- FSU Founder Elgin James
Elgin James, also known as Elgin Nathan James, helped form the controversial street gang Friends Stand United (FSU) in the early 1990s. He is also a musician and a filmmaker.
After a short time in orphanages and foster homes, Elgin James (who is of mixed race) was raised by civil rights activists on a rural farm in the Northeast.
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With a crop of marijuana in the backyard and alcohol and drug abuse in the house, Elgin formed strong anti-drinking/drug beliefs. Those beliefs would later lead him to be a pivotal figure in the nineties militant straight edge movement.
In Boston he began singing for hardcore punk band Wrecking Crew and befriended a group of kids from the tough Boston neighborhoods Brockton and South Boston. They started FSU (sometimes known as Friends Stand United, but began as Fuck Shit up) in violent response to the number of Neo-Nazi skinhead hate groups on the rise across the country.
FSU was made up of a handful of Irish, Black and Puerto Rican kids. Since they were usually outnumbered by their ‘enemies’ (Nazi skinheads, other street gangs) they compensated with viciousness. They would use makeshift weapons such as hammers, Cue balls in a sock and even a human thighbone. Soon racist skinheads, who had been such a common sight at Boston hardcore and punk rock shows, became obsolete. FSU’s numbers began to grow and they started traveling to tackle the racist problem in surrounding states.
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Check out some interesting discussion below. Except for outright abuses, I am morally bound to let you guys exercise your First Amendment. I hope you guys make use of it constructively.
Check out the Straight Edge and other popular Friends Stand United (F.S.U) videos from youtube video below. A good idea would be to bookmark this page and even email it to your friends. This sh*t is awesome:
never met any of you but anyone who refuses to fight one on one is a …. Friends Stand United? That just another way of saying “I like to fight as long as its unfair and I know I can win and wont get hurt”. You little sissies want to prove your tough stand alone and fight like a MAN
i wouldnt mind being a part of this tho i wonder how you get in this stuff it looks awsome.
Holy shit people, this is hilarious. Now I will admit that until the “Gangland” special on the history channel I did’nt know a damn thing about FSU. But this I will say, I support what they’re doing 101%. I may not agree with the ten on one or whatever, i believe in takin it one on one, but so far as the strait edge lifestyle I admire them. As someone who works in law enforcement I see the bullsh1t that people get themselves into because of drugs and alchohol and a general life of excess. Spending time behind bars, away from their families, because the wanted to take the easy way and deal to kids and all that crap. You people who rag on them were probably brought up by your tree hugging conformist hippy parents to actually believe the bullshit you say about these guys. For myself I will say that we need FSU down here in south texas, hell i’d join in a heartbeat. I say long live FSU!
hi . i was wondering if anyone has the link to the video that was on history channel about F.S.U . i looked for it and i couldn’t find it. i am doing a project and i need the video as reference. would any one plz let me know what the link is.
thank you
N1GGER …. O and that post by eric get a life you focking domb possy. if you think fsu can save you come to the chi and we will put a bollet in your brain. because all gangs hote little ignorant white boys.
o and Elson check you tube and search history channel and fsu. it should be there. sorry you have to see those sad f0cks
hell im a damn scout for the army and i gotta agree with vet man u want a challenge join the big boys seals,rangers,special forces,Knights. none of them are easy seals being the best in the world
hey man if you fsu dudes are so tuff try 18 months in iraq, then see what a bad 0ss you are ,, the rounds are flying daily, see if your a real man and join the seals like me , then show the world what a bad 0ss you really are,,, you have the right idea, but you got it all wrong , fight for your country, join the real deal, then show what a real bad 0ss really is, you are not alone , but you can learn how too f0ck up 5 dudes at once ,by your own self , so dont be a punk fsu, has it all wrong,,,,,,,,,man up too the real world of tuff guys who serve and protect all your sorry 0sses,,,,,,,
you guys are a bunch of p0ssys. you think you can justify your actions by beating the crap out of someone by outnumbering them. there is no justification for what you do. me and my wife got jumped by you assholes four years ago because we didnt have a smoke to give away, so ten of you felt that was enough to jump us. why? you sound like a bunch of spoiled brats that dont get there way they f0ck people up. your all cr0minals and c0ck s0ckers. one on one id f0ck you up.
I just want to say I ma watching gangland;FSU and I want to thank you for standing for ALL people (even lil black ole me).
F0ck what pple are sayin about you. Mean r0cists need their ass0s whooped! And I am glad you fine tatted se0y creamy (no disrepect; love white men) men are getting it done.
