Sure. > I've been hearing about how East New York, Brooklyn is 'that bad that hard that street' since 1983, > when I was sixteen years old and heard a NYC fel

Sure. > I've been hearing about how East New York, Brooklyn is 'that bad that hard that street' since 1983, > when I was sixteen years old and heard a NYC felon... The author quotes some felon he met in 1983, who boasted that his neighborhood, East New York, is "bad," "hard," and "street." The source is proud of the fact that his neighborhood is dangerous ("bad"), difficult to survive in ("hard"), and thoroughly imbued with the "street" culture of youth gangs -- as opposed to an area with a bourgeois or a working class culture, both of which looked down on gangs and gang culture. The source is proud of the fact that he comes from such an area, as he highly values the sort of mental and physical toughness that mere survival in such an area requires. > and dope shooter in a halfway facility playing as if he were in prison The source is a heroin addict who is in a "halfway facility," a residential institution where people who suffer from various mental and physical problems, or who have recently been released from prison, live in a structured and professionally supervised setting, yet still have some access to the mainstream community. They are supposed to be learning the skills necessary to cope and adapt to life in mainstream society. "Playing as if he were in prison" means the source is acting as though his halfway house were a prison. The halfway house is far less harsh and restrictive than a prison; the author thus says that the source is exaggerating his own degree of toughness by making his condition out to be worse than it actually is. > calling out and toasting East New York cross streets (Pitkin and Pine) The source is rapping, namedropping the streets of East New York and praising them, to demonstrate his deep personal connection to the area. > as if the phrase was a standard thug-life signifier The author states that the source believes the names of these East New York streets are well known by those in the thug / street gang subculture and connotated with being a valid and authentic thug from a tough area -- though in reality they are not, in the author's opinion, actually such signifiers in that subculture. >on par with On the gate; On the lock In; Don't reach over my food; You better sleep with one eye open. The author says the source believes that namedropping these East New York streets is equivalent to uttering these various phrases about prison life, which are supposed to be the authentic signifiers of a genuine thug. The author believes this is not true and the source is exaggerating the degree to which he is an authentic thug, and moreover that the source is deluded into believing that others will accept his ENY street namedropping as the equivalent of uttering these standardized prison phrases in terms of proving authentic affinity for the thug subculture.