November 5, 2025 • 39 mins
How a tiny club on the city’s West Side birthed Atlanta’s rowdiest cultural export, and how that same spirit became a little too boisterous for the surrounding neighborhood.
HOSTED BY: Big Rube
STARRING: Sleepy Brown, Ray Murray, Bem Joiner, DJ Will, Shakeema Bailey
NARRATED BY: Maurice Garland
SUBJECTS: Music, Atlanta history, Atlanta neighborhoods
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Atlanta is where dreams become real, where legends are the
result of simply wanting to chill at a spot where
you could listen to the music you and your people
could feel like when we used to party till the
sun came up, around the time casting Goodie made the
city come up, when Lula came through with some of
the best punchlines. A club that really got it jumping
(00:20):
was the five five nine. It was popping off and
on its way to being the shit, and the West
End Atlanta stayed straight up. It cats was parking lot
pimping like it wasn't no thing, while inside the DJ
had the whole crowd off. The chain. Wasn't long before
Little Joe and got shit going and the legendary style
called krunk was born. From the club to the radio,
(00:41):
folks was losing their minds and it all started right
here in five five nine. I'm big rude and Atlanta
is too clunk for the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
By the mid two thousands, krunk was everything you saw
Little John screaming and on Chappelle's show, his grills and
ad libs were all over MTV, B E, T, and
late night interview. They gonna say that at my funeral,
they gonna be like he was a good man.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The sound of Atlanta was blasting out of car windows,
filling clubs across the country, shaping with hip hop looked
and felt like in that era. But before Krunk hit
the mainstream, it was born in one Atlanta club, the.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Five five nine.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
For years club five five nine has just been a
footnote in history, an old magazine mentioned, or a random
Instagram post, But the full story of what this club
did for Atlanta hip hop and how it fuelled the
rise of Krunk, that story ha'd been told you until now.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
So once I.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Really know about the Wayside heads.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Or something, bo hold of death A nine underground.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
To say down all day, ey night.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm Maurice Garland, and this is episode two of Atlanta.
Is the five five to nine popped up around nineteen
ninety four. We're gonna take you inside the club and
even the parking lot later, but first we're gonna walk
you through the neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
It was in the West End.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This is a part of Atlanta where you can see
and feel the whole spectrum of blackness. Five five nine
was just one of many worlds within maybe a two
mile radius that sits right next to downtown. To understand
these worlds and how the club fit in and stood out,
I brought my man Bam Joinder a law to take
us on a tour.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
This is not a classroom discussion, It's a homie discussion.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I've known Bain for about twenty years and I can
safely say that he is the unofficial mayor of the city.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
In the streets are his office.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He has a consulting firm that connects Atlanta's civic, corporate,
and cultural communities. It's called Atlanta Influences Everything You've probably
seen the T shirt. Bame knows everything about the West
End because he grew up there. He can explain why
it's different from the West Side more Bankhead type, and
then how that's different from Southwest Hashca Campbellton. This dude
(03:30):
can even tell you how the West End was in
the Civil War era.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
When General Sherman marched through Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
He had Union soldiers stayed over in the West End
for a while and loved the neighborhood so much that
the West End was spared from the fires that General
Shermon said.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
But coming back to present, day.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
When you get off at the West End Marta train
station and look to your right, you're a five minute
car away from the Atlanta University Center, which is home
to Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and Morris
Brown College. If you walk straight ahead, you're on the
neighborhood's main corridor, Ralph David aber Nanfty Boulevard, a street
(04:18):
named after a Baptist minister but home to multiple religious groups.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
You have the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Next door
really is St. Anthony's Catholic Church, but it was the
Black Catholic Church experience, so very well dressed, hoity toity
positioned black people.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Across the street from the church, you have the sole
vegetarian restaurant that's ran by the Hebrew Israelites. Then you
got the West End Baptist Church that's around the corner
from the Masjit where the Muslim community gathers.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Scattered among this are.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Blue collar folks Section eight housing historic Victorian homes, squatters
and trappers.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
And you had the Senior Citizens Home.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Then you have the heartbeat of the neighborhood, the corner
of Abernathy and Lee Street, where guys were slinging random reptiles.
