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Speaker 1: Atlanta is and was the shit before the VP's arrived.

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Speaker 2: From the meal to motions to the warehouse.

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Speaker 1: My generation had influences that most people ain't even talking

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Speaker 1: about today. These places was crucial. That's setting us on

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Speaker 1: the path we all had to walk. Every generation got

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Speaker 1: their own thing. Even superstars were young once they had

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Speaker 1: to try things out on their own and find out

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Speaker 1: for their self where they was headed. The seed of

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Speaker 1: the culture grows from the people who or the saw

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Speaker 1: that the seed is planted in, becoming something that affects

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Speaker 1: the entire world just by way of its existence. A

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Speaker 1: big rule, and Atlanta is a department sto party.

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Speaker 3: It's September twenty fifteen, a clear night in Atlanta, and

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Speaker 3: on one street corner in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood stands

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Speaker 3: a two story brick built with rickety floorboards, one unisex bathroom,

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Speaker 3: and a crowd packed in so tight on the second

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Speaker 3: floor you could barely move. Cigarette butts and blun cuts

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Speaker 3: litter the floor, and the ventilation inside is non existent.

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Speaker 3: Everyone's facing a makeshift stage what's really just a raised

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Speaker 3: platform not even a foot above everyone else. They're there

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Speaker 3: to watch the night's featured performer. Geez, the guy who

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Speaker 3: turned Atlanta into the trap music capital of the world,

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Speaker 3: is standing before flashing lights and under cobwebs dangling from

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Speaker 3: exposed rafters. He's being heckled, saying, I appreciate that I'm

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Speaker 3: coming out playing this party. By then, the rap star

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Speaker 3: was damned near A decade into his career, he turned

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Speaker 3: his hustler's ambition into platinum selling anthems, transforming stories from

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Speaker 3: the streets into trap music for the masses, but also

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Speaker 3: for the strip clubs, the place that helped him turn

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Speaker 3: into a superstar.

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Speaker 4: If you've ever.

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Speaker 3: Seen someone throw money in the air or make it

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Speaker 3: rain at one of Atlanta's iconic strip clubs, like Magic City,

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Speaker 3: it's because of Gez. He made it look cool and

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Speaker 3: like so many Atlanta rappers at the time, he also

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Speaker 3: used the strip club to break records. But on this

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Speaker 3: night in twenty fifteen, Jeez isn't roped off in a

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Speaker 3: section flanked by strippers. He squeezed into a second floor

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Speaker 3: hot box and heckling aside. He was in awe of

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Speaker 3: what he saw before him.

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Speaker 5: Up in Atlanta A long time, but I think it's

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Speaker 5: the best shit I've seen in my fucking life radio Bummy,

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Speaker 5: Let's get it.

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Speaker 3: It's rare to capture a scene's peak moment, but this

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Speaker 3: recording of Jeez on stage might just be it. And

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Speaker 3: it was awe happening in a tiny bar known as

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Speaker 3: Department Store.

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Speaker 2: One moment.

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Speaker 3: I felt like I was there damn near every week,

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Speaker 3: and sometimes I literally made up my job. I witnessed

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Speaker 3: how from twenty thirteen to twenty sixteen, it became the

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Speaker 3: heart of Atlanta's underground rap renaissance and was a launch

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Speaker 3: pad for the city's current generation of rap superstars and masterminds.

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Speaker 4: It's where twenty.

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Speaker 3: One Savage performed one of his very first shows. It

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Speaker 3: was a necessary pit stop for migos and for ambitious

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Speaker 3: storytellers like Earth Gang and Jid. It's where they claimed

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Speaker 3: their city before they ran the world. Even Playboycarti, the

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Speaker 3: biggest face of the current rage rat movement with those

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Speaker 3: massive arena tours and millions of streams, not to mention

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Speaker 3: songs with lil Uzi, Vert, Travis Scott and Ye was

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Speaker 3: that Department Store during the beginning of his career and

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Speaker 3: for a hot minute, Atlanta's scene veterans like two Chains,

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Speaker 3: Ludacris and Jeezy stopped by to boost their own reputations

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Speaker 3: without paying for bottle service. Department Store was the single

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Speaker 3: spot that reflected the overwhelming diversity of the city's hip

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Speaker 3: hop scene, and at not even four thousand square feet,

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Speaker 3: it may have been the small list, but the bar's

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Speaker 3: lifespan was short. For a moment, the energy felt unstoppable,

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Speaker 3: and then almost overnight it was gone. This is the

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Speaker 3: story of that modest bar, which for a split second

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Speaker 3: was the center of the rap universe. We'll talk to

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Speaker 3: the game changers who were born out of it.

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Speaker 6: You might catch like somebody who would later be one

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Speaker 6: of the biggest things you've ever seen. I've seen Thug there,

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Speaker 6: I've seen the Migos there.

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Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I've seen people that end

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Speaker 2: up being huge.

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Speaker 3: And tell the stories of the stars who broke through

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Speaker 3: but didn't stay long enough to see all the shine

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Speaker 3: they'd get.

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Speaker 7: That song became like the hit that summer and we're like,

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Speaker 7: holy shit, that was Bango Fresh in here and yeah,

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Speaker 7: and then he passed away.

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Speaker 2: Recipes told you backo he just passed in December.

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Speaker 3: I'm Christina Lee and this is episode seven of Atlanta

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Speaker 3: is Department Stores sits on the corner of Boulevard and

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Speaker 3: Edgewood Avenue. A century ago, this area was a bustling

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Speaker 3: shopping district and the two story brick building was exactly

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Speaker 3: what its name suggests, department store. Today you could still

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Speaker 3: see the white letters spelling Department Store on its exterior.

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Speaker 3: The business aside is long gone, but the name never left.

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Speaker 3: Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Junior used to

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Speaker 3: preach and Senator Raphael Wardock preaches today, is just a

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Speaker 3: few blocks away, and in twenty fourteen, a resident of

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Speaker 3: the area like I was, could have partied a department

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Speaker 3: store on Saturday and walked to church on Sunday.

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Speaker 4: Very Atlanta.

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Speaker 3: At the time, Edgewood was an up and coming night

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Speaker 3: life district. There were a growing number of places to

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Speaker 3: hang out. None served Italian comfort food, and Mother was

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Speaker 3: a no frills die bar with pickleback shots.

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Speaker 4: You also had venues like.

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Speaker 3: The Soundtable and Music Room that booked the Hippus DJs,

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Speaker 3: And then there was Department Store. It was owned by

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Speaker 3: Luis Carreras, a precautionist with Cuban roots who had an

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Speaker 3: affinity for live music and so He transformed the historic

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Speaker 3: building into an intimate, low key bar where you could

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Speaker 3: enjoy listening to jazz and sip on drum cocktails.

