Darryl ‘Lil D’ Reed

Darryl ‘Lil D’ Reed

East Oakland street Legend Darryl Lil D Reed was a 19 year old in the mid 1980′s that had the world in his hands. Darryl worked from the bottom up beginning as a street level hustler, and eventually lead one of the biggest “Cocaine Conglomerates” that California has ever seen, LDI (Lil D Incorporated). During this time Darryl amassed a small fortune including Luxury Homes and exotic cars and became major cocaine distributor in The Bay Area. In 1988 it all came to an end! Darryl was indicted on conspiracy charges and possession of Cocaine for sale and given a 35 year Federal Prison Sentence. Today over 22 years into that sentence Darryl is now impacting the community in a positive way!  Darryl is frequently visited in Federal Prison by and mentors many of the Bay Areas biggest Rappers including MC Hammer, Too Short, E40, Yukmouth Mistah FAB and others. Darryl’s long standing street credibility has allowed him to reach out to the youth in a way that others have not been able too including his own son who was a small child when Darryl was arrested. He is often mentioned in Rap songs and his likeness used in documentaries and movies to this day.

Darryl has come to a point in his life where he feels his story needs to be told, In His Own Words! Thus have his book “Weight”. Weight is a biographical portrait of Darryl rise and fall  in the game, but also touches on the fact that Darryl came from a very strong two parent home where he was raised with strong family values. “Weight” paints a vivid picture of a young man that if he had chosen a different path he could have his natural leadership ability. Darryl was a successful CEO of any of America’s Big Corporations. In the book “Weight” Darryl lets the reader in on the fact that by the time he was in his junior year of high school he had stacked his first 100 thousand Dollars  and was up to that point able to maintain his grades in school while hiding from his family the fact that he was involved in dealing drugs. 

In the book “Weight” Darryl goes into great detail about the many women that have been in and out of his life and the effect that each one had on his development as a man. The book “Weight” is a very dynamic true story written in the  words of the man who lived the life. As you read the book you often pause and reflect on how talented and brilliant this young man is and after seeing the price he paid for the mistakes he made as a  young man in his late teens. It leaves the reader asking “Did he really deserve a 35 year sentence”?

Nevertheless Darryl doesn’t point the finger or make excuses for his decisions in life which has ultimately lead to him spending more than a quarter of his life in Federal Prison. In fact Darryl does the opposite in his final words on the last page of the book Darryl states, “To anybody who thinks that I lived a great life, it was not worth decades of my freedom. I want some of y’all to hopefully take my advice and do something constructive with your lives. The dope game is a set up. This was not written to glamorize the game. It was to tell the real story of how youngsters get caught up in that lifestyle. I lived it and I was one of the best at it, so why not take my advice when I say the game is not the route anymore. Fuck where you’re from and all that geographical bullshit. Analyze what I have said. Please, my people, don’t wait until it’s too late”.