Hustle Hard
by Blaine Martin
Boundless determination and hard work made Jaden the most celebrated athlete in the Northeast. Anyone who watched a Lincoln football game knew he was a budding star. With an ailing mother and bills to pay, a pro career seemed like a logical way out, but when jealousy eats at his best friend, Devlin, the latter derails all his hopes for living the high life, and the feud of a lifetime kicks off. Lacking job training and patience for a 9-to-5, Jaden teams up with his thug cohorts to live the illegal life robberies and pushing the stuff that sells itself. With tons of help, J gets by, but his family comes apart at the seams, and the love of his life grows distant as his morals decay. Will he make it, or will the evils of the drug world tear him apart? Find out for yourself in Hustle Hard, a Harlem story.