Disciples org chart side by side, you could hardly tell the differ- ence. The gang that Venkatesh had fallen in with was one of about a hundred branches-franchises, really-of a larger Black Disciples or- ganization. J. T., the college-educated leader of his franchise, reported to a central leadership of about twenty men that was called, without irony, the board of directors. (At the same time that white suburban- ites were studiously mimicking black rappers ghetto culture, black ghetto criminals were studiously mimicking the suburbanites dads corp-think.) J. T. paid the board of directors nearly 20 percent of his revenues for the right to sell crack in a designated twelve-square-block area. The rest of the money was his to distribute as he saw fit. Three officers reported directly to J. T.: an enforcer (who ensured the gang members safety), a treasurer (who watched over the gangs   liquid assets), and a runner (who transported large quantities of drugs and money to and from the supplier). Beneath the officers were the street-level salesmen known as foot soldiers. The goal of a foot soldier was to someday become an officer. J. T. might have had anywhere from twenty-five to seventy-five foot soldiers on his payroll at any given time, depending on the time of year (autumn was the best crack- selling season; summer and Christmastime were slow) and the size of the gangs territory (which doubled at one point when the Black Dis- ciples engineered a hostile takeover of a rival gangs turf ). At the very bottom of J. T.s organization were as many as two hundred members known as the rank and file. They were not employees at all. They did, however, pay dues to the gang-some for protection from rival gangs, others for the chance to eventually earn a job as a foot soldier. The four years recorded in the gangs notebooks coincided with the peak years of the crack boom, and business was excellent. J. T.s franchise quadrupled its revenues during this period. In the first year, it took in an average of $18,500 each month; by the final year, it was