The Nation of Islam is selling the Final Call newspaper,
and you'll see some interesting fruit on this corner too.
Like Peaches the strip.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Club, it's like the home of ratchet righteousness.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Since you're already here, we have to tell you about
Peaches now. Peaches of Atlanta is in a building that's
been under the westbound Morta Station train line forever. It's
gone through multiple names, and most Atlantans remember this place
as the infamous Mond Trays. Back in the day, Montreys
was probably the first strip club that every dude in
(05:45):
Atlanta ever went to. Hell by ain't went at age fourteen.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
They used to do a mustache peach fuzz tests, so
you ain't really have to all the way present the id.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
The thing was to have your money in your hand first.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
So as teenage boys are trying to get into Montrees
to see their first strip club, actual grown folks are
doing their thing just a ten minute walk away at
the club five five nine. What made five five nine
unique was its location, where other clubs in Atlanta kind
of belonged to the neighborhood that it was in. Five
(06:22):
five nine was right off of I twenty which meant
it was easy to get to from the west side,
east side, south side, everywhere.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Five five nine were along to Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
It felt more of like a club that you could
come to with your neighborhood and do your best put
your hood up impression.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
This was also a time where you know, people were
getting introduced to all the games that were being played
at the door when it came to getting into a
club in Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
For instance, some.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Places, if you showed up with three of your friends
and they were all dudes, they wouldn't let you in.
But if you showed up with two girls, girls, you
could get in no problem.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
I made it as far as the door.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
A fight broke out as we were for nagling our
way in, and then that was it.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Unfortunately, mister west End himself never actually made it into
the five five nine. Now, if Bang was ever lucky
enough to get in that door, it's likely that he
would have seen a woman looking just like this, matching
Mecca USA. Short set, crispy white Rebot classics, a fresh
(07:32):
set of nails, perfectly arch eyebrows, shiny microbraids, with a
light blue scrunchy to bring the outfit together.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
And to top it all off, a tattoo on the thigh.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
When I look at that picture, you could tell I
was getting money the micros back then. Hey, she's spending
two hundred and two fifty.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
On our air.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
That's Shakima Bailey.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
She's a woman of God now, but back in the
day she was at that five five nine so much
that if you bothered the Google five five nine, there's
a chance that the photo of her that I just
described to you will pop up. It's gone viral a
couple times already. Shakima is from around the West End
too Oakland City to be exact.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
She went to Booker T.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Washington High School, which is just a mile away, a
straight shot down Joseph E. Lowry where five five nine
used to be located. Like Bame, she wasn't old enough
to get in when she first heard of it, but
she did find a work around.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
I had older siblings and cousins that were outside and
whatever club was popping, they were in the building. So
I remember them coming home on Saturday saying they were
going to club five five nine, and I begged them, Oh,
I want to go. I want to go, and they
were like, you can't get in. You can't get in,
you gotta be eighteen. So back then you could get
(08:51):
id's made at the flea market. My cousin took me
to get an ID and history was made. I was
hating it, a five five doin at seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Fortunately, Shakima didn't have to pass a peach fuzz test
or put any base in her voice.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
I mean, they would check id's and I remember one
specific time the security looked at me and said, you
not this old, because I think I may put I
was twenty on the ID. He was like, you are
not twenty years old, but I'm gonna let you win
this time, and he let me in and I built
a friendship from there, so I had no issues after
(09:28):
that point of getting into the club.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Now, before you even got to the club, you had
to get your fit right shawty. So keep in mind
this was before everybody started shopping at places that you
couldn't even pronounce.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
This was when you got your shoes from Walters Downtown.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You shopped at Greenbrier Mall, South, the Cab Mall, the Underground,
or if you had it like that, Lenox Mall.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
I drove a Cadillac Deville back there. My friends and
I we would get together, go to the mall because
we had to make sure we had a fresh fit,
get out, hair and nails done. And back then, nails
was probably twenty dollars a set.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
I would get off of work, man, go home, shower up,
you know, change clothes or whatever.
