Soapy Smith gambling house. Legend has it that above the entrance of the stairway leading upstairs to the gambling games was a sign that read "caveat emptor", Latin for "let the buyer beware". Smith's younger brother, Bascomb Smith, joined the gang and operated a cigar store that was a front for dishonest poker games and other swindles, operating in one of the back rooms. Other operations included fraudulent lottery shops, a "sure-thing" stock exchange, fake watch and bogus diamond auctions, and the sale of stocks in nonexistent businesses. Because of bribes, some of the police officers patrolling the streets would not arrest
What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?! a trio of experimental albums, "Brer Soul", "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death" and "As Serious as a Heart-Attack", which were considered to be spoken word at the time, due to their use of sprechgesang. Modern critics have since dubbed these albums as precursors to hip hop music. Van Peebles wanted to record an album that showed that he could perform in a more traditional form, as opposed to the style he had used on his previous albums, titling it "What the...You Mean I Can't Sing?!" because of this. "What the...You Mean I Can't Sing?!" places more emphasis on