Sh0t if y’all need donations, direct me to where I can break bread!
You’re a Godsend!
Muah!
hey guy’s i thank you r doing the world a fav. I only wish that u guy’s would come 2 wv and some of these dr0g dealers off our steet’s i’m lose’in my daughter 2 them f0ck’in dealers. I’m 46 yr old woman and my daughters b/f and his brother robbed my house 2 buy dr0g’s & the cop’s here are just as much in it as the dealer’s are. We need more ppl like u guy’s in west virginia.
We really need all the the SxE fogs out of Texas. That sh0t is mega lame. Real talk.
I believe the same thing my moms is a dope addict and i used to get beat up by the wanna be nazi kids untill a brought a half a pool stick to school and tried to fight all twenty of them…. i got two ribs broken and my nose but none of my supposed to be friends jumped in to help….. but anyway i belive that every1 deserves a famil and i am intersed for sure
i want to find the f0ck head fsu members that jumped us for no real good reason. ya they have so much honer F0CK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THERE IS NO HONER WITH THESE FAGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP PRAISING THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!
fsu hater u must be a thug that sells drugs and they put a dent in u son stfu they stand up for the forgoten america we had heart until this recent generation of thuglets thats u jackoff
your tellng me that you have no heart by sayng the things you say. they have evry rite 2 do wat they do if u ran ur mouth or raped a girl or sold drugs in my town i would destroy u and your life. my town is ran by crook cops and meth heads. im getng a crew togethr and we will have the same mentality as F.S.U we are 70 strong and growing come 2 my town watch wat would hapn to that mouth of yours.iam done talking carbage thats not what i do just be glad idk where you live your prob a skin head or cripster or a bloody tampoon
im an american that makes 70 grand a year d0ck head LEGALY!!!!!! im just tryin to say that we did nothing wrong that day to insult or instigate any kind of fight dont f0ckin label me to justify there fake morals. there is a justice system its not perfect but that doesnt give civilans the right to play juge jury and exicutioner.
hi. i still can’t find FSU video in youtube! does any one have a direct link to it plz! thank you very much!
iam not tryng 2 insult you or your life man he who is with out sin may cast the first stone you kno wat i mean give it up ppl get fockd with evry day if not F.S.U than sum1 else man its this generation if that shts true wat hapnd 2 u then thats fockd up but bichn bout it dont change wat happnd our country is 4getn its true roots man the cops r corupt in every town now days so who stand 4 the avrage civilian u kno ill tell u F.S.U
i want in the gang
Your all f0ckin bad at life cant fight and all lick the dick an yo i want in on your mom
oh yea ps ian mackaye who started straight edge is a pacifist you f0ckin retards so if your edge and you beat people up over it your dumb
What you all saw on the history channel about FSU is biased, misguided and full of sh0t. When you live where we live, and you cant walk down the streets at night without getting beat the f0ck up and robbed Friends Stand United means something a little different.
I’ve been in the Boston Hard Core scene long enough to know what FSU stands for and is ***TODAY***. Dr0g dealers that run with Outlaws BC. It’s a fact and is what it is, the Boston DT on the gangland show was absolutely right, there is an affiliation, if you don’t think so go to some shows at the old Romans in Brockton now called the Tigers Den. Whatever principals FSU was found on are dead and gone. Friends Stand United? Yea absolutely… but at least some do dr0gs and are affiliated with the Outlaws, those are all facts. But ya know what FSU is still the shit, even more now than ever cuz now i can get drunk a f0ck shit up.
FSU u thinks teenagers that drink and do drugs are the problem in America?? Every major city in the U.S. is unsafe to walk at night due to murder gangs rape robbery. Drug dealers and thugs run the bad neighborhoods which make up most of our large cities. And these losers think their are helping by lynching suburban teenagers at rock shows. Go to war with the rap artists who brag about pushing crack, pimping, shooting people and are openly racist. But i guess then u would have a REAL situation on your hands.. So its probably safe to assume you guys will keep beating up confused high school kids at shows. How this even made national geophraphic is beyond me.