Speaker 10 (10:10):
You know, you will polo down from the head to
the toe.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Demitchia is brown as somebody that I'd like to call
a Atlanta Army brat.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
He grew up all over the city.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I'm talking about Hollywood Road MLK on the west side,
Washington Road in College Park, East Point, but the five
five to nine it was like his second home. He
went damn near every Friday.
Speaker 10 (10:31):
I would stop at the Little x SN right across
the street from there.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Man, after you finally did get dressed, you also had
to do a little pregaming before you hit the field.
Speaker 9 (10:40):
And give me a couple of double duces, give me
some black and miiles.
Speaker 10 (10:44):
Hey, bro, you get yourself a little bit and then
you get in line.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Now that line that was a barometer on how bad
you really wanted to go as a dude. If you
saw a whole bunch of guys in line, that might
inform your decision on if you really wanted to go
inside for the ladies. It depending on how long you
wanted to be uncomfortable. But some nights that long line
wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
The line would be so long sometime you would just
stand out in the parking lot. The parking lot became
the club on the outside because it was so full
of people waiting to get inside the club.
Speaker 9 (11:21):
You didn't even really have to go into the five
five nine. You could parking lot pimp.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
The actual parking lot for five to five nine was
only about as big as your rich auntie's backyard.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
I wasn't going to nobody's club without getting a VP
because I don't want to stand in no line.
Speaker 9 (11:36):
But if you were willing to wait as I was,
you had an opportunity to get your game on in
the line as well.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Once you made it inside, you were straight.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
But the funny thing is most people who have been
inside five five nine can't tell you much about how
it looked inside, because, in all honesty, there wasn't much.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
To look at.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
DJ will the former house DJ for the club. He'll try, though.
Speaker 10 (11:59):
It's it's one square building.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
There's no upstairs downstairs, there's no fancy deckcord.
Speaker 7 (12:05):
They had tables set up in the middle of the club,
and they had a little dance floor right before the tables.
Speaker 10 (12:11):
It was grimy. It was a sweat box.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
It's mirrors everywhere that got fogged up every night that
you couldn't even see on them.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
No more.
Speaker 10 (12:18):
That mirror is epic.
Speaker 7 (12:21):
You gonna know the five five nine by this mirror.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
I had an internship with Social Death. It was basically
street promotions.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
I was underage.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
I couldn't get in, but I had a box of
demos and records, and you look like you're a part.
Speaker 10 (12:36):
Of the industry, so you could just walk in.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Jabari Graham only went to five five nine once, but
he compared it to that famous Ernie Barnes painting sugar
shack that was used for Marvin Gaye's I Want You
album cover and again for the intro to the nineteen
seventy sitcom Good Times.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
And that night it happened to be when eight Ball,
MJG and UGK performed at five five nine, and really
that was the only night I needed to go. I mean,
seeing them perform there, it was hot as fuck. And
I didn't need to go no other time because I
think that was the apex of what I need to
(13:14):
see at five five nine.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Just like how Bame told us that the club belonged
to the city of Atlanta, you could see all sides
of the.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
City in there a keen.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I could even tell you where someone was from based
on how they dressed.
Speaker 7 (13:29):
The West Side people, we were more stylished. We matched
our shoes, our shirts, gonna match the catera. Dudes and
women they counter or they did it. But you can
look at them and be like, Okay, they're not from
the West side.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Now, before we get carried away. I'm from Decatur East
Side all day and we knew how to dress too.
Don't get it twisted, but Shakima does have a point.
Folks on the east side we dressed to look good.
Folks on the West side they dressed to get looked at.
Here's Demetrius.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
But you know, it's a funny thing is even if
you went in that thing fresh, you weren't gonna be
fresh when you came up out of that. And what
I mean by that is the scent, the smell, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And what was that smell.
Speaker 9 (14:11):
Ah, Bro, you had that weed that was up and
that was in the in the air. You had the funk.
