Along with the infamous jester Boo Boo the Fool and the greatly despised slave master Willie Lynch, Dave the Dope Fiend is arguably one in all Black America’s most iconic fictional characters.

Inspired by a single mention in Slick Rick’s 1989 hit: “The story of youngsters”, the name itself has aroused admiration and audience participation in nightclubs and parties for generations. Although the iconic song about a young person whose decisions get him into trouble with the law stays a part of the hip-hop canon, unanswered questions have been circulating in the minds of hip-hop fans for years.

Did he really not know what soap and water meant? How did he start smoking drugs? Why would he offer a spanking shotgun to a whole stranger? Most importantly, what happened to him and the kid he helped?

Well, we found the answers.

Everything hidden?

Here we go.

Once upon a time, not way back…

Not only has Dave the Dope Fiend never used drugs, perhaps greater than anyone in America, but he knows the importance of soap and water.

Born in 1975, David Darwin Dauphin was a straight-A student who spent his early life trying to escape poverty. Before crack hit New York, Bronx River Housing was a spot where people wore pajamas and lived slowly. Dave was the quintessential “magic kid” that everybody in the neighborhood protected.

He was going to win the 1984 Bronx Science Fair.

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In a college that gave birth to nine Nobel Prize winnersThe Bronx Science Fair for High Schools is one in all the best competitions in the K-12 academic community. Inspired by the bullying of his classmates, Dave created “So Fresh, So Clean” – a proprietary chemical process that allowed poor people to clean their bodies, even without access to soap and water. All he needed was a way to pay for the tests and supplies.

One day, a stranger approached Dave and offered him a job as a chemistry tutor for adults. It appeared like the perfect way to support his family and would actually help him win the science fair.

Growing up in an environment where people wore pajamas and lived slowly, Dave had no concept that he was actually teaching drug dealers how to cook crack. In his naivety, he tutored children who were as fascinated with chemistry as he was. Every day, Dave would go to the trap on the top floor of an abandoned constructing and explain chemical reactions, acid-base solutions, and the way to use Bunsen burners. He spent the remainder of his time in a well-equipped laboratory, studying, perfecting his invention, and preparing for the science fair.

On the day of the big science fair, Dave stayed up all night perfecting his project. He already had all of it found out. He didn’t even hassle to shower before his big presentation. Everything at the science fair went perfectly. (Except that the panel of judges asked him to compare the cost of Daves Dry Wash to the price of soap and water, which caused one in all his classmates to shout, “He doesn’t know what that is!”).

Dave’s Dry Wash took first place thanks to a landslide.

Dave didn’t even wait for the trophy. He ran to the trap to tell his “employers” that he was retiring. The drug boys were overjoyed that Dave had fulfilled his dream and was finally “out of the mask.” After a couple of minutes of celebrating, they left Dave alone to get his equipment. He had almost finished packing all the pieces when he heard a knock on the door.

Dave assumed that one in all his former employers would come to retrieve the shotgun that the “security guard” had left in the corner of the trap door to protect the “lab”. Who else would run up the stairs to the top floor of an abandoned constructing? Dave opened the door without even searching through the keyhole.

It was you, Stickup Kid.

The little boy misled

Tyson James, a shy but athletic third grader who mostly kept to himself, lived across the hall from Dave. Because Ty struggled with dyslexia – a diagnosis he discovered while in prison – he learned to struggle at a young age. That’s why his elementary school bullies knew higher than to retaliate when Tyson intervened in the frying of his third-grade classmate and neighbor.

“His name is (smack!)… David (smack!)… Dee (smack!)… Dauphin (smack!),” Ty announced, slapping his schoolyard bullies in the back of the neck with an open hand. “It’s Dave, the drug devil.”

Connected by proximity, poverty and a desire to escape the smaller of the Americas, the boys quickly became best friends. They even swapped clothes to make their wardrobes look more diverse. After Dave transferred, Ty was recruited by the midfield crew. When Dave came upon that his friend was robbing old people and running away, Ty left the crew.

“I would never be stupid enough to rob an undercover DT,” Ty said, using a standard term for an undercover detective. “I left this life. It wasn’t that I could not stop or that I got sick. Instead, Ty claimed he was framed and attacked by a corrupt police officer.

