2-3 (Austin ’s 78723 zip code)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Tue Nov 21 21:01:14 UTC 2006


I don't know if the HDAS can use this, but Austin's hip-hop is using zip  
codes. So Beverly Hills 90210, or 212 (NYC area code).
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_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/2_3_austins_78723_zip_code/_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/2_3_austins_78723_zip_code/) 
...
 
2-3 (Austin’s 78723 zip code)
 
The “2-3” is hip-hop for the last two digits of Austin’s zip code—78723.  


_HoustonSoReal_ (http://houstonsoreal.blogspot.com/)   
AustinSoReal - Check this article on rap from the 2-3 
In Austin,  zip codes are quite important. Especially the 2-3 (as in 78723) 
where a lot of  the cities hottest hip-hoppers reside and thrive. Robert 
Gabriel put it down and  handled the bitnes. 

_Austin  Chronicle_ 
(http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:421144)  
HOME: NOVEMBER 17, 2006: MUSIC 
Life Is a Rhythm  
A moment of truth in the 2-3 
BY ROBERT GABRIEL 

Pulling up  to the Northeast Austin intersection of Rogge and Manor Road, an 
SUV settles at  the stoplight, three members of the Public Offenders rap group 
sitting in back.  A hurried yellow school bus screeches to a halt next to 
them and empties out a  couple dozen Pearce Middle School students onto the 
sidewalk. As one of the  boisterous students spots Gator, Public Offenders’ most 
recognizable member  thanks in part to his Black Panther-esque afro, a 
full-fledged frenzy ensues as  15 or so of the students rush to the vehicle to slap 
hands and exchange  enthusiastic words with their latest neighborhood heroes. 
Holding up traffic for  an entire light cycle, the fanatic scene underscores a 
reality where proximity  and kinship often serve as the most electric of social 
commodities. 

How  is it that a local rap group could be so popular within its specific 
neck of the  woods – enough to sell 1,200 copies of their most recent album by 
hand and foot  in the span of four months – yet hardly register outside the 
78723 ZIP code? It  certainly helps that Gator, otherwise known as Chris 
Ockletree, served as senior  class president at Reagan High School a couple of years 
back and now spends much  of his time pounding the pavement for activist causes. 
Still, a proper answer  transcends the Public Offenders’ story alone, 
treading deep into the history of  a neighborhood that’s grown accustomed to a 
relationship between isolation and  self-sufficiency. 

The 2-3, as it’s known by its youngest inhabitants, is  bordered by I-35 to 
the west, Ed Bluestein Drive on the east, Highway 290 to the  north, and the 
intersection of Airport and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards to  the south. 
During the course of the 1970s, the central 2-3 neighborhood of  University Hills 
absorbed a significant influx of African-American home buyers,  who were for 
the most part relocating from nearby neighborhoods including  Clarksville, 
downtown East Austin, and St. John’s. The children raised by these  proud, 
middle-class families discovered common footing at Andrews, Harris,  Blanton, Winn, 
and Pecan Springs elementary schools, Pearce and Kealing middle  schools, and 
Reagan and LBJ high schools. 

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