Crack house is a term mainly used in the United States used to describe an old, often abandoned or burnt-out building often in an inner-city neighborhood where drug dealers and drug users buy, sell, produce, and use illegal drugs, including, but not limited to, crack cocaine. In response to increased community scrutiny and law enforcement activity, drug operations are moving from the inner cities to the suburbs, in an effort to blend in.

In the 1980s, inner city neighborhoods were subject to a number of forces, including white flight, redlining, planned shrinkage, and withdrawal of city services such as garbage collection. Police and fire protection of the housing stock in these areas dwindled both in size and quality. In areas such as North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, the South Bronx, Brownsville, Brooklyn, South Jamaica, Queens and Flushing, Queens thousands of fires left entire blocks blighted.

City agencies picked these same neighborhoods as sites for drug rehabilitation centers, homeless shelters, and public housing, leading to an increase in the proportion of poor and needy people in areas with dwindling middle-class populations.

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982), better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live! that year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group's major selling album Guerrilla Warfare, released in 1999. Also in 1999, Lil Wayne released his Platinum debut album Tha Block Is Hot, selling over one million copies in the U.S.

Although his next two albums Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002) were not as successful (only reaching Gold status), Lil Wayne reached higher popularity in 2004 with Tha Carter, which included the single "Go D.J." Wayne also appeared on the Destiny's Child top ten single "Soldier" that year. In 2005, the sequel to Tha Carter, Tha Carter II, was released. In 2006 and 2007, Lil Wayne released several mixtapes and appeared on several popular rap and R&B singles. His most successful album, Tha Carter III, was released in 2008 and sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. its first week of release. It included the number-one single "Lollipop" featuring Static Major. It also includes the singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" featuring T-Pain and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.

Robert L. Green, Jr., better known by his stage name Spice 1, is an American rapper born in Corsicana, Texas. He has consistently been releasing solo and group albums since 1992. Spice 1 was ranked number 56 in The Source magazine's Top 115 Hip-Hop Artists from 1988–2003. His self-titled debut was also listed in The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums.

His rap name is a acronym for "Sex, Pistols, Indo, Cash, and Entertainment". He was first discovered by rapper Too Short. His first release, Let It Be Known EP, was not well known or widely released, and included seven old-school style tracks. His self-titled debut album Spice 1 was a very vivid and fatalistic gangsta rap album, and his angry, edgy, and pessimistic rapping style and tone only added to the despair emanating from the disc. He followed it with an even more bitter and nihilistic release, 187 He Wrote in 1993, complete with simulated gunfire. Spice 1 managed to release six albums under Jive records along with one greatest hits album. It was reported by Jive that he has an album called "Full Metal Jacket", which was supposed to release under Jive. However, Spice 1 stated in many interviews that this information was false. It was something Jive wanted to push him into releasing, but he never agreed to do so. Therefore, the album was never released and it is uncertain whether or not songs for this album were used for future albums or if any songs were even recorded for this project.