Picture it. East Flatbush 1989.
We were on the cheese bus coming from the Annex on Avenue D back to the main building on Lenox road.
I was sitting next to my friend Jason Swaby. We werent good friends, but we played a lot. Jason was pretty quiet which was the perfect balance to by spazness. (Yes, I am ready to admit, I was a total spaz.) We usually sat together on the bus for the 15 minute trip (In moderate traffic).

This day we must have run out of topics, and we started speaking on "who would win if we fought". Yes, the classic hypothetical "who would win if we fought " quagmire.
As we each took turns explaining exactly why we would: Fuck each other up- Jason Swaby seemed to get serious about it. I followed suit.

We werent loud, but the whole bus seemed to have sensed that something was amiss in the third row as whispers of ' Kamal and Jason gonna fight, Kamal and Jason gonna fight Kamal and Jason gonna fight (i shoulda copy and pasted that one).
Anyhow, we get off the bus and walk angrily to - yes...the YARD. And I dont mean Jamaica either son, I mean the school yard, which was arguably a bit tougher than most parts of the island. Except for Trenchtown. Anyway - I had about 35 minutes before Mr Wint picked me up in his blue van. So a fight would be perfect. Before then, i hadnt really had a fight.
I mean, besides fighting with my cousins and well, chasing my brother down Cortelyou Road with a kitchen knife, some sparring in the annex yard with Collin Golding (who had some mean hooks to the ribs), Actually, I was the champion boxer of the Annex for a good two weeks until Collin asked "who's the champ?" and lit my ass up Like Marvelous Marvin Hagler did Tommy "HitMan" Hearns in their first rematch. Maybe he studied the tape. Anyway besides the the occasional punch on the arm by Kamau's half-a-bully ass...I hadnt really had a real school fight.
So, this was it. And i was mad. The kids in the yard began the infamous brooklyn school fight chant - You know it.
"A fight, A fight.
A n*gga and a white,
If the n*gga dont win,
then we all jump in'
This was strange, since i wasnt fighting Adrianna Reid, the school's token white girl from the hood.
Nomi cut her hair off one day. I don't think there was too much chanting that day actually.

But either way, i got hyper than ultimate hustler Dame Dash promising to be the first trillionare..(of course this is before Jay stabbed him in the back..and even more so before that God awful trainwreck called DDMG)
Anyhow..I was amped...and a crowd of one hundred kids encircled us.

I SWUNG. and missed, i swung , again and again. left -miss, right- miss. left - you get it. It was less of a fight than it was my own renditon of Charlie Brown at bat at the big game. Except in my case I struck out a couple of times before i heard,, Khalilah say in surprise "KAMAL CAN FIGHT!"

Shit thats all i needed to hear, so i stepped in, focused my shoulder and
TAPPED THAT MOTHAF^CKAS JAW. BONG.
Just once. Then I said naively: "Ok, fight's over. I won."
I'm not sure how many real fights Jason Swaby had been in, but apparently he didnt know that once you punch the guy in the face - its pretty much a wrap.

So he said defiantly: "No it isnt". "Yes it is, I hit you" I not so cleverly retorted. In retrospect, unless you are Mike Tyson, John "The beast" Mugabe (google him) - or a particularly mean DECEPT named Rumble? one punch aint doing it.
But, the arrogant bastard I was, I laughed at his obvious ignorance and turned my back as the crowd dispersed.

Dont you know that mothafucka punched me in the BACK of my head? POW
That shit hurt like a bitch too. But in my mind, "he's so stupid, hitting me AFTER the fight, What a Sore Loser. No sportsmanship" POW. "He's so stupid. Doesnt he know that i already won?" POW And i walked away. head sore for three days. Jason Swaby sure did pack a mean punch. Especially when Frustrated

We argued for months afterwards about who won. Apparently, these late hits after the bell rang counted to him. The fact of the matter is, he may have won technically but i coulda took him. He aint have nathan for me face to face..
"fight...fight- a n*gga and a white"