**national geoGRaphic.. i meant history channel
stfu derek dont talk sht listen 2 me look around you look out your window look down the dirty streets that your afraid 2 go down go 2 the edge of hood and suburbia. tell me you dnt wanna cry how old r u? look wat this country is becoming u c thugs with gear that dnt fit slingin shootn fightn y? cause its a way 2 get paid this world is changng instead of bitchn help fix it 1 person wont change a thing i know but get ur friends 2gethr get there friends and u become an army 2 take back the town or city or city’s its hard and its easyr said then done but this nation is becomng the shit stain on the worlds underwear.call me a f0g a b0tch what have you but dnt give up no 1 should give up fsu has there problems but they were a start 4 trubled youth.
xXxSTRAIGHT EDGExXx
2..General Harold Knight
it aint satanic musik and fuk ur god
xM.16fx
you guys are lairs if you are what you are learn how to control your new york crew, they are killing people and are not close to XXX. if it takes it we will stand up grow our numbers and retaliate.
keppin it f0cked up in GA
We need FSU in CO for sure. Too many drug dealing turds that need taken out. Too many Hispanic gangs too. Plus…maybe we’d have a bigger punk scene. I realize the pro’s and con’s and with FSU here the pro’s outweigh the con’s.
This is just a symptom of the real problem with our society. Wether its 20-somethings looking for easy fights against teenagers, or psycho soccer-moms going off on some embarrased kid at the store …its the same shit.
We all walk around with a chip on our shoulder, and look for any excuse to unload it. The sad fact is, for all our posturing and righteousness, we are too scared to face our real problems so we just take it out on a safe/easy target.
I don’t care what god you believe in, what music you listen to, or what drugs you take. If it makes you happy, and you aren’t hurting anyone else then find your bliss and go for it, don’t listen to what other people think.
If you go around hurting other people, especially out of a blanket hatred, then you are no different than your enemies and that shit will come back to you. Karmas a bitch …remember that.
I respect what FSU originally stood for, because sometimes you do have to fight to protect yourself and the people you care about. But if you are only about messing with people weaker than you, then you are nothing but a bully. You can’t even have a decent fight nowadays without someone pulling a gun or a knife or beating you to death with 10 dudes.
Anyone can walk around pissed off and sucker-punch people over imagined slights. Usually whoever swings first is who wins the fight. But you can tell who the fake ones are because they only talk shit when people have their back, or when they know its someone they can punk out. Real G’s are the ones avoiding fights if they can, because they know what the stakes can be.
In Fight Club they fought 1 on 1, and looked their opponent in the eyes (the mob was there to stop it from going to far), and the point of the movie was that he was actually fighting against himself.
Because thats what a real man does; a real man fights to control himself, he doesn’t go around looking for excuses to lose control.
p.s. Anger is as much a drug (physiologically) as crack, meth, whatever. Maybe try kicking that habit straight-edgers.
ME AND MY NIGGA’S DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU FAG ASS BITCH’S NIGGA IT’S S.O.B OUT HERE MY NIGGA AND ME WE KEYP’S IT LOOK WITH GLOCKS TO MY NIGGA IN OAKLEAND FRISCO L.A AND C.SIDE WE GO 18 ON ANY NIGGA THAT WON’T THE BIZZNS TO SK8 OR DIE SKATE MOB AND IF ANY GOT ANY COMMENTS FOR ME NIGGA MY 44 BLOWE OUT NIKE SB BLOOD SKATE OVER BITCH’S S.O.B SAC SHIT
IT’S JAY FSU LOL BLOOD YOU NIGGA’S DON’T WON’T TO COME WITH IT YOU NIGGA’S WILL GET SKRAPE BLOOD NO JOKES’ A SIDE IT’ SAC SHIT BLOOD AND ME I SAY HIGH OFF WEED PUILS AND COKE SK8 OR DIE AND WILL POP ANY NIGGA’S OFF GRAPS BLOOD IT LIKE THAT OUT HERE YOU SAY GAY IM GETING THIS GREEN SHIT OUT HERE BLOOD S.O.B GO HARD ON BITCH RAEL FAST
YOU A GANGSTA B1TCH? JUST WAIT TILL YOU HIT JAIL HOMEY AND BIG BLACK BUBBA WILL TURN YOUR LITTLE V1RGIN @SS INTO A REAL GANGSTA THEN YOU BE A HO FO SHO!!
Anyone who thinks gangs or jumping people ten-to-one is cool is a coward. I don’t see any of you tough guys posting any addresses — just states. Real tough. If it takes ten of you to take someone on, then you are each one/tenth a man. You’ve already lost, cowards.
Hey….Take out some terrorists do something construstive
FSU and Straight Edge Groups are hella tight, they stand for everything i belive in accept for Jesus Christ. But for me as a Christian and drugs destroying lives we must fight back by taking a stand, even if its not violent it can still be a life changer. We all stand for whats right as FSU members or Straight Edge people, together we can stop this hell hole Earth from getting even worse.