And what I mean by funk, I mean a good
smell from the atmosphere that was created up in that thing. Bro,
If you came out the way that you went in,
you didn't have a good time.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
With all of this going on, there had to be
a soundtrack to match it. Through the early and mid nineties,
bass music, or as Atlantis like to call it, booty
Shake was king, and.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
It was because it got the queens hyped up.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Scrubbed the ground.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
That was the song.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
When you hear that song, all the women would run
to the desk, would.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Strub the ground.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
It's just dance, kizzy rock, DJ task raheem the dream
from Atlanta shape what your Mama gave you.
Speaker 9 (14:57):
It was stuff that we wanted to listen to. It
was stuff that we rolled to in our cars.
Speaker 10 (15:02):
You know.
Speaker 9 (15:02):
It was stuff that you, of course wouldn't hear all
the time on the radio, but it was Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
In the previous episode, we told you about Atlanta's first
hip hop station ninety seventy five, not getting here until
nineteen ninety five. So imagine the impact that clubs like
five five nine was making people loved coming here because
they were known for playing the songs that you liked,
not always the radio single that came with a music video.
(15:28):
Songs like Murdered by UGK, eight Balling Them, JG's Laid Down,
the original version of Trickle six, Mafia's Tear the Club Up, Masterpiece,
Break Them Off Something, and from our true at aliens
out there, you gonna love this the organization, Get That Bitch,
and mister COO's Born Threat that used to go crazy
(15:48):
in there too.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
What had been.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Up to this point, getting crunk was only known as
an energy, not necessarily a sound or style. It was
something you just did when these songs came on. But
one night, a light bulb went off in a local
DJ and record label A and r's head. What if
they made a song specifically forgetting crump. Before he became
(16:17):
known for producing multi platinum hits for Usher, Ludacris and others,
Lil John was an up and coming DJ and producer
working as an A and R for Jermaine Dupriez so
So Deaf Recordings label. A couple of nights out the week,
he and his fellow Black market entertainment DJs like Emperor
Sarci and DJ Will, but hit five five nine to
(16:37):
see what kind of music that DJ's like Kizzy Rock,
DJ Jelly and DJ Triple J were playing before they
eventually started DJing there themselves. One night, John and about
twenty of his friends jumped on stage and just started chanting.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Who You Whit?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Confused but intrigued, the crowd on the dance floor started
yelling it right back at at him who It was
then that John had an epiphany, if he could get
people to do this in the club, surely he could
record it and make a song out of it, enter
his debut single, who You Wit.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That's when the word crunk was really introduced. People don't
even realize it. Trunk was introduced to the ATL when
he started saying the chat the song.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
DJ Will had already known Little John since they were kids,
and later in life he became John's toward DJ for
ten years. But at this time he was the house
DJ for club five five nine, meaning he was there
all five days of the week that they were open,
so he got handed all kinds of music.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
But when John gave him this who You Wit? Song,
it stood out.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
It was totally different from anything that you ever heard.
When he first gave like you like, they really not
saying nothing. They just hooks, chats, They not rapping. But
then when you get into the club and dropped their
record and everybody just singing the same stuff that he's saying,
it's like I said, man, he's a genius.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
So does this mean that krump music was born at
five five nine?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Show that when you say the birth of krunk, I
would say yes, as far as the energy of the music,
you know, because that kind of energy of songs being
the club wasn't even out of at the time.
Speaker 10 (18:22):
When then when you drop a.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Who you with with the temple of the beat, it's
like everything just fell into place, and then Crunk just
took off from there.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Crunk was contagious.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I mean, this shit started getting into everybody's music, and
the stumping, jumping and elbows throwing that came along with
it start to eat up everything that came up before it,
including the bass music that made girls like Shakima want
to dance. I mean even artists who were known to
be more conscious caught onto it too.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Kind of good Mob used to perform at five five
There Yeah, yeah, they did.
Speaker 8 (18:57):
When they first came out with Das Nomo, they permitted
at the club.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That Sleepy Brown, one third of the legendary Organized Noise
Production trio and a member of Atlanta Royalty, the Dungeon family.