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Speaker 4: But that was all about to blow up fast.

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Speaker 2: It's like front line, you know what I mean. This

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Speaker 2: is the best way to do it. And they come out,

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Speaker 2: they get the network with one another.

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Speaker 3: In twenty thirteen, the hip hop festival A three C

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Speaker 3: came to Edgewood Avenue.

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Speaker 8: Three seeds employed in the hip hop community.

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Speaker 3: A three C was becoming the rap version of south

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Speaker 3: By Southwest. From sun up to way past sundown, festival

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Speaker 3: goers walk the sidewalks and poured into the entire street,

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Speaker 3: catching Schoolboy Q and Questlove on stages set up between

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Speaker 3: Edgewood Avenue's historic brick buildings. Mark Cuise Whittaker saw an opportunity.

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Speaker 9: We did a show in the backyard of the piece

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Speaker 9: of shop. This is like somewhere we could take our

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Speaker 9: music that we just had made.

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Speaker 3: Marquise, whose artist's name is Key Fatman, Key is an

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Speaker 3: Atlanta native whose father sold airbrush t shirts.

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Speaker 4: During freaknik Key co founded two nine so now was.

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Speaker 2: Ahead of his time. Bassett, selling Boss said it.

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Speaker 3: Was an Atlanta rap crew that was the Southern version

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Speaker 3: of the underground Rap Collectors forming on the East and

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Speaker 3: West Coast.

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Speaker 9: You like Space Ghost, per Asap, Rocky, all of these.

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Speaker 9: You know, Tyler the creator. But when twenty fourteen came,

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Speaker 9: we kind of had like a little following, but.

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Speaker 3: There was still work to do to raise Key's profile.

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Speaker 3: A three C was the perfect place, but he wasn't

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Speaker 3: on the official lineup, So Key and his friend set

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Speaker 3: up a stage on the grassy lot behind Edward Pizza

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Speaker 3: to prove that they were superstars in the making. Their

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Speaker 3: hope was to draw a crowd of their own, gorilla style.

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Speaker 3: Key rattles off a list of performers from that day,

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Speaker 3: Me and Man Man Man Man Savage, who worked with

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Speaker 3: Freddy Gibbs macone before Drake even knew who he was,

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Speaker 3: and I think twenty one mic for form. Picky Picky

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Speaker 3: was twenty one Savage's first song, digging Traction in Atlanta.

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Speaker 3: He was only around twenty one years old when it

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Speaker 3: came out.

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Speaker 2: I so love the fucking picked. A lot of fucking

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Speaker 2: people showed up.

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Speaker 9: Everybody we could think of, like Teeth, like whoever was

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Speaker 9: hot at that time, like coming up, like producing Wise, EdWay, mafia,

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Speaker 9: all of them people like they was just random. The

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Speaker 9: Hajji he was there, we met. There's like six hundred kids.

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Speaker 4: One of those kids in the crowd was Sentel Orlando.

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Speaker 10: Mangham actually better known as Father.

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Speaker 3: Father is one of the founding members of Awful Records.

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Speaker 3: At the time, Awful was actually a loose music collective,

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Speaker 3: a group of fifteen to twenty friends really who get

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Speaker 3: together and do weird shit.

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Speaker 11: Lighting fires in the backyard and dancing around them and

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Speaker 11: all kinds of weird shit. Back then, people would be like, oh,

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Speaker 11: it looks really occult and strange, which is like, nah,

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Speaker 11: we're just you know, just eccentric, and we like to

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Speaker 11: burn shit and fuck around a little bit and drink.

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Speaker 3: Father was about to turn Awful Records into an influential

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Speaker 3: music label, but for now there he was a Key

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Speaker 3: Show department store was just across the street. Business was

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Speaker 3: kind of slow. On nights when the bar was dead,

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Speaker 3: the owner, Louis would tit the bartender out of his

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Speaker 3: own pocket. He was determined to make the bar work,

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Speaker 3: so when Louise heard about the crowd that Key and

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Speaker 3: his friends drew, he thought he'd introduce himself.

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Speaker 2: He was like, y'all could do a show here tonight too.

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Speaker 9: I'm like what he like, Yeah, y'all can bring whatever

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Speaker 9: traffic y'all got and do a show here. So right

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Speaker 9: after we performed, we'd literally was drunk, all drunk as fuck,

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Speaker 9: went upstairs and performed another show.

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Speaker 3: Twenty one Savage performed for this second time that day.

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Speaker 9: And he performed this time war songs because now he

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Speaker 9: got a little more more confidence.

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Speaker 3: This was a preview of what was to come, not

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Speaker 3: just for twenty one Savage and his growing star power,

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Speaker 3: but for how Department Store would change forever.

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Speaker 9: That's really how it happened. Now I'm at this place

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Speaker 9: all we can.

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Speaker 3: Alongside Key, there was another person who completely changed the

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Speaker 3: vibe Department Store.

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Speaker 7: I worked at Folly's. I worked at Tea's. I worked

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Speaker 7: at Shooter's Alley. I worked at Kamal's.

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Speaker 3: Twenty one Sarah Kim used to bar tend at a

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Speaker 3: bunch of strip clubs in the city. She got a

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Speaker 3: part time gig at Department Store, but soon after she started,

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Speaker 3: the guy in charge of booking disappeared. The owner asked Sarah.

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Speaker 4: To fill in.

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Speaker 7: He's like, I'll pay you more, just do it.

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Speaker 3: She agreed and turn to the people who she knew

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Speaker 3: would pick up the phone all those hip hop connections

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Speaker 3: she made at the Strip club.

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Speaker 7: Like somebody, please help me. I don't know what I'm doing,

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Speaker 7: and they're like, yeah, I got you. Come on, let's

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Speaker 7: do it.

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Speaker 9: A typical night of the Department Store, Sarah giving out

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Speaker 9: a lot of free drinks. Everybody's coming at night. The

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Speaker 9: college kids is coming, the older people are coming. You

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Speaker 9: get a little mix of everybody. You're gonna go home

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Speaker 9: with someone, so it's a.

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Speaker 2: Lot of that. It was a hazy time.

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Speaker 12: You know.

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Speaker 9: The drinks was too fucking cheap. Let's say that, let's

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Speaker 9: just do that five dollar shots and you get in

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Speaker 9: a double.

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Speaker 2: There was no rules, you know, and it wasn't like a.

