Local Legend: Bed-Stuy's Antoine Cassidy Steers Kids Toward Good

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Even when Antoine Cassidy was doing bad, he still found time to do good.

Some ice cream for the kids, a block party, a few extra dollars for school clothes — Cassidy always gave back to his Bed-Stuy home.

But he also took away.

It's a regret but also a lesson for Cassidy. He channeled his experience into his No Gun Smoke School Tour, a nonprofit that reaches thousands of school children and aims to lift them up and inspire them through art, music and more.

"Everything I’ve come through in life brought me to where I am," Cassidy said.

Cassidy was deep in the game during the 1990s, slinging drugs like the dealers he looked up to growing up. Youngsters looked up to him as his operation controlled the neighborhood and spread to other cities, he said. Money flowed in.

Then it ended. He caught a criminal case the day before Easter in 1997, went to prison and thought his life was circling the drain. But his neighborhood didn't abandon him — the good outweighed the bad.

"When you’re on the streets doing wrong, as long as you take care of the neighborhood they care for you," Cassidy said.

Cassidy walked out of prison a changed man, determined to help steer kids off the path he took and take care of his neighborhood and others like it. He founded No Gun Smoke School Tour and continued his longstanding hiphop career with an album called "Guns Down."

His moves started to gain attention. Schools reached out, as did Rikers Island. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and other officials gave a boost. He even connected with Jesse Jackson, Microsoft and the Clinton Foundation, he said.

Cassidy said his organization reaches about 10,000 children in schools and 5,000 in Rikers Island. It operates in New York City, Chicago and Detroit — the "number one" organization of its type in those cities, Cassidy said.

On the phone, Cassidy is animated when he tells his story and sometimes switches to the business of his organization — an art class here with his partner Extra Ketchup, a meeting with a student there. He said making a connection with kids comes not only from his life story, but also respect. You can't influence a child if you talk down to them, he said.

"Help them, don’t bash them," he said.

Cassidy is also passionate about Bed-Stuy. He wheels off the corners where he used to live — Gates and Nostrand, Fulton and Franklin, Chauncey and Malcolm X — and said he's lived other places, but now stays in his home neighborhood.

Here's what Cassidy had to say about Bedstuy.

Describe Bed-Stuy in three words.

Beautiful. Big. Strong.

Why is Bed-Stuy the best neighborhood in the city?

This is where everything happens at. This is where the struggle starts. If you can get through Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy, you can get through anything.

What's your favorite food in Bed-Stuy?

For my Muslim brothers, I go to the Kennedy Chicken but known as the "chicken spot" on Ralph and Jefferson for fish and chips. Mitchell's for Jamaican. And for Haitian restaurant there's Grandchamps.

What's your perfect day in Bed-Stuy?

I’ll be honest with you, every day in Bed-Stuy is my perfect day. It’s another day to help them.

More information about No Gun Smoke School Tour can be found at its website.