Killa Hill or Killer Hill (Park Hill, Staten Island)

The Park Hill neighborhood of Staten Island was known for its crime in the 1980s and 1990s. The nickname “Killa Hill” (or “Killah Hill” or “Killer Hill”) has been cited in print since at least 1995.
 
Park Hill has also been nicknamed “Crack Hill” since at least 1988.
 
   
Wikipedia: Clifton, Staten Island
Clifton or Park Hill is a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City in the United States. It is an older waterfront neighborhood, facing Upper New York Bay on the east. It is bordered on the north by Stapleton, on the south by Rosebank, on the southwest by Concord, and on the west by Van Duzer Street.
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The Park Hill Apartments, a privately-owned but federally-subsidized low-income housing complex on Vanderbilt Avenue, and also on Park Hill Avenue, became the site of steadily increasing crime and drug abuse beginning in the mid-1960s; by the late 1980s it had gained the nickname of “Crack Hill” due to the many arrests for possession and/or sale of crack cocaine that were taking place in and around the development and the adjacent Fox Hills Apartments to the south. However, crime in this area has dramatically decreased since the late 1990s. Community activists are addressing the ongoing conflict between Liberian and African American youth, primarily between the ages of 10-14. The community organizations run after-school programs to help keep the youth occupied in a productive way. This helps curb gang and street violence. The community tension that occurs in Park Hill is based on poverty and unemployment.
 
Urban Dictionary
Killer Hill
The Park Hill section of Staten Island, home of some of the Wu Tang, as well as Adanupo, Mikey A., and Chinadu; otherwise known as Killah Hill or Killa Hill or the Rugged Land
Those who do not rep Killah Hill will be shot. Best believe.
by Chris Garay May 5, 2005
 
Urban Dictionary
Killa Hills 
Slang for Park Hills, New York. A notoriously rough area whose housing projects have long been known as some of the most deadly in New York. The zip code 10304 and indeed the name Park Hills/Killa Hills is known to those living elsewhere mainly because of the overwhelming popularity of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan who made many references to the area over the years - including a song entitled “Killah Hills 10304” which appeared on GZA/Genius’ first solo album, “Liquid Swords”
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by simonsickboy Feb 13, 2011
 
Urban Dictionary
Killah Hills 10304
The grimiest verse ever written, performed and/or recorded.
 
Killah Hills 10304
Restaurants on a stake-out
So order the food to take out
Chaos, outside a spark steakhouse
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by Huhu Oct 6, 2007
   
Google Groups: rec.music.hip-hop
Newsgroups: alt.rap, rec.music.hip-hop
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: 21 Feb 1995 00:57:57 GMT
Local: Mon, Feb 20 1995 7:57 pm
Subject: METHOD’S MADNESS
 
METHOD’S MADNESS
Taking a break from the Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man brings the pain,
yes, but the love too.
By Josh Levine. Photographs by Mojgan B. Azimi
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He stayed with his mom in Staten’s Park Hill Apartments - dubbed Killer Hill by its tenants. “Dismal,” he says of the Hill. “In the suburbs, you hear crickets rubbing their feet together. In the projects, we hear gunshots, or niggas - ‘Yo yo yo!’ - screaming for a car to stop so they could make a sale.”
     
Google Groups: rec.music.hip-hop
Newsgroups: rec.music.hip-hop
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (GENUINE B)
Date: 1995/07/23
Subject: Re: CARLTON FISK-WHO IS HE?

carlton fisk is methods boy from around the way
he is from the park hill or killa hill as it’s known section of staten island
 
Google Groups: alt.music.wu-tang-clan
Newsgroups: alt.music.wu-tang-clan
From: H Huynh

Date: 1998/08/26
Subject: Re: IS THERE A BEEF BETWEEN KILLA HILL & STAPLETON????
 
Yeah…the thing about shyheim…i think that he thinks he’s a member of the wu.
   
New York (NY) Times
An Immigrant Tale: Hard Life, Hard Work, All in the Family
By JOHN BRANCH
Published: November 17, 2006
The stories are unique to the Ogunleye family, but familiar to everyone in the projects of their old neighborhood.
 
The mother tells about the stray bullets that came through the window of their unit at Staten Island’s Park Hill apartments — a place the youngsters called Killer Hill and others dubbed Crack Hill.
   
Sabaink.com
October 13, 2009 · 1:54 am
Killa Hill: New Documentary From Acclaimed Filmmaker Gerald “Gee-Bee” Barclay Tackles the Social Issues of Urban Crime & Violence
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Killa Hill addresses the issues of urban crime and violence caused by the crack cocaine epidemic of the late 1980’s. Killa Hilla is the nickname used to describe The Park Hill Apartments – located in a six block radius of the Clifton neighborhood in Staten Island. Park Hill, during this period, served as a refuge and home to thousands of Liberian immigrants. The movie centers on the police killing of 22-year old Liberian national Ernest Sayon. The documentary contains graphic reenactments and beautiful cinematography – delivered “Gee-Bee” Style.
 
Google Books
Hip Hop in America:
East Coast and West Coast
By Mickey Hess
Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press
2010
Pg. 127:
PARK HILL
Park Hill Apartments was home to Inspectah Deck, Method Man, and Raekwon when Wu-Tang got started. Park Hill was known for being at the epicenter of violence and crime in Staten Island, along with its neighbor to the north, Stapleton. It was known as ‘‘Crack Hill’’ or ‘‘Killer Hill’’ for all the drug deals and shootings that went down from its foundations in the 1960s to the present day.
     
NY1.com
07/20/2011 04:44 PM
Young Filmmaker Shares His Journey From Liberia To Staten Island
By: Amanda Farinacci
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Just seven years old when he moved, Tarr entered Park Hill, a neighborhood then known for gang violence and nicknamed “Killa Hill” because of its high murder rate.
 
The violence has ebbed since then, but Tarr says he has had plenty of fights.