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Speaker 3: That's old From the Grammy nominated rap group Earth Gangs,

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Speaker 3: He and his partner in Rhyme While Great are reminiscing

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Speaker 3: about how bringing their music to Department Store was unlike

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Speaker 3: anything they'd experienced. They even say that they performed the

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Speaker 3: first ever rap show.

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Speaker 5: At the bar.

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Speaker 2: Hey you all this, it was like make have fun.

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Speaker 2: Get up there and you have to have fun.

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Speaker 13: But anything these drunk, rowdy people or they go throw

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Speaker 13: something at you. I remember going to song we didn't

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Speaker 13: even know we were going to perform on that. They were like,

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Speaker 13: just come and sometimes we would not, And then sometimes

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Speaker 13: they would just bring us to the front and like,

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Speaker 13: y'all hear okay, y'all go in there.

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Speaker 6: Y y'all just goal because it's been seven duds. It's

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Speaker 6: something that happens almost shakes up.

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Speaker 2: Well, y'all ready, let's do it.

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Speaker 3: Around this time, it was becoming conventional wisdom that strip

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Speaker 3: clubs ruled the Atlanta music industry. It was where Lil

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Speaker 3: John could test drive yeah before the song brought crunk

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Speaker 3: to the suburban masses. The problem was not all songs

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Speaker 3: were meant to be strip club anthems. Plus in order

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Speaker 3: to get your song played, it was custom to tip

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Speaker 3: the DJ Handsomely. Father, the head of Awful Records, remembers

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Speaker 3: when he took a song to the strip club follies,

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Speaker 3: but it never.

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Speaker 2: Took off musically.

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Speaker 11: The thing in the city was always kind of like

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Speaker 11: the Bigger Trap scenes, Migos, Future Freeman, like that type

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Speaker 11: of shit, Geezy Gucci, big names. So I never really

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Speaker 11: thought we would ever appeal to any crowd out here.

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Speaker 3: So Father focused more on building awful records online where

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Speaker 3: he could go beyond the city limits of Atlanta. Around

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Speaker 3: this time, SoundCloud was an appealing option for up and

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Speaker 3: coming artists with a much lower barrier to entry into

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Speaker 3: the music scene. They could break the rules, dropping songs

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Speaker 3: as quickly as they could make them. A huge split

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Speaker 3: from the way major labels had artists wait years to

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Speaker 3: release a full body of work, but those same artists

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Speaker 3: still needed a guaranteed way to connect with future fans

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Speaker 3: in their hometown. They needed an i ral testing ground

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Speaker 3: that wasn't the strip club. That is where Department Store

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Speaker 3: came in. With an open calendar, Key Father and their

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Speaker 3: friends could showcase their new music as soon as they

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Speaker 3: recorded and bring in a crowd to match the online hype.

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Speaker 3: Outside of anything made by Future, some of those songs

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Speaker 3: became the biggest Atlanta rap anthems of the year twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 3: There was Tuesday by I Love Mconan, a woozy ballot

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Speaker 3: that was reportedly inspired by a DJ night at Department Store.

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Speaker 12: Club Going up on a Tuesday, got your Girl in

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Speaker 12: the Tuesday Club.

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Speaker 3: At the time, Drake was a kingmaker in Atlanta rap

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Speaker 3: for artists like Two Chains and Migos, A Drake Verse

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Speaker 3: was the fast track to first time radio airplay and

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Speaker 3: mainstream attention. But for I Love Maconan, not only did

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Speaker 3: Drake remix Tuesday.

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Speaker 2: And went on putting working on a wakeday.

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Speaker 4: He gave him a record deal.

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Speaker 2: I look back on this bang. How had.

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Speaker 3: You also had song of the Summer contenders like OJ

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Speaker 3: Maco's you Guessed It, You Guess It and look at

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Speaker 3: Risk by father of Macon' Riss. Both of those songs

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Speaker 3: featured key. They demanded mosh pits with the barrass of essentials,

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Speaker 3: knocking rhythms and punchlines like he would shout.

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Speaker 6: Okay, I heard my fucking China chest on your fish.

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Speaker 2: I hurt my fucking risk doing doing a cent of

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Speaker 2: six niggas will make songs literally to run there.

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Speaker 9: Back in the day, we did that at like the

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Speaker 9: clubs like got obsessions are like Magic City, will make

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Speaker 9: a song and run to the club.

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Speaker 2: But now we ain't got to pay, so fuck going

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Speaker 2: to that club. We on edge would.

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Speaker 3: Department Store was originally supposed to be a live jazz

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Speaker 3: and funk bar that served from Punch, but it quickly

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00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,680
Speaker 3: turned into Atlantis ground zero for the next generation of

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Speaker 3: rap that sold PBRs and five dollars well whiskey shots.

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Speaker 3: Stephen Dingle, or as the homies call him, Steve O,

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Speaker 3: had been going to a department store with his friend

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Speaker 3: since damn near day one.

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Speaker 2: Like I still have the picture of us sitting there.

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Speaker 2: It's like six of us.

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Speaker 14: We sit on the couch, two people at the bar

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Speaker 14: and you know, you know the bartender, heavy shots, five

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Speaker 14: doll It was cheap whenever, like we want to take

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Speaker 14: girls there.

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Speaker 2: It was like, we know a spot.

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Speaker 3: But as Atlanta's post outcast rap scene found its way

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Speaker 3: to Steve O's date night spot, department stores owner Luis

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Speaker 3: had no choice but to open the bars second floor.

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Speaker 3: Steve O remembers that day as if it was the

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Speaker 3: moon landing.

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Speaker 14: He was like, Okay, it's getting too crazy in here.

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Speaker 14: Only maybe one hundred and fiftywo hundred people can fit

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Speaker 14: down here. I gotta create the upstairs. So when he

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Speaker 14: made the upstairs and opened it, we were just like,

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Speaker 14: what is this. Like we didn't even know you had

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Speaker 14: an upstairs because it was only like two steps in

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Speaker 14: the left corner behind the DJ and then you turn

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Speaker 14: right and it's a whole fighter stairs.

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Speaker 2: We didn't even know that was back there.

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Speaker 3: That second stage met a second platform to showcase Atlanta's

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Speaker 3: new talent.

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Speaker 4: This putted well for STEVEO.