Showin some FSU love
-Colin.
I agree with FSU in DC I get made fun of every day for being straight-edge and I wish I had some brothers with me to defend what I believe and have people to turn to when I need it, I agree with FSU’s beliefs 100%, I’ve been going to shows for three years (I’m 17) and kids in this scene come and go faster than you can imagine, I want to leave a lasting image in Pittsburgh and I want to leave something greater than myself that protects the music I love and the beliefs I follow. I wish FSU was in Pittsburgh to defend what I fight for and what I stand for. Hardcore is a brotherhood just like Straight-edge is.
Andy and Wicked Brown – You both are Idiots
So let me make sure that I have all this information straight. A bunch of people watched a show on the history channel about a so called gang and blah blah blah. Who really cares what some show has to say. It’s televeision people. Everything that FSU in DC said is the exact truth. The Hardcore community teaches and promotes a very active and healthy DIY(do it yourslef) mentatility. Thats how Hardcore began. Kids that had something to say, that no one wanted to hear, so they said fuck it and did it on there own. The violence in the music as General Knight so graciously put it, is a big factor I suppose. Violence is one of the purist forms of passion, and lets face it, Hardcore is a very passionate genre. It’s a community and lifestyle that promotes knowing yourself and believing in yourself. There is a simple fix to those of you who don’t like the violent aspect of Hardcore… Don’ listen to it, dont go to the shows! Now we can queue the “so because I don’t want to get beat up I have to suffer” redundant banter that everyone loves to spout. It’s simple, if you don’t want to kill for your counrty, dont join the military. If you don’t like cheeseburgers, eat a chicken sandwich. You can complain all day that FSU beat me up for this and for that, but the simple reality of it is, unless you can righfully play the ingorance card, you know what happens at hardcore shows before you even go to them. I myself have been beat up, jumped, ganged up on, etc.. At hardcore shows and it wasn’t FSU related(because we don’t have FSU in St. Louis). So in case you got lost anywhere in this lengthy message here are the cliffnotes. Hardcore is a community that governs itself, the music and mentatility is violent, certain groups or crews if you will make it there mission to preserve the community, if you dont like it get out.
For everyone saying we need FSU here. You don’t! FSU started to regulate a local problem. If you have an issue like this in your area, or scene,handle it yourself like DC said. There are several crews in hardcore and the majority are area specific, you just dont know about them because they weren’t on gangland. FSU is not the embodiment of the Hardcore ideal, however they represent a key factor to what the scene is about.
i cant wait to see Straightedge or FSU in Sydney, Australia..
they’d get runoutta here so fast, we dont like fascists down this way.
you straight edge dudes need to relax, calm down, and pull the broomstick out your ass.
CHEERS!!
why are there like ghetto tools on this website? it said FSU not pussy spics that do the same as FSU. except FSU is cool. well Boston and Worcester is. what i mean is that these latin gangs do the same except there more violent, if FSU brings people, do the same and stop bitching cause im sure anyone from here would go one on one with you, id laugh at the person who loses that said “they should fight one on one pu.ssies.” Just know what your talking about from both sides before you attack anything
These guys sound a lot like the Taliban. They are completely narrow minded, intolerant, and cowards who will not engage in a fair fight.
Pretty funny to see this article months later after Elgin has been charged with extortion. What a complete fraud him and FSU are. Commons criminals, and not even good at it lol.
Just what the world needs: more pussies who can’t throw down 1-on-1.
straight edge.. ugh.. please just people trying to get on tv its a sick addiction and Andy Warhol said everyone will have there 15 mins of fame and thats exactly what videos like this is..ppl getting their 15 mins of fame
Brockton ain’t Boston..get that straight
The sxe mentality is really a great thing, but most of you are right when it comes to that beatdown thing. They really just come off as bullies when they can’t engage in a fair fight.
It doesn’t matter what principle you’re trying to get across. Good or bad, if you always demand it by conquest, then you’re just another plain old thick-necked dickhead.
These FSU assholes beat the living shit out of me about 15 years ago at a hardcore show at Salisbury Beach. Must’ve mistaken me for someone else. One second I’m standing there watching the band, next I’ve got some fat Irish retard saying “you wanna fuck with us…”, next I’m on the ground with about 10 of them bashing me with chairs and whatever else they could find. I was just a quiet kid who kept to myself. I’d love to run into any one of them alone, without all their buddies to help them. They pretty much ruined the metal/hardcore scene back in the 90s. A lot of bands wouldn’t come up here because of all the fights, and these FSU assholes were always the culprits.