O-Block, formerly known as WIIIC City, is a Black Disciple gang set located within the Parkway Gardens housing complex. This area, situated between 63rd and 65th Streets and King Drive on Chicago's South Side, bordering Washington Park and Woodlawn, has gained notoriety for various reasons.
Historical Context and Development
Parkway Gardens Apartment Homes, commonly known as O'Block, is a gated private apartment complex in the Greater Grand Crossing community area on the border of Woodlawn and Washington Park. The complex was constructed between 1950 and 1955. Architect Henry K. Holsman, who planned several of Chicago's affordable housing developments, designed the Modernist buildings. Parkway Gardens Apartment Homes, built from 1950 to 1955, was the last of Henry K. Holsman's housing development projects in Chicago.
In the 1910s, when an urban housing shortage developed after World War I, Holsman worked on several of the Chicago Housing Authority's major low-income housing projects. Later in the decade, he received funding from the Federal Housing Authority. The complex replaced the White City Amusement Park, which had operated at the site since 1905. The complex was the first cooperatively owned Black housing development in the United States. While Holsman had worked on cooperative housing in the past, its adoption by Black Americans was considered a major success for the community. Mary McLeod Bethune gave an address at the development's cornerstone-laying ceremony, which was attended by governor Adlai Stevenson II, Chicago mayor Martin H. Senators. Advocates for affordable housing and civil rights praised the development when it was completed, citing its modern heating and appliances and its expansive units.
Holsman gave the Parkway Gardens Apartment Homes a Modernist design inspired by European housing projects of the 1920s and 1930s. The complex is low-rise and includes several walk-up buildings. Thirty-five buildings are included in the complex; twenty-four of these are walk-ups, while the remaining eleven are eight-story buildings. The development's layout emphasized spaciousness, light, and airflow, and pointed entrances toward the inside of the complex rather than the street. Instead of ornamentation, angled bays gave variety to the exteriors, a feature inspired by German "zig-zag houses".
Notoriety and Crime Rate
O-Block gained national attention, being labeled the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago and America in 2014. From the late 2000s to the early 2010s, the complex was the center of gang shootings, mostly among teenagers and young adults. Tenants and community leaders contended that the crime wave came after the CHA demolished the drug-infested Randolph Tower, nicknamed the "Calumet Building", which was once located at 6217 S. Calumet Ave. The 16-story red-brick project building was the base of operations for the Black Disciples gang. A 2004 Chicago Tribune article stated that drug dealers in the Randolph Tower were hauling in drug profits as high as $300,000 per day. After the demolition in 2006, Black Disciples shifted their operations to Parkway Gardens, which had become Gangster Disciples territory. Even though the area was rife with crime, Parkway was described as a "safe environment" until gang members from various highrise housing projects across the South Side moved in during the end of the 2000s. In the early 2010s, gang activity skyrocketed, and Parkway became the center of one of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. Between June 2011 and June 2014, Parkway Gardens had the most shootings of any neighborhood in Chicago, mostly stemming from gang rivalries between the Gangster Disciples and Black Disciples, who both control territory near the block.
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The 6400 block of South King Drive was known locally as "WIIIC CITY" but began to be referred to as "O'Block" following the 2011 murder of resident and Black Disciples member Odee Perry. Odee Perry was a beloved member of O-Block and was killed as revenge for Shondale Tooka Gregory who Odee Perry killed months before his death, sparking the war between O-Block and STL/EBT.
O-Block residents have a reputation for being dangerous criminals.
Renovation and Preservation Efforts
The Chicago affiliate of the national real estate firm Related Companies purchased Parkway Gardens in 2011. The company completed a significant renovation of the property in September 2013 and thus preserved an affordable place for 2,000 people to live.
Influence in Music
Under this new name, it became nationally notorious due to former residents Chief Keef, King Von, Fredo Santana, and Lil Durk, whose music often references Parkway Gardens and its violence. O-Block has also been mentioned many times in music, specifically from rappers such as King Von, Fredo Santana, Chief Keef, and many more.
King Von's "Welcome to O'Block"
Welcome to O'Block is the debut studio album by American rapper King Von, and the only to be released during his lifetime. It was released on October 30, 2020 by Only the Family and Empire Distribution.