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Speaker 3: He was a music manager and Atlanta's next buzzy rapper

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Speaker 3: wanted to work with him. Og Maco lived on Edgewood

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Speaker 3: Avenue and a Victorian style house painted skyblue. He went

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Speaker 3: to Georgia State University, barely a mile away. By the

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Speaker 3: time he met STEVEO. His music had taken off on

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Speaker 3: campus through word of mouth, but as an unsigned artist,

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00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:56,600
Speaker 3: og Maco needed to extend his reach. His music didn't

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Speaker 3: neatly slot in with what was going on in Atlanta

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Speaker 3: radio at the time. Imagine someone who was as inspired

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Speaker 3: by Black Sabbath as he was Kid Cuddy, whose voice

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Speaker 3: always sounded like it was on the verge of giving out.

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Speaker 3: His default ablett was fucking fuck and fuck m yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: though you just have to hear it from Ogi Maco himself.

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Speaker 3: None of this intimidated Steve O. He signed up to

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Speaker 3: manage Ogi Maco because he knew there was room in

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Speaker 3: Atlanta's rap scene for this sound, and he knew how

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Speaker 3: to make the world take notice. In twenty eleven, Steveo

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Speaker 3: started contributing to greedmont Park, an Atlanta music blog that

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Speaker 3: focused on the underground rap scene. Whenever the blog through

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00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:49,200
Speaker 3: shows or parties, they'd post photos to Instagram and Twitter. Crucially,

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Speaker 3: they'd add the hashtag New Atlanta. That phrase became so

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00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,840
Speaker 3: popular that when Migos linked up with young thug Rich

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Speaker 3: Homi Kwan and Jermaine Duprie to revamp the song Welcome

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Speaker 3: to Atlanta, they called it Knew Atlanta.

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Speaker 14: Welcome because we want people to know, like the Harlem

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Speaker 14: Renaissance was a collective of creatives, so whenever it was

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Speaker 14: like more than three people together, it was like, we

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Speaker 14: got to make sure to tag New Atlanta.

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Speaker 3: Steve O was just as savvy when it came to

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Speaker 3: being a manager. He knew that if he wanted to

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Speaker 3: break og Macco as an artist, heading to department store

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Speaker 3: was the next logical step. Og Maco had a song

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Speaker 3: where he teamed up a key called you Guessed.

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Speaker 12: It Bits, You Guess It Steal Coming Tess.

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Speaker 3: Steve O handed off that record to a DJ at

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Speaker 3: Department Store to play during his sets. Whenever he spotted

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Speaker 3: someone in the crowd who vibed with it. He'd walk

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Speaker 3: up to them and say.

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Speaker 2: Y'all just tweet it, but you guess it, that's all

355
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:50,880
Speaker 2: you need to tweet.

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Speaker 3: He was trying to get you guessed it to go viral,

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Speaker 3: and Department Store was the perfect place to start.

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Speaker 14: And that's how it kind of got bubbling in the

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00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:02,159
Speaker 14: scene in Atlanta, like that was saying from Edgewood to

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Speaker 14: East Atlanta Village.

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Speaker 2: And then after a while it just it spread like wildfire.

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00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,520
Speaker 3: And it went beyond Atlanta, turning into a meme on vine.

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00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,120
Speaker 4: A social media predecessor to TikTok.

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Speaker 12: Maybe you remember my birthday thirty first you guessed it?

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00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:18,879
Speaker 14: I wish I could like you trying to understand my

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00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:20,560
Speaker 14: timeline was like did you guess it? But you guessed it?

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Speaker 14: Somebody like what is b You guessed it? And I'll

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Speaker 14: just be like got them.

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Speaker 3: Department Store kept developing as an incubator for talent.

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Speaker 2: My name is Sa I'm from Hot Point, North Carolina.

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00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,040
Speaker 4: Is said is two Chainses tour DJ.

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Speaker 2: I love music. I love to break music. I love

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Speaker 2: to break artists.

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Speaker 3: Specifically, he and Sarah launched a monthly producer showcase where

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00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:46,879
Speaker 3: a little known producer named Buddha Blast linked up with

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Speaker 3: Two Chains to make the song Big Amount featuring Drake,

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00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:54,960
Speaker 3: a collaboration that has since gone platinum, and so Esaid

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00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,880
Speaker 3: witnessed how Department Store could put people on. In twenty fifteen,

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00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:02,199
Speaker 3: the song Hopped Boy was booming from car speakers across

380
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:04,960
Speaker 3: the city and on its way to eighteen million views

381
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Speaker 3: on YouTube. It was by the city's best new trap artists,

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Speaker 3: Bankworld Fresh from Atlanta's West Side.

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00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 2: Gone Dude looking like a dough dealer hangs down. Nine

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00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:15,480
Speaker 2: of y'all brought out and trust back when.

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00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:18,119
Speaker 3: We post, he said, knew that a live performance at

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00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:21,440
Speaker 3: Department Store would show that Bankworldfresh had more to offer

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Speaker 3: than a hot song.

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Speaker 10: I'm having media from Tennessee Club. I'm having my friends

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00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,080
Speaker 10: that I just met in Alabama a year ago. We're

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00:19:28,119 --> 00:19:30,520
Speaker 10: making this shit seem larger than life. And when you

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Speaker 10: get there, it's a damn small ass bar. But it's like, Oh,

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Speaker 10: he's promote Initiatate like this sea damn Coyliseum.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:40,840
Speaker 4: Two Chance himself was in the building.

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00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,240
Speaker 3: Security snuck him in through his side door, but the

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00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 3: fanfare was still too much for him to handle. Here's

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Speaker 3: Sarah department store is general manager.

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Speaker 7: In one of my security guards like has his phone

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Speaker 7: and the flashes on as two chainses walking in the door.

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Speaker 7: He's like this, two chains fucking slaps that shit out

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Speaker 7: of his fucking hand, and I was like, what the

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00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:01,720
Speaker 7: fuck and then said was like, he has bad eyes.

403
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,280
Speaker 3: Here's the thing, this story about bankworl Fresh could have

404
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:09,240
Speaker 3: easily taken place at one of Atlanta's posture nightclubs or

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00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,480
Speaker 3: strip clubs, the sort of places whereas trop music elders

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00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 3: like Jeez built their careers. Instead, those taste makers from

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00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,240
Speaker 3: the nightclubs and strip clubs had migrated to department Store.

408
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:22,639
Speaker 10: This is where the music is being broken. This is

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00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,800
Speaker 10: where fat Man Key is coming and dropping new shit.

410
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Speaker 10: This is where fucking Atlanta is.

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Speaker 2: You know, it is a staple.

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00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, Department Store wouldn't be a stable for much longer.

