“Ya know, my old man was one one mean mother fucker.”

“I ain’t just sayin’ at home, neither. As scared as I was of him bustin’ my lip, the guys he did business with was more scared of him buryin’ them in a shallow grave.”

“What can I say? I hate to admit it, but I learned a lot from that old asshole. How to make credits, control a room, and how to split a bitch’s wig if they got mouthy.”

“Ya boy Hatch wouldn’t be the thorn in Arcadia’s side without his dad.”

“But why ain’t none of y’all ever heard of him?”

“Surely someone that nasty, that made a real piece of shit like me, left a mark, right? And the answer is he did.”

“But he taught me too well. He taught me to take no shit, and most importantly he taught me to never live in no one’s shadow. Not even his.”

“I never asked, but he made sure to always tell me why. ‘If you ain’t shit outside of my shadow, then you’re less than shit in it.'”

“Well I sure fuckin’ learned. I learned to be better than him. A better dealer, better brawler, and ten times the problem.”

“But you wouldn’t know anything about bein’ your own man, would ya, Boy? You could tell me you go by Destructo but it doesn’t fuckin’ matter what you call yourself.”

“You’re still a boy to me.”

“A scared, sniveling, whiny little kid just sittin’ in daddy Max’s shadow. From the fuckin’ moment I met you I could smell the bitch on you. I always saw you at your dad’s side, clingin’ to him, lettin’ him make all the big decision. You were his sidekick, Faithy.”

“I bet you hate hearin’ that, too.”

“That without your dad you’re no one. You never learned to be your own hero without him, you never learned to run the fuckin’ streets and do things on your own. Nah, you spent all your time whinin’ and not enough learnin’. Even now with his body six feet under his shadow is just hangin’ over you.”

“Eclipsin’ the lights and not just remindin’ you, but everyone around you, that you simply can’t measure up.”

“Without his blood in your veins you’d just be some scrub from the slums makin’ zero credits, savin’ zero lives.”

“Like my dad said, if you ain’t shit without him, you were less than shit with him.”

“But how about I teach you a lil somethin’, Destructo Bitch? I’ll teach you how to leave that shadow.”

“It starts with punchin’, bitin’, and bleedin’ until you can drag yourself from his shadow into the light.”

“Then you build your legacy on your own. You prove you deserve the credits, the power.”

“And then you let your shadow cover the mother fucker who came before you.”

“But remember, Kid. No matter how much you fight, how much you grow…”

“Eventually, everybody gets downed by the Clown.”