Ruthless on Ruth Street

Ruthless on Ruth Street Marissa Nicole Pina

I

started doing it, and I fell in love with it. I mean I never really had a job, I always was in the streets, you know, hustlin’,” said Duss.

Duss, 27 years old, has been working on the streets for the past five years as a drug dealer. Something about the streets keeps him coming back for more every single day.

Kensington has a way of beckoning people, enrapturing them, and never letting them leave. For some, it’s street art. For others, it’s photos and interviews. Ultimately, most find themselves trudging up the Avenue looking for drugs. But the stories that don’t get told are those of the individuals supplying the drugs.

Duss stands out from the rest. At a soaring 6 foot tall, he tends to appear meanicing to anyone who would cross his path. Covered in tattoos from face to toe, his presence commands attention. It is this same person who can sit, laugh and sing songs from the 80s with his friends. For the past few years, these streets have been his school, his social hall, and office.

The intersection of Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street was once home to the worst drug corner in Philadelphia, just a few years ago.

Today, it is still alive with the calls of “subs, subs, subs,” “xanies, xanies, xanies,” and “pins, pins, pins.” Yet somehow amidst it all stands a group of vivacious late 20-somethings. Walking by this group with a camera is almost impossible without stopping for a picture to be taken.

Duss says he’s dedicated to the streets and making money, he started to fall in love with dealing drugs when he saw other people making money and realized he could do the same.

“I say, you know, everything is not for everybody. Don’t look a person, just because they out here, they selling drugs, because at the end of the day, that person gotta do whatever he’s gotta do…that may his only way of getting money, the only way he knows,” said Duss.

When it comes to dealing drugs, a lot of people get caught up in the lifestyle. The ease of earning money becomes almost as addicting as the drug they are dealing themselves. It can be a seductive lifestyle.

Duss said he starts his days around 11 a.m. or noon on Kensington Avenue. .....