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00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:37,800
Speaker 3: The bar would see its biggest stars yet and then

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00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:43,000
Speaker 3: it shut down. Let's recap so far, we've been talking

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Speaker 3: about artists who were on the rise from Key to Earth,

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00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,399
Speaker 3: Gang and Bankwel Fresh, but it wasn't long until people

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00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:53,120
Speaker 3: who were already certified superstars showed up to Department Store too.

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Speaker 2: I'm in one night we was there.

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Speaker 6: I never forget Missy Elliott was there, and I was like,

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Speaker 6: why is Missy Elliott before the environment?

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Speaker 7: As I believe, Andre three thousand came for like weeks

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Speaker 7: on end for this Sunday show to just come and watch.

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Speaker 14: I saw Jez got the carwalkie in like so, but

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Speaker 14: like when artists like that started coming, it was a

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00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:11,200
Speaker 14: stamp that Edgwood was a market that like, you could

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Speaker 14: come here and kill it.

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Speaker 3: Everyone agrees that industry veterans like Missy Elliott, Jez and

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00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,919
Speaker 3: Andre three thousand boosted department stores profile, but at the

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00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,520
Speaker 3: same time, there was also this feeling that the presence

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Speaker 3: of these big names in this old ass building messed

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00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,200
Speaker 3: with the bars. Anything goes five. To get to the

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Speaker 3: bottom of this, I needed to talk to an important source.

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Speaker 2: My name is Maurice Garland.

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Speaker 3: Maurice is a co producer and co host on this

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Speaker 3: very show.

436
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 2: I've been writing about Atlanta Stiff for a long time.

437
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:42,160
Speaker 4: He is being modest.

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00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:44,919
Speaker 3: You're talking about someone who was a college radio host

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00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,400
Speaker 3: turned intern at Hot ninety seven to five, Atlanta's first

440
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 3: twenty four hour rap radio station. Fast forward to around

441
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,560
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen, he knew Maurice not just for his bylines,

442
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:58,640
Speaker 3: but for the events he'd host around and even outside

443
00:21:58,680 --> 00:21:59,400
Speaker 3: the city.

444
00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,159
Speaker 2: Big Boy Concerts.

445
00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:07,040
Speaker 8: I hosted Kendrick Lamar's first to Atlanta shows. I hosted

446
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:09,439
Speaker 8: Travis scott first ever show in New York. It was

447
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:13,680
Speaker 8: at the CMJ Festival. And I remember the flyer because

448
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:16,440
Speaker 8: his name was in big letters with his face, and

449
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 8: I always trip out on the flyer because one of

450
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 8: the opening acts, his name was small as hell at

451
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:22,920
Speaker 8: the bottom.

452
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 2: Could hardly read it, and it was like Chance the Rapper,

453
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 2: you know.

454
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 3: In summer twenty thirteen, Maurice went to department store for

455
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:35,800
Speaker 3: the first time. He needed to pick up some footage

456
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 3: from a videographer named Jay Wise and was told to

457
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:39,120
Speaker 3: meet there.

458
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 8: I remember going inside and it was like, wow, this

459
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:43,439
Speaker 8: is nice, Like what is this because it was kind

460
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 8: of shaped like a shotgun house. There was a bar

461
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:49,520
Speaker 8: on the left, random couches and random seating. Was very

462
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,720
Speaker 8: just much a you know, open space, exposed brick wall,

463
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 8: you know that kind of thing.

464
00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 4: Then Louis, the owner, came out, and.

465
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 8: Then you know, he just started talking, Man, I need

466
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 8: a Monday night, Man, I need some happen on Monday nights.

467
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:03,880
Speaker 2: You know, my Monday nights are kind of slow, and

468
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 2: for some reason, I was like, man, what if we

469
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 2: just had this party where people just play what they won't?

470
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 8: You know, because it was like kind of in that

471
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 8: era of you know, people having little past the Ox

472
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:13,959
Speaker 8: parties at their house and things like that.

473
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:17,160
Speaker 2: You'd be on somebody's patio, you know, at the kickback, hey.

474
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 8: Passed the Ox and I was like, man, what if

475
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,440
Speaker 8: we just had this party where people just come in

476
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 8: and do that.

477
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 3: That's how Maurice and Jaywise came up with Playlist Party.

478
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:26,920
Speaker 2: Once a yeah, but we want to walk with y'all

479
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 2: to the Playet's Party. We do this each and every

480
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:30,440
Speaker 2: Monday right here at the apartment store.

481
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 3: The first notable people who came were toursts, people who

482
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 3: happened to be in Atlanta that Monday night and found

483
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 3: the flyer on Instagram.

484
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 4: They were intrigued by the concept.

485
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 8: Just bringing different people together with a different taste, you know,

486
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 8: because that was not something that you would get a

487
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:45,840
Speaker 8: lot of in Atlanta, like if you went out.

488
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 2: The nights were very programmed, like.

489
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 8: Oh, this is the Latin night, this is the rap night,

490
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,119
Speaker 8: this is the jazz night, you know, and it's like, no,

491
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 8: these people have varying taste. They probably want to hear

492
00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:58,400
Speaker 8: varying kinds of music on a night out.

493
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:01,400
Speaker 3: But it wasn't long until Reese's connections in the music

494
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 3: industry wanted to get in the mix. Rapper Bob, who

495
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,679
Speaker 3: at this point already had several platinum singles, wanted to

496
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,199
Speaker 3: host a mixtape release party and then organized Noise. The

497
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,359
Speaker 3: production trio and founding members of the Dungeon family wanted

498
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 3: to dig into their vault of unreleased music.

499
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 8: And this, this andred and three thousand song we just

500
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 8: had laying around. They would play it, you know that

501
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 8: people were trying to put out their phone and record

502
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 8: it out the air.

503
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 2: You know.

504
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 8: When I was a chick though, because like, we had

505
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 8: hired a Roster Root to be like our DJ and

506
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 8: equipment guy at night, and he's always been up on

507
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 8: like the newest technology, and somehow that man was able

508
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 8: to record that song out of thin air. And I

509
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,359
Speaker 8: was like, man, please, don't don't don't do anything with

510
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 8: this file.

511
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 2: Please.

512
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 3: The calls to host playlist party kept coming, this time

513
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:51,920
Speaker 3: from Ludacris.

514
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:55,000
Speaker 2: I saw what y'all did with Bob, you know, can

515
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 2: you do the same thing for me.

516
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 3: Ludacris was about to release his first album in five years.

517
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,240
Speaker 3: He could have just played his new album from start

518
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,440
Speaker 3: to finish and called it a night, but he too

519
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 3: was intrigued by the concept of playlist party.