He's talking about the night that Goodie Mob debuted their
new single they Don't Dance No More, back in nineteen
ninety eight.
Speaker 6 (19:16):
They don't dance no More, they don't just healed it
Toy down Ghil came around there good like a rockstock to.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
The funny thing about that song is that it was
supposed to be a tongue in cheek Trojan Horse type
commentary on how since Little John's Crunk took over, people
weren't dancing in the club anymore.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
They were just jumping around, up and down, tearing up shit.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't think people quite got that memo, because that's
exactly what we did whenever that song came on. But still,
once that song dropped, it took over the city. It
proved that if you wanted to get your song hot,
you had to bring it through five five nine.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Club five five nine was known for its.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
High energy atmosphere, which at times could get out of hand.
Speaker 10 (20:06):
That place is rowdy.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Man, when you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That's Ray Murray, another third of Organized Noise, who actually
co produced They Don't Dance No More.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Before World Star, before all of that, it was five
five nine, like straight up, like that's where it got
out from.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
You dig what I'm saying, Like it came from there.
Anyone that's been there will tell you.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
For every good memory they have, they probably have one
about fighting too. To some the fights were just as
legendary as the Knights themselves. Remember this was the spot
where every hood in Atlanta was coming to dance, show off,
and drink. Add all of this to a song telling
you to throw an elbow or two oh something down.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
To pop off.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
I was one of them fighters, believe it or not.
I always felt like I was being tried because I'm
so little. I'm only four to nine. So when I
get in the club, these bigger women and they're looking
at me, and we hung around the circle of guys
that were getting money. So when you were in that circle,
automatically other people that are not would tend to be
(21:10):
a little jealous and try to start stuff with you.
It was a lady that I fought prior to maybe
a month before she had told me every time I
see you, we're gonna fight. And I did not believe
that until I was in the club with poone and.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Chris Shakima is talking about radio personalities Poon Daddy and
Chris Love of Lover.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Hold on, let me sing this the right way Chris
Love of Lover and Poon Daddy.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Formerly of Hot ninety seventy five that Chris Love of
Lover guy went on to become known as Ludacris, and we.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
Were going into VIP. She threw her whole drink at me.
We had picked up barstools, bling of the barstools hit
the mirror and cracked the mirror. So that's why they
were going to take us to jail, and we were
able to get out of it. I thank god we
were able to get out of that because we were
with somebody that was you know, have pool in the city.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
This was a time where you could get in a
fight in the club and not really worry about someone
pulling out a gun and shooting the place up. So
it was kind of fun to see that sometimes, But
for people who lived nearby and had nothing to do
with the club. Five five nine started to become a nuisance.
Here's Bame again sharing what it was like to be
a neighbor at the time.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
I mean, this place was most definitely not years you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
It was like not the neighborhood watering hole.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Unlike other nightclubs that were often situated in a strip, mall, plaza,
old warehouse district, or somewhere downtown, most of the areas
surrounding five five nine was residential. The club's owner, Mike Cato,
knew this when he first opened five to five nine,
which is why his original idea was for it to
be a comedy club. When that didn't work, he turned
(23:01):
it into a blues club. When that failed, he finally
decided to shift his focus on the college crowd at
the AUC.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Down the street. When words spread to the rest of
the city that there was a new club playing mostly
rap music, shit, people started showing up.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
You could not go out, you know, because it was
like freaknick traffic every weekend on that block.
Speaker 11 (23:22):
So the people would come to the club, and once
the club closes, that's where the problems were.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
This is Jerry Takouma Brown in the nineteen nineties during
Club five to five nines heyday. He was a chairman
for one of Atlanta's numerous neighborhood planning units. His road
included duties like bringing citizen concerns to city council. In
the case of five five nine, he was often charged
with taking their complaints about noise and traffic to city government,
(23:50):
with many of them hoping to get the club shut down.
Speaker 11 (23:53):
They were out in the streets, they were blocking traffic.
