So hot that I’m already jealous of these guys, but I’ll get over it.

Here’s an excerpt from the Bun B interview:
“Describe the situation when you decided to carry guns.”

We’re leaving a party and walk down the parking lot and kept hearing some popping, it sounded like firecrackers and then I look back and I saw some dudes shooting at us, pointing a gun at us out of a car. And I really couldn’t grasp the concept of it, I’m seeing them shooting, I see the smoke from the gun, but I don’t see the bullets and don’t hear the bullets hitting anything. I don’t hear them ricocheting or anything. I turn around and I see Jay on the ground bleeding . . .

So I start running, the car pulls up closer and we get to a point where it’s us and like a ten foot gate and the motherf*ckers pull-up, reload and start shooting again and somehow me and that other cat got over that f*cking gate and ran home. I remember walking into the house and my brother was like, ‘what the f*ck happened to you?’ I was like, ‘what do you mean?’ He said, ‘you look white, your skin is white.’ And I told him what happened and ever since then, that’s when me and my other cats started carrying guns.

Bottom line: Enter The Babylon System – Unpacking Gun Culture: From Samuel Colt To 50 Cent by Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce is going to be big news when it drops.