520
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 8: Ludacris was like, no, I want to hold the ox

521
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 8: chord and be downstairs with the people and play music

522
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 8: that I like, not just my stuff, you know. So

523
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 8: he was playing you know future, Like, yeah, man, I

524
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 8: like this song. I like this fuck up some common song.

525
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 8: Man like this Redman song is the song that made

526
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 8: me want to start rapping. Here's that song.

527
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 3: Sarah, Department Stores general manager was there for Ludacris's playlist party.

528
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 7: Too, and of course the stage is packed out. You

529
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 7: can't even fit everybody upstairs. They're like wrapped around the

530
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 7: staircase going all the way down. It's packed and it's hot,

531
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 7: and he just like stopped the music and he was

532
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,920
Speaker 7: just like, hey, hey, hey, like this is so special

533
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 7: right here. I want y'all to know y'all the reason

534
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,159
Speaker 7: Atlanta is what it is. I think he knew that

535
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 7: there was a lot of young talent in the room

536
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:50,800
Speaker 7: and they were just locked in and just saying, Oh,

537
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 7: it's Ludacris. You know he's He's a legend.

538
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,720
Speaker 3: Originally, playlist Party ended at midnight.

539
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 8: Sharp first song they would play will always be that

540
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 8: mcconne and going up on it Tuesday.

541
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 2: That's how you knew. Oh, playlist Party is over.

542
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 12: Gotch girl in the cut of Shit Tuesay Club going up,

543
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 12: going up on Tuesday.

544
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 3: But Department Stores owner Luis requested that Playlist Party keep

545
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 3: going past midnight. It was right around this time when

546
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 3: the trap hit maker Jeezy called. He was about to

547
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 3: release a new album and wanted to host a playlist

548
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 3: party of his own. J Z's interest in Department Store

549
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 3: was a sign that the venue had quote unquote made it,

550
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:33,439
Speaker 3: but there was a high cost of the hype. Tonight,

551
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,919
Speaker 3: Jez pulled up with DJ Drama and Don Cannon aka

552
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,200
Speaker 3: the legendary production team behind the Gangster Girls mixtapes.

553
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 4: The producers Southside.

554
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 3: And Tmada pulled up too, although Tmada almost didn't make

555
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 3: it upstairs.

556
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,480
Speaker 2: He actually got stuck downstairs.

557
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 8: It was one of those nights it was like everybody

558
00:26:57,520 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 8: was there, like people couldn't get up and down the

559
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 8: stage to get to where they needed to be or

560
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 8: wanted to be. And postal testament Amy tmad ain't trying

561
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:06,719
Speaker 8: to get up there, Come get him, Come get him.

562
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 8: He's trying to get up there. If I can't get

563
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:11,679
Speaker 8: down there, like remind you, like this is a small place.

564
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 8: You have to wait for people to move and get

565
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 8: out the way, like you just can't run down the

566
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 8: steps or anything like that. But I remember by the

567
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 8: time I got down there, he was making the most

568
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:22,440
Speaker 8: of it. He had grabbed the ox. Corter's damn self.

569
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 3: Upstairs, Jez premiered his new song God, blasting lyrics about

570
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 3: gold bottles and Rasachi robes to the beer drinking and

571
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 3: cigarette smoking crowd. But it did not matter whether you

572
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 3: saw tm ad a grab the ox downstairs or watched

573
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:49,880
Speaker 3: Gezi get huckled upstairs. When you talk to people who

574
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 3: partied at Department Store, they say, this is the moment

575
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 3: where the scene reached its peak.

576
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 2: You had industry, but you also had community, and I

577
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 2: see this era was one of the last times where

578
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 2: you saw both of those together simultaneously.

579
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 3: It's easy for Mareice to feel nostalgic now, But because

580
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 3: he was behind the scenes when Department Store peaked, he

581
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 3: could immediately sense that this was the beginning of the

582
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 3: end for this era. For one thing, Jez wasn't even

583
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 3: the biggest rap star at his own event.

584
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,439
Speaker 8: That night was also the night that Andre three thousand

585
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 8: popped up. You know what I'm saying, because you know,

586
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,239
Speaker 8: I started getting text messages from ends and hey, man,

587
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:31,120
Speaker 8: Dre want to come now.

588
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, cool shit, tell them to come.

589
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 8: You know, like cool, you know, which do we need

590
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 8: to walk in? It's like the front shit, you know,

591
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 8: so like rad like this is neither one of their

592
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,719
Speaker 8: false at all. But like that was one of those

593
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 8: nights where it's like, oh man, this is kind of

594
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 8: turning into this thing to where.

595
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 2: It's like we got to like make all these And Maurice.

596
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 3: Didn't have such accommodations in mind when he started playlist partying.

597
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 3: But now that music celebrities had the ox and we're

598
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 3: parting past two am as they would at the strip club,

599
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 3: Maurice was tired. He had just gotten married, and so

600
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 3: he was ready to move on. Sarah Kim, Department Stores

601
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 3: general manager, had burned out months before Maurice.

602
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 7: I think when you're busy like that, even as a bartender,

603
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 7: and used getting hammered from all sides NonStop. It's loud,

604
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 7: it's over stimulating, and you don't have a place to

605
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 7: go and decompress, whether it's to smoke a quick cigarette

606
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 7: or to just get the fuck away from people for

607
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 7: a minute. I think it starts to wear on your psyche.

608
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 3: Louis department storees owner wasn't helping. In fact, he was

609
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 3: stressing her the fuck out.

610
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 2: I don't know.

611
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 7: Something changed.

612
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 2: I don't know.

613
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 7: I think he bought like a Ferrari or something, a Lamborghini.

614
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 7: I don't know, Maserati, I don't know, he bought some car.

615
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:51,719
Speaker 7: He just started kind of like losing it a little bit,

616
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 7: and I didn't really like that.

617
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 4: It all came to a head one night.

618
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 3: Sarah usually counted the Knight's earnings and department stores basement

619
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 3: before closing up, but she says that one evening, Louise

620
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 3: turned that makeshift office into his personal VIP section.

621
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 7: He had a little party going on, and I'm like, dude,

622
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 7: I'm trying to get the fuck out of here. But

623
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 7: it turned into like, hey, can you go upstairs.

624
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 2: It's like, no, I'm not going upstairs.

625
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 7: And it turned into this class thing and I'm like,

626
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 7: you needed to have my bag if I'm trying to

627
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 7: clear the downstairs so we can close out, And it

628
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 7: turned into like just come on, and I was like,

629
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 7: you know what, I don't even argue with you about it.

630
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 7: You close them out and you have your party down here.

631
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 7: What's the whole point of having two other floors.

