Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Bailey.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Christopher. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
MY EXISTENCE
My struggle began before I was born. My mother was a Carrier of an incurable disease called “Sickle Cell Anemia”. The doctors had suggested that my mother abort me due to complications she will have during pregnancy and if she was to go into a “Sickle Cell Crisis” during labor that there was a 90% chance she and I would die. My mother kept me and kept the faith of God would see us thru. Of course, I made it thru the first phase of my struggle and I was born to this world. My parents had moved to Compton, California in 1970 I was born in 1975. Growing up in Compton in the 1980’s as a young kid was great.
A SURVIVING SINGLE MOTHER
In 1982 my parents divorced and my mother began to live the life of a single parent. My deadbeat father left with no intentions of taking care of the responsibility he created. My mother had it very hard trying to work a 9-5 job and survive thru the Sickle Cell Anemia. I always had Hustle to get the things I wanted like standing in front of the grocery store helping people bag their groceries and putting them in the car or hanging out with a group a friends at the gas station fighting each other to pump peoples gas for change. We would especially would fight when the high rollers (drug dealers)in the neighborhood that would pull up to get gas because we knew that it would be paper currency instead of coins. I use to have to live with my Auntie or some of my mom’s friends when the Sickle Cell Crisis would occur and she would have to spend a week or two in the hospital. The crisis would attack very often in the cold winter months and not too often in the hot summer months. So I was always moving around. Most of the time, I stayed with my Aunt on the East Side of Compton. My mother and I lived on the West Side of Compton. As the years progressed and I got older, there were really never no positive role models around me that I noticed. But there really were.
Growing up in Compton in the 80’s was the era of the President Ronald Reagan Administration. Cocaine was brought into the city of Compton by the megatons. The drug dealers would mix baking soda and stand over the stove with a pot and create crack rock. If you chose to sell it, you were rich overnight and if you chose to use you became addicted in seconds. I’m at the age of 11 in 1986 and crack rock was sold on almost on every street in Compton. Teenage boys and girls who were selling it were buying brand new cars off of the car lots with big gold chains and they also helped create the Korean economy even stronger by spending a lot of their money from crack sales at the Compton Swapmeet in which was owned by Koreans. At this time, I was inspired by the drug dealers in the neighborhood and wanted to be like them. You are told to go to school so you can get a job and see the elders who work all day that went to school as well and you see them barely getting by paying bills and providing for their families. And you see the drug dealers selling drugs making tens of thousands in a day driving up the streets in brand new cars wearing flashy gold chains and new outfits everyday. So at this point, I was inspired to sell drugs with hopes to make it out of Compton. I was involved in youth football at Baldwin Hills Park. I was really good in football but more inspired with selling drugs. I started out by washing cars of the local drug dealers and High Rollers.
Eventually, I would end up bagging up crack for one of the local drug dealers and there was no need to wash cars because I was making three times as much in such a few minutes bagging up crack. My mom eventually ended up Marrying one of the coaches from the football organization I played at. He was a Passive stepfather. He really didn’t put his foot down like he should have if he was going to take the role of stepfather. At this time, I’m about 13 or 14 years old and being defiant. I was very intrigued with Lowrider’s so I would save my money I earned from washing cars and bagging up crack, I guess you can say I was like an errand boy for the local drug dealers. My mom stayed married for about a few years, come to find out my stepfather was cheating on my mother because of her illness didn’t provide the marriage that he thought atleast he had wanted. I guess when people say in the marriage vowels “thru sickness and health”. They really never mean it.
SCHOOL vs. THE STREETS
I’m 17 years old. I stopped going to school because of the money I was making on the streets and the life I had chosen, I didn’t have much time for school. I finally bought a Lowrider and was feeling on top of the world living a dream I thought was the ultimate but in reality it was a limited dream and not knowing the lifespan of the dream was limited. I knew the game I was playing was a real-life game of cops and robbers in which as a kid we played this many times and I had a lot of pre-run practices as a youth. And of course, nobody wants to be the cop so you know I always played the robber. Now my reality of drug dealing became real when I got caught with crack cocaine a few months after I turned 18 years old. I ended up going to the county jail and experiencing what it was like in jail. It wasn’t so bad if you were strong and stood up for yourself. I stayed a few days and was let out on my own recognizance. And I went right back to selling crack the day I got out of jail. I continued to sell drugs and live a lifestyle that left a heartache in my mom and a disappointment to those who loved me. But I guess my love for the almighty dollar was greater than to worry about those I have hurt. I was eventually placed on probation for the crack I was caught with and given a drug class because I lied and said I used crack instead of selling it so I would have not gotten a harsh punishment. Time proceeded to move along and I had turned 21 years of age. My mother had eventually died four days after my 21st birthday. I had found some memoirs written by her and she noted that she just asked God to keep her here on earth till I was old enough to be 21.