In fact, there was a house that caught on fire
and the our truck was only a couple blocks away
from the house, but it had to go completely around
because people were in the street party and cars were
blocking them. They couldn't get through.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Almost thirty years later, another night in particular still stands
out to bang.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
My mom had to pick me up from school and
we were coming back home five five to nine. Traffic
felt like freaknick traffic, and it was a vibe like
my mom was tired of it, but I was enjoying
the music and the sights. And We're stuck on the
highway in this traffic and the guy is playing pouring
on his big screen, but I'm in the car behind
(24:39):
him in a passenger seat with my mom.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
As crazy as that sounds, trust me, this was actually
somewhat of a norm in the city and the South
period at the time. Guys would go out and get
TV screens and start in their cars, dropped the top
and entertained everybody they drove past.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It was a.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Traumatic periods to have to endure that. With my church
going mom.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Takuma remembers that wasn't the only trashing material polluting the
block either.
Speaker 11 (25:09):
On Sunday mornings our parishioners would come to church. There
were beer bottles and condoms and you name it trash
in our parking lots.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
But soon enough there would be no five five nine
or crowds to clean up. After Friday, January fifteenth, nineteen
ninety nine, was supposed to be just another night at
the Nine. Longtime Atlanta radio personality Greg Street was planning
on hosting his birthday party where he was going to
have special guests eight Ball and MJG Fall Through.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
DJ.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Will was getting the night started as usual, setting the
vibe as the crowd started to fall in, but then
Will heard a sound that he knew did not come
from his turntables or the speakers.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
It felt like somebody drove a car into the building,
like they said, boom, and the whole building just shoot.
And then they think, you know how, you could just
see smoke just start seeking through the walls.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Demetrius was also there that night.
Speaker 9 (26:07):
It was some smoke, if I remember correctly, coming from
the kitchen area, and you know, and it was unusual smoke.
It wasn't like the typical smoke that was in there.
It was a little bit more white as opposed to
you know, cloudy or whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I just told everybody to clear the club. Everybody exit
to the front door. We go out the back door.
Not even three four minutes after that, fire just started
shooting at the top of the club.
Speaker 10 (26:29):
The building was on fire. It was burning up.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
This fire started at eleven o'clock at night, but it
didn't actually get put out until two or three o'clock
the next morning. I spoke with somebody that was close
to ownership and to let them tell it. They think
the fire department let the place burn down because so
many people wanted it gone in the first place. But
either way, just like that, five five nine went from
(26:55):
turn to burn. In the weeks that followed, as news
started to spread about the club burning down, the rumors
started to fly out as well.
Speaker 7 (27:05):
My first thought was they done burned the club down,
for the issue is money.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
So it was like a rumor started that like my
mom and some other like elders from the neighborhood got
together and set the fire. And then eventually when you
start running through all of that, it goes to like,
was it the boyfriend who killed her?
Speaker 5 (27:24):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11 (27:26):
Rumor had it that we started the fire and people
took it seriously. I do not believe in doing harm
to anyone because things didn't go my way.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
So here's what actually happened. An electrical fire started in
the club's kitchen. The losses from the damage was estimated
at one hundred thousand dollars, with more than eighty thousand
dollars in monthly revenue going up in flames as well.
Speaker 9 (27:51):
But the word around the campfire was, you know, ultimately
they were gonna open the nine back up. You know,
we just thought it was something that was minor as
far as them being able to repair it within a
few months.
Speaker 10 (28:00):
You know, we were going to be back jamming again.
But it never happened.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Indeed, club ownership and patrons of the club expected for
the five five nine to return in about four months,
but those plans were met with heavy opposition from neighborhood
leaders who wanted the club gone for good, and now
that it was burnt down, at this point, these folks
actually had more AMMO to plead their cases about what
(28:24):
went on inside the club, not just outside of it,
so they started telling city government about some of those infractions.
Speaker 11 (28:32):
There were young people coming in there, and the police
had information that people had been coming into the club
and they were not being carted.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
They were also accused of running in a legal kitchen,
but Mike Cato tells me that the building already had
a kitchen in it when he opened the club, and
that of course they had a license to cook in there.
