Hello and thank you for taking the timeout to allow me to give you a piece of me. My name is Jetton Rick Ali Freeman better known as “Da Star” and this is my first of many books of poems. My work is inspired by daily events that’s happens in my life and most time yours (the reader) as well. I was raised by a single strong woman by the name of Harriett Freeman along with my older sister Velvy Freeman. In the past I had a younger brother Jason whom I never got a chance to know well because at a very young age he died of crib death. I want to believe that was the reason. My dad name is Willie Swanson and he use to beat my mom like a nigga on the street, for the reasons we may never know. I’m not a detective but I feel like that was the cause of my little brother’s death, the beatings and the black eyes and kicks to the stomach. I was in and out of school coming up and even in my elementary and Jr. High school I done pretty well. My morals in life were different then, money wasn’t everything it was about having fun and having two or three girlfriends. But once I got to the stage (you know high school) it was a whole different ball game. If you didn’t have money and a car you were we called a “bum”. I never was into gangs even though I had cousins that were affiliated with them, but it wasn’t my thing. After I dropped out of school I was just a guy on the streets hustling and doing all nighters out there just to make money. I sold every type of drug there was to be sold from crack to water (abdominal fluid). Then once I got caught by the police it wasn’t as fun anymore so I stopped. I joined a continuing high school and got my GED, then later attended Sanford Brown and completed one year of criminal justice. My dreams were to become a lawyer and have the chance to help others like me escape the system. My real true love though was always writing music and poems, the creativity behind my words became my magnet for the girls. But I stopped writing for awhile to start running my own sales and marketing company named JF& Partners and the whole time I knew that I wasn’t doing what I love to do and soon figured I had to get back to it. I decided to form another corporation this time with my long time friends or brothers named Carlos and Ray and we call it GrindHouse Corp. Know I’m back with my passion and my story, so as you read each poem just don’t read it related to it, feel the pain, joy, happiness, and struggle. And by all means enjoy yourself . . . . Until we meet again DA STAR