Compton Crips (C.C. Riders)

The Compton Crips are a large umbrella of Crip street gangs based throughout Compton, California. For decades, they have been one of Compton’s most influential Crip umbrellas. Their history runs through Compton’s Crip–Piru wars, conflicts with Long Beach Crips, and longstanding battles with Compton varrio gangs.

Early History

The Compton Crips grew out of the early spread of the original Crip movement from Los Angeles into nearby communities during the early 1970s. In 1971, Raymond Washington reportedly recruited Mac Thomas, Joseph “Salty” Leblanc, and Sugar Bear to help organize an East Side crew that extended Crip influence into Compton and Willowbrook. That move helped establish what later became the Compton Crips.

Raymond Washington reportedly wanted an alliance linking his East Side faction, Stanley “Tookie” Williams’ West Side crew, and Mac Thomas’s Compton faction. In the early years, members showed that alliance through coordinated dress, even as the Compton faction began standing on its own.

Mac Thomas became one of the key early names tied to the Compton side of the Crips. He was active during the violence of the early 1970s, including the escalation around 1974, when Crip neighborhoods were clashing with rivals such as the Brims. But the original structure did not last.

Thomas was murdered under still-murky circumstances in the mid-1970s, and his death—combined with Raymond Washington’s incarceration and the later arrest of Stanley Tookie Williams—weakened the original leadership circle. In Compton, that collapse helped break the gang into neighborhood-based sets that later operated under the Compton Crips umbrella.

Expansion Across Compton

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Compton Crips had spread across multiple sections of Compton. By the 1980s, the umbrella included neighborhoods such as Original Swamp, Grandee, Kelly Park, Santana Blocc, Nutty Blocc, Atlantic Drive, South Side, Anzac Grape, Mona Park, Poccet Hood, Park Village, Front Hood, Tragniew Park, Duccy Hood, and others.

C.C. Riders

The C.C. Riders, also written as CC Riders, CC Ridas, or CC Ridaz, grew out of efforts to organize Compton Crips under one jail identity. According to Fredrick “Baby Gangsta” Staves of Santana Blocc Compton Crips, he and another Compton inmate known as Big Marcellus helped establish the CC Riders inside the Los Angeles County Jail in 1986.

It was meant to keep Compton Crips moving under a Compton banner instead of folding into broader Los Angeles Crip politics. In practice, CC Riders became a Compton-wide label for Crip inmates from the city, regardless of which Compton neighborhood they came from.

In Entertainment

The Compton Crips gained national visibility through West Coast rap, which pushed several Compton Crip neighborhoods into the wider image of Compton in music and popular culture. Eazy-E and MC Ren, both members of N.W.A., came out of the Kelly Park area. Their rise in rap helped make Kelly Park one of the most visible Compton Crip neighborhoods during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Compton Crips also surfaced through Compton’s Most Wanted, whose members included MC Eiht and Tha Chill. MC Eiht was tied to Tragniew Park, and his music helped bring attention to that neighborhood in West Coast rap. The Compton Crips also appeared through Bangin’ on Wax-era projects and gang-affiliated rap groups.

The Bloods & Crips project included artists tied to Compton neighborhoods, including AWOL of Kelly Park and Gangsta Bone and BG Scarface of Atlantic Drive, alongside Blood-affiliated rappers from Piru neighborhoods. In 1993, brothers BG Knocc Out and Dresta, who were affiliated with Nutty Blocc, signed to Ruthless Records and became nationally known after appearing on Eazy-E’s “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s.”

Hub & Dub Alliance

Beyond the C.C. Riders identity inside Compton, the Compton Crips also built ties with Watts gangs through the Hub & Dub alliance. “Hub” refers to Compton’s longtime nickname, Hub City, while “Dub” is street shorthand for Watts.

Inside the Los Angeles County Jail and later in prison politics, the Hub & Dub identity gave Compton and Watts gang members a larger car to move with. Instead of standing alone by neighborhood, inmates from both areas often moved together under the same regional alliance.

That alliance also carried back to the streets. Over time, it strengthened ties between some Compton and Watts neighborhoods, especially among older members who had done time together. A similar pattern also showed up on the Blood/Piru side, where Compton Piru neighborhoods and Watts Blood neighborhoods built ties through custody politics.

Long Beach Crip Rivalries

Not all of the Compton Crips’ enemies were Blood or Piru gangs. Several Compton Crip neighborhoods also developed serious rivalries with Long Beach Crip neighborhoods, including the long-running feud between the South Side Compton Crips and the Mac Mafia Crips of Long Beach.

Conflicts with Compton Varrio Gangs

As more Latino gangs grew across Compton, many Compton Crip neighborhoods found themselves bordering or sharing space with Sureño gangs. That produced years of racial tension, retaliatory violence, and neighborhood wars between Black gangs and Latino varrios in the city. Some of the most notable examples involved Original Swamp Compton Crips and Compton Varrio 155, as well as East Side Compton Crip neighborhoods such as Mona Park, Poccet Hood, and Anzac Grape, which developed conflicts with Compton Varrio Largo 36 and other varrio neighborhoods.

CC Riders In Alphabetical Order

• Acacia Blocc Compton Crips
• Anzac Grape Compton Crips
• Atlantic Drive Compton Crips
• Anzac Grape Compton Crips
• Carver Park Compton Crips
• Chester Street Compton Crips
• Duccy Hood Compton Crips
• Farm Dog Compton Crips
• Front Hood Compton Crips
• Kelly Park Compton Crips
• Lantana Blocc Compton Crips
• Mona Park Compton Crips
• Neighborhood Compton Crips
• Nestor Ave Compton Crips
• Nutty Blocc Compton Crips
• Original Swamps Compton Crips
• Palmer Blocc Compton Crips
• Palm & Oak Gangster Crips
• Park Village Compton Crips
• Poccet Hood Compton Crips
• Raymond Street Hustler Compton Crips
• Santana Blocc Compton Crips
• Six Hood Compton Crips
• South Side Compton Crips
• Spook Town Compton Crips
• Tragniew Park Compton Crips
• Twilight Zone Compton Crips
• Ward Lane Compton Crips

News

Compton Gangs History