Community members were also fighting to have the club's liquor license.
Revolt Club five five nine burnt down in January nineteen
ninety nine. Just a few months later, the final nail
(29:03):
was also put in the coffin of another Atlanta party institution, Freaknik.
Both finally succumbing to the pressure of complaints from neighbors,
police presence, and shit, the city finally decided to just
shut it down and its aftermath. There's been a lot
of back and forth on whether or not this energy
or era should be recreated or if it's just best
(29:25):
to let it go.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
That that was like the biggest.
Speaker 10 (29:27):
Myth for years, like you were nine, was coming back.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It was almost like, man, you're postible, alive and now
coming back.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So do you think that five five nine needed to
come back?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 9 (29:46):
During that time, yeah, you wanted it to come back,
you know, cause you missed the spot. But just looking
back on it, man, you can't recreate that time that era.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Can't.
Speaker 10 (29:56):
Nobody duplicated.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
People have tried to have five five our reunions and
all this kind of stuff. It's gonna go down as
one of the best clubs in Atlanta ever.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And you know when it went away, Like what do
you think the five five nine took with it?
Speaker 10 (30:11):
When it left?
Speaker 7 (30:14):
It took the cultures of being able to come together
have fun, not so much violence, just people getting together
having fun. It was never the same after five five
nine because after other clubs came, things became more violent,
(30:38):
Prices went up as to how much it costs to
get in clubs. It's just it was different.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Night Life in Atlanta did not die with the end
of Club five five nine by any means, and neither
did krunk music. Remember this fire happened in nineteen ninety nine,
Atlanta's club scene exploded through out the two thousands and
two tens. Krunk became a Dictionary word, and Lil John
went on to become a multi platinum Grammy winning producer
(31:09):
and be immortalized by Dave Chappelle. People were still hitting
clubs in Atlanta after five five Dome, but none of
these places were as centralized as this small club on
the West End where the whole city showed up.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Like you go to the Bounce on Bankhead or like
Club Crucial.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
These neighborhoods had more defined personalities where sometimes it's like, well,
if I'm not from over there, I don't need to
be there. That club seems like it's their club, like
the club itself belongs to the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
And that griminess that Will talked about that kind of
went away too. It became more about vip sections and
sparkling bottles.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
It hurt the underground part of Atlanta because you got
realized you had guys that came out the hood man
like projects.
Speaker 10 (32:01):
You had your dope boys.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
They was making records, that's what the That was their
platform to come test their music out at the five
five nine.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
As five five nine goes away, the club scene in
other parts of town, like Buckhead is starting to grow,
except in these spots the DJs were catering to more
of a sophisticated radio listening crowd. You couldn't just go
to the DJ booth with a song that no one's
ever heard and expected to get played. So indirectly, five
(32:30):
to five nine shutting down led to another phenomenon that
Atlanta is known for.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
So when they couldn't go to the five five nine,
they took it to the shrimp clubs.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
So you mean to tell me that five to five
to nine being open gave us crump music and then
it closing down gave us making it rain in the club, Well,
I be damn now. At the same time, with this
club being gone, people on the West End, some of
them at least, they were throwing their own type of party.
Speaker 11 (32:58):
We were all happy a shit go and not be
able to open back up.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Two years after its demise, the street that five five
nine was on, Ashby, got renamed after famed civil rights
leader Joseph E. Lowry, signaling that the neighborhood was indeed
moving on and getting back to itself. The black and
white street signed that once towered over the club, though
it stayed there for more than ten years. Over time,
(33:25):
some people would drive past it, knowing what it represented,
while others wondered about the story behind this sign with
no building.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
I remember telling Jabari like man, I got to get
the sign because it's legendary.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Bam is talking about a conversation he had with his
close friends since college. Jabari Graham, the guy from earlier
who compared a knight at the five five nine to
that legendary Ernie Barnes painting. In two thousand and four,
Jabari founded an art show called Art Beats and Lyrics
that started at the five Spot, an Atlanta venue that
(33:58):
was about the same size as five five nine, But
now Art Beats and Lyrics tours all over the country,
often occupying sports arenas in large art galleries. For the
twenty thirteen show in Atlanta, Jabari had the idea to
showcase the five to five nine sign gallery style.