632
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 3: Sarah quit department store in April twenty fifteen, but many

633
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 3: for staff members stayed on. That's how in twenty sixteen

634
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 3: she learned that their paychecks were overdue. Then, one day

635
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 3: that summer, staff had walked up the department store to

636
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 3: find that the locks had changed and a chain was

637
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 3: wrapped around the building. Doctor Dax, graffiti artist and member

638
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 3: of the Dungeon family, called Sarah from Edgewood to relay

639
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 3: what he saw.

640
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 7: He was just like, dude, He's like I saw everybody.

641
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 7: Everybody's out here, but they're just wandering around in the streets.

642
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 7: It's like almost like you don't even know where to go.

643
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 7: They're just kind of like, so is it going to open?

644
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 3: Staff try calling Louise, though he didn't pick up. What

645
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 3: they didn't know was that Louis's lease on the department

646
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 3: store building had expired months prior. The bar kept running

647
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 3: as if nothing was wrong, but behind the scenes, he

648
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 3: had filed for bankruptcy, and he used his company bank

649
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 3: account to sign a two year lease on a red Maserati.

650
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 3: Years later, Sarah opened her own bar with much of

651
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 3: the same staff and department store, and while she looked

652
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 3: all over Atlanta, she landed back on Edgewood Avenue, though

653
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 3: the area had changed significantly. In twenty eighteen, two years

654
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 3: after the bar closed, one realtor price the building at

655
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 3: one point three million dollars. That listing touted its excellent location,

656
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,240
Speaker 3: but this was before COVID nineteen. The pandemic forced many

657
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 3: of Edgewood's bars and venues to shut down and then

658
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 3: permanently close. Meanwhile, the department store building sat vacant for

659
00:31:55,480 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 3: seven years. Finally, in twenty twenty three, the area was

660
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 3: making a comeback, especially once the department store building got

661
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 3: a new tenant. On Instagram, Someone Joe Department Store is back.

662
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 4: Not quite.

663
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 3: It's a record store that still stands today, but its

664
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 3: legacy still lives on. So much of my reporting as

665
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 3: a music journalist keeps leading me back to department store,

666
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 3: starting with how many of the bars breakout artists caught

667
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 3: the attention of influential record labels with mixed results. The

668
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 3: song You Guessed It and its viral success got og

669
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 3: Maco signed to Quality Control Records, the Atlanta based label

670
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 3: that boasted Migos as flagship artists. Father, on the other hand,

671
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 3: felt like big labels were too zeroed in on his

672
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 3: one previous hit.

673
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 11: Every time I went into like a meeting, they would

674
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 11: just keep focusing on that song, and that would turn

675
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:55,479
Speaker 11: me off immediately. I'd be like, all right, yeah, Like,

676
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 11: we have this cool hit song. How are you gonna

677
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 11: help me push this next album that I'm working on

678
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 11: that's going to be fucking fire.

679
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 2: They'd be like, but this risk record so big, how

680
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 2: do we make this bigger?

681
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, Key, the rapper who often gets credited for department

682
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 3: Stores Rise, was seeing the relationships he built run headlong

683
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 3: into record business realities. After og Maco's signed to QC,

684
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 3: the label promoted a version of You Guessed It that leaves.

685
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 4: Out Keys verse ad.

686
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 2: I See It on mine.

687
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 3: Behind the scenes, Key was setting boundaries labels can't profit

688
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 3: off his verses unless he's compensated for them. Key explains,

689
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 3: my shit not free.

690
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 2: I'm looking for my feature check. Niggas is mean that?

691
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 9: I mean that was That's fine, I'm not jealous with

692
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 9: give him my fifteen thousand.

693
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 3: Fortunately, Key was also becoming a trusted opinion in the

694
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 3: music industry thanks to the robust network he built out

695
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 3: of Department Store. Key now works as a ghostwriter, writing

696
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,959
Speaker 3: attention grabbing songs for artists like Juicy Jay and others

697
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 3: he hasn't been able to name, for all, a key

698
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 3: in father's initial struggles with the music industry a decade ago.

699
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 3: If you listen closely to popular music today, you'll hear

700
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 3: Department Store's impact. Jid, who's in the same music collective

701
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,800
Speaker 3: as Earth Gang, would remember Department Store in the twenty

702
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 3: twenty five song for.

703
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 13: Keeps God Damn is bringing Memories Bag When my heart

704
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 13: was sure the all.

705
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 12: Was pure on talket bag when we was packing that

706
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 12: Department Store would, of course.

707
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 3: The way Jed tells it, department stores heyday was when

708
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 3: his music was finally able to reach people who were

709
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,080
Speaker 3: willing to listen. It was the turning point in his career,

710
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 3: as it would be for so many others like og Maco,

711
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 3: whose song You Guessed It spawned a copycat song from

712
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 3: South Korea called itj Ma Itji. The similarities were so

713
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 3: striking that Ichima's main artist, Keith Ape, agreed to give

714
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 3: oj Maco a cut of his publishing and to further

715
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,439
Speaker 3: show how indebted he was to the Atlanta scene, Keith

716
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,800
Speaker 3: featured two more Atlanta artists in the remix.

717
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 4: One of them was Father.

718
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,319
Speaker 11: Lungs Ful Latar and my tongue got my mouth head

719
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 11: out the window.

720
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 4: Yo be seeing me out and she opened her off.

721
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,839
Speaker 3: The strength of this cross cultural exchange, Keith's manager went

722
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,800
Speaker 3: on to found eighty eight Rising, the label that produced

723
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 3: the soundtrack to Marvel Shang Chi and The Legend of

724
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:21,280
Speaker 3: the Ten Rings.

725
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 4: Here's Father.

726
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 11: That was very necessary, that crossover, because I feel like

727
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 11: that's what got a lot of us over here. It's like, oh,

728
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 11: this works everywhere else as well, and you started seeing

729
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 11: it pop up Black France, German trap and all this

730
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 11: other type of stuff as well.

731
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:38,719
Speaker 3: Around the same time that the world hears Itchy Ma,

732
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 3: the rapper playboy Carti was finding his way into the

733
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,360
Speaker 3: music industry, and he too used apartment store as a

734
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 3: testing ground. He remembers bringing Carti there in the first place.

735
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 9: Carti had a whole week or two where he was

736
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,480
Speaker 9: running around with us every day in that bitch Too,

737
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 9: and he wouldn't even performs.

738
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:56,600
Speaker 2: He'll play new shit and then did.

739
00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 3: Carti ended up being the youngest member of Father's Awful Records,

740
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 3: and once Father got a taste for performing a department store,

741
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 3: he decided to go bigger and tour in other cities.