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Welcome to O'Block was supported by six singles: "Why He Told", "All These Niggas", "How It Go", "I Am What I Am", "Gleesh Place" and "The Code". Bennett explained the key difference between his mixtape Levon James, released earlier that same year, and Welcome to O'Block: "If you're doing something and keep doing it, you're gonna get better results. Everything better. The album release culminates the end of a prolific year for Bennett who claims to have worked hard on his music and technique, in fact the album came after Levon James, his second mixtape released previous in March 2020; he also declared that thanks to his perseverance work put into the project Welcome to O'Block would have surpass his previous in terms of quality. In his interview for Uproxx, Bennett stated that the music he was making was dedicated to the people who lived in his neighborhood and who, like him, lived a life of hardship and danger. Three days before the album publication, on 27 October King Von appeared in a video for the YouTube channel "CivilTV" named "Welcome to My Neighborhood: O Block", in whose Von talks about his life in Parkway Garden, tells anecdotes about it and about how he got into rapping, even anticipating some details on the new album.
"Why He Told", the lead single from the album, was released on July 24, 2020, along with a music video. "All These Niggas", the second single from the album, it features Lil Durk, and was released on August 5, 2020, with an accompanying music video directed by JV Visuals 312. On the track the two rappers deliver vicious bars about the bleak reality of the streets, with a hook sung by Bennett himself, on an Eerie piano keys drill instrumental. The video finds King Von posted up in a white Rolls Royce and rocking a massive diamond Only The Family chain as raps about life in the hood. "How It Go", the third single from the album produced by Chopsquad Dj, was released on August 28, Von declared to have wrote the lyrics while being locked up in jail. In the "How It Go" video, Von addresses the shortcomings of the justice system rapping about what goes on behind the closed doors of a criminal trial. On the first half of the video focuses on the negotiations between prosecutors and public defenders which often result in plea deals, and it shows Bennett struggling to survive in prison. "I Am What I Am", the fourth single from the album, was released on October 9, 2020. "Gleesh Place", the fifth single from the album with whom he anticipated the same project. "The Code" was released on October 30, 2020, alongside the album and a music video with the direction of DrewFilmedIt. It features a guest appearance from Polo G. The sci-fi-horror oriented video sees Von and Polo using a computer program to entrap their enemies, whom they spend the rest of the video torturing with the help of a female assistant.
Welcome to O'Block received acclaim from critics. Fred Thomas of AllMusic magazine, eulogize the Chicago rapper's storytelling ability and the "humanization" of Welcome to O'Block characters saying: "the cast of characters we meet over the course of Welcome to O'Block have names, ages, choices we watch them struggle with, and stories that are hard to ignore"; he also accents some songs such as "Back Again", "The Code", "Demon", and "How It Go." Writing for HipHopDX Josh Svetz defines the album as "Versatile" as it varies from energetic drill songs going through harmonized ones and still has others "sentimental ballads"; he concludes saying that "Welcome To OâBlock is the type of debut album rappers strive for: a relentless and engaging showcase of superior talent setting them up for a long and prosperous career" adding though "now becomes his curtain call, a tragic reminder of what could have been." Dean Van Nguyen by Pitchfork Defines the project with a more "Nuanced set" than his previous work Levon James, moving from a full album of gangsterism to a larger and more varied album; he also highlights track "All These Niggas" and the last three pieces of the work, defining them the best part of the project; finally ending with the sentence: " King Von wrote about a world that was bleak. Tom Brehian from Stereogum defines "Wayne's Story" as his best work to date, appreciating the third-person narration that characterizes the piece, and he goes on to say that it has been a long time since a rapper so promising in storytelling has appeared. Iii Williams described the Chicago rapper project as characterized by "charismatic storytelling and versatile delivery", and that incorporates songs with various tones and flows, all while maintaining his patented aggression and confidence in rapping. It is also mentioned Bennett astonishing growth within the rap game in an impressively brief span of time, that is shown on his record. Almost all of the songs received positive reviews, with "Canât Relate", "Demon" and "The Code" being considered the best songs on the entire album.
Other Notable Facts
O-Block was also home to Michelle Obama, who is the wife of former US president Barack Obama.
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