Troy Reed is a well-respected documentarian from Bronx, New York. He’s known for his 2006 documentary Game Over, which told the story of notorious Harlem hustlers, Azie, Rich Porter, and Alpo. Game Over was a grass-roots success, selling out in the popular Harlem DVD store, Blackstar. After, the success of Game Over, Troy Reed set out to do the unthinkable and make a full-length documentary featuring the notorious Alpo Martinez. Troy Reed documents this 15-year journey in his book I Never Met Alpo.
I Never Met Alpo by Troy Reed / Buy on Amazon (US) / Buy on Amazon (UK)
Don’t be fooled by the title. Troy Reed did meet Alpo. In fact, they became as close as blood brothers. The title of this book is a statement. Throughout his fifteen years of interacting with Alpo, Troy became one of the only people who would get to know Albert Martinez. The man behind the legend, Alpo. With the book’s title, Troy Reed is saying that he didn’t meet Alpo initially, he instead got to meet Albert. And now, thanks to this incredible book, he’s giving readers a chance to meet Albert too.
The book starts out with Alpo’s first-hand accounts of his own life experiences, including the moments when the Feds busted him. Alpo explains his reasons for co-operating with the government and goes into full detail about the process. All we’ve heard for the past 30+ years is about how much of a snitch or a rat Alpo is, so hearing these explanations from the man himself is mind-blowing. This is nothing like what we heard in Alpo’s FEDS magazine interview. These few chapters from Alpo’s perspective are worth the cost of the book alone.
After Alpo’s chapters, Troy Reed begins documenting his own experiences of meeting Alpo for the first time. It was during Alpo’s incarceration at a witness protection correctional facility. After the success of Game Over, Troy Reed wanted to be the first to make a full-length Alpo documentary with the co-sign of the man himself. After connecting with an associate of Alpo, Troy was added to Alpo’s visiting list. The two men eventually met and Alpo found Troy Reed easy to talk to. From then on Troy would learn all about Albert Martinez.
Troy describes Albert (Alpo) as someone who is 100% self-conscious about their past actions. Alpo’s deal with the government meant that he had to be honest about his 14 murders to avoid the death sentence. This meant that he was allowed to speak freely to Troy about all of his past transgressions. But as he spoke about these things, Troy caught Albert’s compassion for the people he hurt and the families he tore apart.
Later in the book, Troy gives us the true story behind Alpo’s release from incarceration in 2015. Alpo was released into a witness protection program and given a new identity. The plan was for him to live a peaceful life in Maine as a changed man. For a while, Alpo seemed happy to be driving a Pepsi truck and interacting with the locals in Maine. But as this book documents, Alpo would eventually visit his old stomping ground, New York City. And after being treated like a celebrity by people who recognized him, he would slowly slip back into the person we know as Alpo. The same character depicted by Cam’ron in Paid in Full.
When I started to learn about Alpo’s appearances in Harlem on social media, I was shocked to know that this gangster from the 80s, who co-operated with the government, was casually walking around and living his life as if nothing happened. And I think many of us can admit that we were mesmerized by the boldness of Alpo.
Back in 2019, a clip surfaced online of Alpo being driven around Harlem while retelling his experience of murdering Rich Porter. Alpo even goes to the same location where he left Porter’s body in 1990. Troy Reed was directing this footage, and in this book, he explains that this footage was never supposed to be seen. The plan was to film for the Alpo documentary. Troy intended to make cuts to the final version so that you would see the compassionate side of Alpo. Viewers were meant to see that Alpo was truly sorry for what he did. But unfortunately, the footage was leaked online before we could ever see a final cut. The leaked clips show the cold psychopath that Alpo is believed to be.
Troy Reed explains the full details behind the leak, and also why he decided to make an apology video. Sadly, this leak meant that we’d never get a final edited cut of the Alpo documentary that he’d been working on for many years.
The latter parts of I Never Met Alpo focus heavily on Alpo’s descent back into his old ways. He was kicked out of the witness protection program after violating the rules. And after seeing all of the attention he got on the streets, it wasn’t long before he made the streets his home again. Alpo would later move from Maine to New Jersey to be closer to the action.
You can feel Troy’s pain and frustration as he writes about the events that led up to October 31st, 2021. That was the morning that we all got the shocking news that Albert Martinez aka Alpo had been shot and killed in his Dodge Ram 2500 pick-up truck.
However you feel about Alpo, that death signified the end of an era. The well-documented crack era of the mid-to-late 1980s was a unique time to be alive. And although there are many tragic stories of murderous drug dealers breaking up families, there’s one thing we can’t forget. The U.S was allowing the sale of narcotics to fund a war in Nicaragua. And when they had no more interest in doing so, they proceeded to make inner-city hustlers the villains behind the war on drugs.
There’s no denying that men like Alpo made their own decisions. And as Troy Reed shows us, Alpo was aware of his mistakes. But, in an environment stripped of opportunity, there weren’t many other decisions for men like Alpo to make.
With his release into witness protection, Alpo had a second chance to make that decision, and he chose wrong for a second time.
Alpo’s name is the biggest name on the cover of this book, and there’s no doubt that he was a unique individual that the world will never see again. But we cannot forget Troy Reed. Troy Reed has once again captured and documented an important story to the black community. He is the quintessence of black role models. I say this because not only does he pride himself on telling the stories that need to be told, but he takes his time to build with the subjects of his documentaries behind the scenes. In this book, he shows how much he nurtured his relationship with Alpo. From giving him money to help him live while on witness protection, to encouraging Alpo to stay out of New York City and escape falling back into the cycle. Troy shows his understanding of the pain and suffering that Alpo caused. He aimed to shield the family of Rich Porter from Alpo’s bold moves.
Troy Reed didn’t write this book to glorify Alpo or the life he lived. He wrote it as a means to present Albert’s truth to the world. To let the world know about the man who considered him a little brother. Because while people online type the most creative insults they can think of under Alpo videos, a book now exists that documents the cold hard facts behind an unfortunate story. Reed has given us the reality of what Alpo went through since killing his friend and snitching on his enforcer. Because of Troy Reed, you can learn the truth of who Albert Martinez is.
Unlike the media moguls you find on YouTube that cover black tragedy for clicks and ad revenue, people like Troy Reed and Gully TV are continuously showing that there is a way to be respectful towards the people involved in the story. And that is the carefulness and consideration we need to see from those who publish these true crime stories.
I Never Met Alpo is the closest Albert Martinez autobiography that we’ll ever get. If you’re into these true crime stories then don’t hesitate to buy a copy. You won’t be disappointed.