FROM BAD TO GOOD
Turning 21 and losing my Mother was very detrimental to me. I ran with the street gang and began to destroy my community. For years I destroyed my community selling poison (crack). In and out of jail, I decided to stop selling crack in 2005. After getting out of jail, I sold my low rider and bought a video camera and went to Los Angeles City College to study Film. I went to school for about six months and had discovered Steven Spielberg had dropped out of college and pursued is film career hands on. I went to 2nd semester and sat there for a few hours and started to walk out and my professor Mr. Obern says, “where you going?” I replied, “I’m Steven Spielberg!” And walked out. I went in hands on with the filming. I began to film the low rider scene and made monthly editions of the low riding lifestyle. I created my YouTube channel and Began to call myself “CEE RIDER VISION” I’ve began ”filming and doing photography. My lowriding dvds got the attention of the Japanese who indulged in the lowriding community began to purchase my Dvds and sell them in Japan. Dope came to Compton and made a business deal with me and I landed my first Distribution deal. “Dope” is the owner of L.A. Style Dope Clothing and he is a good businessman. Dope insisted that I should sell clothing. He said it’s more money for you. I had already had photoshop knowledge and began to design lowriding t-shirts to sell with my dvds. The shirts and DVDs began to blow up. I sold my shirts at the lowriding picnics and was sending boxes overseas to Japan.
Now I’m wondering how I can make more money so I could stop selling marijuana. When I had stopped selling crack cocaine I had started selling marijuana because it carries a lighter jail sentence. I came up with the idea to start selling Compton Shirts with a childhood friend named Bone. We started making Compton shirts and our clothing line became the hottest clothing line all over Compton. We sold our Compton shirts out of the trunks of our cars, local Stores and the World Famous Compton Swapmeet. I began to make good money from the selling of the Compton Shirts and the Lowrider dvds I didn’t have to sell anything illegal in order to survive and take care of my family. The years passed along and Bone and I began to part our own ways to venture out on our own journeys. Bone kept the Urban Hustle Wear clothing line and I had gotten more heavy into videography and photography. The filming kept me out of trouble and I began to make very good money with Filming and photography. I focused on that career so I could master my craft. I spent 21 years of my life in and out of jail selling drugs and inflicting pain on families in my community. I had a spiritual awakening one day and went from a nonbeliever of God to a Believer in God. I began to live my life on a path that was more on a positive note.
Meeting the Mayor of Compton:
I was driving down Wilmington Ave and as soon as I passed 134th street I hit a pothole and had to pull off to the side of the street. As I was pulled off to the side of the street I was scrolling twitter waiting on a Towtruck. I had seen the mayor Aja Brown make a tweet about her upcoming election in 2017. I cursed her and demanded that she would fix the potholes in our city. Mayor Brown replied and says, “if there is a problem, please come to my office and let’s talk about it. I accepted her invitation. Then following day, I met up with Mayor Brown and her Chief of staff Mellisa Freeny. We talked about the concerns I had and she explained the process of our COMPTON city government and explained to me that COMPTON is a charter city and it isn’t ran like other cities and the mayor only has a vote and the mayor has no power over the city and decisions made are made by five council members including herself. We got down to the issues and I apologized for being disrespectful. I told mayor Brown that we know of the problems… let’s find some solutions. Since then, I have been active in my community that I had help in destroying.
THE COMPTON ACTIVIST
After one year of doing community work, I considered myself a Compton Activist and no longer a Compton Gangster. I created a clothing line called COMPTON ACTIVIST and a percentage of the sales I make from my clothing I donate it back to different nonprofits in Compton. Now the year is 2018 and started to meet other people in the community who devote themselves to the community and I reached out to Hub City Dre, Jennifer “JAY BEE” Beasley and Christi Jennings for all of us to come together to make a powerful impact and to help each one of our businesses be able to have a greater outreach to the community. We formed a group called the “The Camp Cpt”. We made our first impact at 2018 COMPTON Christmas parade and had given a Toy give away and concert hosted by The Hub Radio after the parade. We were able to reach over 2500 families. In 2019 we had taken part in getting the residents of Compton to engage in the city-wide election for city council. Compton has a low voter turn out and we were able to engage 2500 new voters in the election. After the election we began to take on the Clean COMPTON campaign and we organized monthly clean ups and began to restore areas where public works were not able to tackle due to the lack of manpower. By this time, we started to get over 50 residents at a time to volunteer in the Clean COMPTON Campaign. The channel 11 news had gotten word that a group of individuals are cleaning up the streets of Compton. Gina Silva had come to get our story. Since then, we are out here trying to empower and restore our city of Compton to change the negative narrative that our city has.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No. The struggles were being dealt a hand that I had to learn to play the right cards in order to survive. Being born of a mother who had sickle cell anemia, a father who was a dead beat, being forced to join a gang, depending on the life of crime because I had already chosen that path instead of going to college.
Compton Activist Apparel – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business is Compton Activist / Compton T-Shirt Printing. We design and print custom shirts as well as sell Compton t-shirts in our retail section of our store. I’m known for making the hottest Compton shirts in the World. No one makes better Compton shirts than I do. I’m proud most of my company because we are not just a store in our community we are store for our community. A community-based store that provides engagement for the residents to become proactive in the city of Compton. And this is what sets us apart from all other Compton t-shirt stores in a Compton.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define my success with the how many people I have helped. Some people define their success with money. I’m being continually blessed with finances as long as I help people. God had given me an assignment and it’s to do his work and that’s “Do More For Others Than You Would Do For Yourself”. My criteria is to do good business and be honest. I have no markers because the universe is infinite so I just keep going higher and higher until my time is up here on earth.
Contact Info:
- Address: Compton Activist Apparel and T Shirt Printing
721 E. Compton Blvd.
Compton, CA 90221 - Website: www.ComptonActivist.com
- Phone: 3104007625
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Comptonactivist
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/comptonactivist
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/comptonactivist
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