742
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,120
Speaker 11: That's how you get me going on tour and bringing

743
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,320
Speaker 11: Carty with me and taking Carty all across the US.

744
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 3: Fast forward a few years later to twenty twenty and

745
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 3: Carti releases his first ever number one album. He looks

746
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 3: back at his career and shouts out keys to follow

747
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:27,160
Speaker 3: Key and made May sixty. Then in twenty twenty five,

748
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 3: Carti comes out with his second number one album. It

749
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,600
Speaker 3: spent three weeks total at the top spot, bypassing artists

750
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 3: like Elton John Kenchall Gamar, and Morgan Wallen. Carty may

751
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:39,799
Speaker 3: have never been in that position if it weren't for

752
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 3: artists who made department store their stage make up.

753
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,360
Speaker 2: Than's got a pod conversation passing.

754
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 3: He's the first time I wrote for Pitchfork In twenty fifteen,

755
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,719
Speaker 3: I profiled og Maco. After he went viral with you

756
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 3: Guessed It, He and I sat on the floor in

757
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 3: a studio hallway and talked about his career ambitions for hours.

758
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:04,600
Speaker 3: Ten years later, Cardi B shouts him out in her

759
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 3: anticipated sophomore album, am I the Drama.

760
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,120
Speaker 4: Pe Old You Me Go, who the badest bitch?

761
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 8: You guess It?

762
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 3: Though, as you might have guessed from hearing the lyric,

763
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 3: Macca wouldn't live to hear this. In twenty twenty four,

764
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 3: he died from injuries resulting from a self inflicted gunshot wound.

765
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 3: In recent years, critics have wondered whether Atlanta's dominance in

766
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:31,680
Speaker 3: hip hop is diminishing. They've seen how many of the

767
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:35,359
Speaker 3: young stars who emerged from Department Store have died over

768
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 3: the past decade. Bankworldfresh the hot Boy himself linked up

769
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:51,720
Speaker 3: with Jeezy to record the song All There Now, though

770
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,880
Speaker 3: he wouldn't live to see its double platinum success. He

771
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 3: was killed in a shootout in twenty sixteen. Macco was

772
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 3: the fourth artist of my career after Takeoff from Migos

773
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 3: for Chimi Kwan and Memphis Transplant. Young dolf who have

774
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 3: seen rise and then die before any of us had

775
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 3: turned forty ten plus years after being called to cover

776
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,000
Speaker 3: them as rising artists, I was fielding requests from editors

777
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 3: to write their obituaries. I didn't always say yes, because

778
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 3: that shit hurt. By twenty twenty five, the people we

779
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 3: spoke to from Lando's rap scene had more questions than

780
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,640
Speaker 3: answers for how it could possibly recover from all those losses.

781
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:34,840
Speaker 3: The Key is more tuned in with Atlanta's next generation

782
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 3: of artists than most people I meet. That's why he

783
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 3: has zero tolerance for anyone who says there aren't any

784
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 3: worthy artists in the new New Atlanta as it were.

785
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:45,720
Speaker 2: And I'm like, bro, what the fuck are you talking about?

786
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 9: Like you know, it is like like like anisia or

787
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 9: like you know what I'm saying, Even older artists that

788
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 9: I was getting a flowers now.

789
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 3: For now, though, when the future feels this uncertain, Key

790
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,320
Speaker 3: jokes that it's easier to look back in time than forward.

791
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 2: Gonna be seven years old, We're still gonna be having

792
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:02,240
Speaker 2: this conversation.

793
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:09,359
Speaker 9: Tell me about department store, Tell me about the TEP

794
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 9: how it was back then.

795
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:17,360
Speaker 1: For real, in Atlanta, a small thing can have a

796
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:21,719
Speaker 1: huge effect because ten years later, department store lives on,

797
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 1: maybe not physically, but most definitely in spirit. And though

798
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,840
Speaker 1: it's not around anymore, and we all like to reminisce

799
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:32,439
Speaker 1: about how we used to do it, the next chap

800
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 1: there in the city's legacy is already being rope someplace

801
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: somewhere that no one's heard about yet.

802
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:46,160
Speaker 3: In the final episode of Atlanta is did you catch

803
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 3: how Key was shouting out? Anisia has proved that Atlanta's

804
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,359
Speaker 3: music scene is alive and well, she's the first woman

805
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,480
Speaker 3: in Atlanta to have her own Gangster Girls mixtape. You'll

806
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 3: meet her and hear from DJ Drama, the originator of

807
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:03,240
Speaker 3: that series out mixtape culture in Atlanta and how after

808
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 3: so much loss, mixtapes are bringing the city back to

809
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 3: its party roots and Atlanta is futuristic nostalgia.

810
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 5: She's a part of the Atlanta legacy where I'm talking

811
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:18,360
Speaker 5: about how every couple of years like this new breed

812
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:22,240
Speaker 5: of mc of artists bursts onto the scene and creates

813
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 5: this whole new cultural dominance for the city.

814
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: Atlanta is the Will Packer Media production in partnership with

815
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:37,400
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcast, Idea, Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,

816
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: and produced by Christina Lee, with additional production from Maurice

817
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: Garland and Jewel Wicker. Our supervisor, producer and editor is

818
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:50,120
Speaker 1: Shiva Baia. Our managing producers are Rose Frulini Bacon, Omari

819
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 1: graham At, Shamara Rochester. Editorial support from Sean Setero and

820
00:40:55,560 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: Jack Irwin. Original theme music by Aman Shota, designed by

821
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 1: Shiva Bayat and Our minds Alta, mixed and mastered by

822
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:09,160
Speaker 1: Our Mind Sahota. Fact checking done by Sean Setero. Clearance

823
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 1: counsel Donison, caliph Perez, Lisa kelf and Jacqueline Schwett. Executive

824
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: producers for will Packer Media are Will Packer and Alex Bowden.

825
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 1: Co producer for will Packer Media is Nemi Mohun. Executive

826
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 1: producers for Idea Generation and Complex are Jack Irwin and

827
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:27,680
Speaker 1: Noah Callahan.

828
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:29,799
Speaker 2: Bever Head of talent.

829
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:34,240
Speaker 1: Relations for Complex is Anthony Already. Talent Associate for Complex

830
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,320
Speaker 1: is Ryan Houston. Senior attorney for Complex is Jordan Washington.

831
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Tyler Klin, Terry Harrison, Chris Senator, Noams Griffin,

832
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 1: and Candace Howard.

833
00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:47,720
Speaker 2: A big rude piece