The year was 2005. That summer, the Bronx was littered with posters of this demonic snowman. Young Jeezy was building a buzz leading up to the release of his debut album. At the time, I had no idea who Jeezy was. This was before the hip-hop blog scene had blown up and the only way I got news on the mix-tape scene was through MTV.com’s Mix-tape Mondays or making my way up Fordham Road to check what the bootleggers were selling.

Fast forward to October. By then I had become versed in “thug motivation” and knew Jeezy’s album by heart. I had to go to Geogretown to cover the Fordham football game for radio. One of the broadcast guys knew a few girls at Georgetown from studying abroad. He reached out and arranged for us to go clubbing the night before the game. To us, clubbing meant getting dressed up like you were going out to the Meat Packing District. We left in khakis, dress shoes, and sweaters with button ups. Basically, we were dressed like preppy assholes.

1: This was the weekend Cam got shot in his Lambo outside the club down the street.

The girls told us to meet them at Club Platinum in DC at 10pm1. We hopped in a cab and head into the city, stoked because my buddy said these girls were hot and looking to have a good time. We were dropped off at the corner and start heading down the block to the club. As we got on line, we noticed something seemed off. Not many people were dressed like we were. In fact, we were the only ones dressed like we were. It seemed the uniform of choice was a XXL white tee. While that was a little weird, I overheard the guys in front of us say that Jeezy was coming to the club to perform that night.

At this point, Thug Motivation 101 had been in heavy rotation on my iPod. The other us didn’t know who Jeezy was, but I told them that it was going to be a great show. As we made our way through security and into the club, we quickly realized why we felt out of place in line. We were the only three white kids inside the whole club – again, dressed like we came out of a Gap catalogue. It felt like the music had just stopped and everyone was looking at us. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty uncomfortable. We huddled quickly and discussed whether we should stay or not.  Being the cheap one, I said there was no way I was leaving after paying a $60 cover at the door.

By midnight there was word from the girls.  The club was packed wall-to-wall.  We meandered around with several “fucking white boys” dropped as we squeezed through the crowd.  Finally, we made it to a bar without getting our asses kicked.  We discussed again whether we should just leave no.  Rumor was Jeezy would be on stage in a hour and I lobbied hard not to leave.

1am – no Jeezy.  2am – no Jeezy.  3am – no Jeezy.  At this point, the other guys wanted to leave.  I told them to go ahead, but I as going to stay for the show.  Not wanting to have to explain to our boss why I was missing had I not made it back that night, the guys stayed.

2: Click to play

3:30am – The DJ announced to the crowd Jeezy was making his way to the stage.  20 minutes later, the sound of a money counting machine2 blared through the PA system.  Jeezy commandeered the stage and ripped through four tracks without taking a break.  If the looks we got when we first walked in were strange, they were even more bugged out when I was going word for word with the songs.  At this point, it was after 4am and the guys were ready to leave.  We stayed for one more song “Go Crazy” and then headed out the door.  The show was worth the wait.