“He grabbed my arm and told me not to move; there was no need for interference,” Ty explained. “I was going to comply, but he punched me in the stomach and spanked me, so I escaped and ran around the block.”

This was the starting of one in all the most iconic chases in hip-hop history.

Ty also says that Dave was just in the mistaken place at the mistaken time. When Ty knocked on the trap door, Dave just smiled and said, “I won the science fair.” He expected Ty to be as completely happy as everyone else, but he immediately sensed something was mistaken.

“I need bullets,” Ty replied. “Hurry up, run.”

Dave didn’t even move. Instead, he quickly showed Dave to the back door and handed Ty the shotgun. The police rushed in, threw Dave to the ground and handcuffed him. Just a few minutes later, in the middle of this madman’s sleep, Dave heard gunshots.

“We shot a kid,” a voice announced on the police radio. To this present day, Dave can still hear the screams.

“Just to be clear, it wasn’t Dave’s shotgun or his bullets,” he added. “First of all, I didn’t even shoot at them! According to police reports, they dispersed after I got the tattoo. However, during the trial, the jury discovered that that they had simply made this part up! Shotguns don’t even save.

Ty was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for assaulting cops, armed robbery, resisting arrest, automotive theft and reckless endangerment. Because prosecutors alleged that Dave was Ty’s accomplice, he was charged with the same charges as Ty, in addition to RICO charges for the drug operation. “I don’t blame Ty,” Dave explained. “My life is the results of the decisions I even have made. I made a decision to work in a jail. I made a decision to tell Ty where the gun was.

While Dave had come to terms with the idea of ​​spending the remainder of his life in prison, his cellmate, Ty, was preoccupied with overturning his conviction. They got a second likelihood thanks to his friend’s commitment to true justice and each men’s commitment to sincere reparations.

Until Lakisha showed up.

This is not only one other mistaken path story

The statement continues:

When attorney Lakisha Holmes received a letter from inmate Tyson James, she immediately recognized the story. She knew all the details. The undeniable fact that she grew up in the Bronx River Homes had nothing to do with it, nor did the undeniable fact that Lakisha graduated from Bronx Science before attending Spelman and Howard Law School. Her birthday was the spark.

On April 21, 1988, lower than six hours after David Dauphin’s triumphant victory at the science fair and the life-changing abduction of Ty the Stickup Kid, “Jane Doe” welcomed her recent daughter into the world.

Lakisha all the time thought her mother was joking when she insisted she was the “pregnant lady” from one in all the most played songs on Black radio. Dave’s letter was proof that her mother was telling the truth.

Lakisha called her mother, who revealed that she never identified Ty as her kidnapper and, in fact, never implicated Dave. Many witnesses testified that only people on the town called the Dauphin “Dave the Dope Fiend”. Together they found the false police reports and revealed the truth. Lakisha’s mother even found her original witness statement, which supported Ty’s claims that he was unarmed when police shot him.

“They didn’t have to shoot that boy,” Doe said in her original statement. “He knew deep in his heart that he was wrong.”

After thirty years in prison, the appeals court overturned the sentence. In its decision, the three-judge panel cited police corruption, falsified evidence and witness tampering. To settle one other federal civil rights lawsuit, the NYPD paid Dave and Ty $13.7 million for his or her wrongful convictions and agreed to permanently fund the mentoring program.

Today, Dave and Ty are co-executive directors of Knock ’em Out the Box, a free program offered by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. While programs like The Innocence Project and Project BUILD serve incarcerated adults, Knock ’em Out the Box is the first to offer counseling and legal justice to juvenile delinquents featured in hip-hop songs. Past participants include: Millie (accused of pulling a gun on Santa Claus), together with dozens of youngsters whom my parents just didn’t understand.

When asked in the event that they had any bad feelings, they each admitted they regretted it. “I’m sorry to everyone I’ve hurt,” Ty said. “I reached out to my sister and told her I was sorry I was aiming for her head – thank God I missed her. I sent an apology to the old man I knocked down – I swore I killed him. I wrote another and another, sister and brother.”

“I wish I knew that white people actually don’t know the importance of soap and water,” Dave lamented. “Let’s imagine that we gave Jason Kelce support agreement. Dave’s dry cleaning could have been huge!”

Good night.