Speaker 8 (34:17):
It was just this beacon of yo come party here
or fellowship here, and I made my journey to try
to get it the right way.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
The right way meant tracking down five five nine's former
owner Mike Cato, who also owns another legendary Atlanta establishment,
the Blue Flame Strip Club.
Speaker 8 (34:37):
Can I get your permission to use your sign, you know,
in one of my art installations.
Speaker 10 (34:42):
And he gave me the blessings to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Mike's blessing didn't mean that he was going to help
Jabari actually get the sign down.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
It was still on him to do that.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
So in the midst of trying to figure that out,
Jabbari's bringing me home one evening and we get off
our twenty.
Speaker 8 (34:57):
It happened to be there when you know, they were
demo on that everything out, and I was just there
at the right time when they were just taking the
sign down.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
We just happened to catch them. Man, It's divine timing.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Jabari paid the construction workers a couple hundred dollars to
gently remove both sides of the sign and put it
in the back seat of his car.
Speaker 8 (35:19):
It's a bullethole through there that went through obviously both sides,
and it has so much character.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
When Jabari posted an Instagram photo of him getting the
sign removed. Some comments applauded him for a preserving history,
while others said they were gonna miss being able to
drive past the sign and reminisce. With both sides of
the sign now sitting in Jabari and Bame's homes, there's
no publicly visible physical evidence of five five nine even existing. Bame,
(35:48):
who admits to being a bit of a pack rat,
sees a day where he could loan it.
Speaker 6 (35:52):
To a gallery because krunk music in that era of
Atlanta was such a thing to African American culture. This
is why people wanted to move here for these vibes.
So let me get this sign and maybe one day
it could be in the High Museum of Art and
say on loan from the Joiner family.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Until that happens, all we can do is talk about
five five nine like the myth that it is. People
can't even ride past that old vacant lot where it
used to be because now it's a family dollar.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
If Atlanta continues going on the trajectory it's on then
the storytelling around who, what, when, where, why, and how
a five to five to nine is going to be
a thing.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
A lot of people still reminisce about those times how
they missed the way we kicked it in the five
to five nine. It was the type of joint that
really touched the hearts and minds. It was more than
just a club and really hard to define. We used
to kick it from beginning to the end of the night,
and those would be some of the most special moments
(37:02):
in life. The West End has really changed in many ways.
Sometimes I crave for times to return to the way
they were back then. But as long as the memories
alive and the mind, the legacy survives and happiness thrives.
This is how history is truly defined. So long live
the spirit of the five five nine.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
In the next episode, the city's HBCU culture inspires the
cult classic movie drum line, and one of those schools
resurrects itself from the brink of closure. In Atlanta is
marching to Morris Brown's beat.
Speaker 10 (37:45):
How do you get people to believe in something that's dead? Now?
Speaker 7 (37:49):
We never closed, but when I say dead, the world
thought we were dead.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Atlanta is a WILL pack of media production in partnership
with Idea Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,
and produced by Maurice Garland, with additional production from Christina
Lee and Joel Wicker. Our supervising producer and editor is
Shiva Bayat. Our managing producers are Rose through Linei bacon
(38:21):
O'mari Graham and Shamara Rochester. Editorial support from Sean Setero
and Jack Irwin. Original theme music by Aman Shota. Sound
designed by Siva Bayat and Aman Shota, mixed and master
by A Mind Sahota. Fact Checking done by Sean Setero.
(38:42):
Clearance counsel Donnison Khalif Perez, Lisa Khalif and Jacqueline Sweat
executive producers for will Packer Media A Will Packer and
Alex Bauden.
Speaker 10 (38:52):
Co producer for will pack Of Media is Nimi Mohun.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Executive producers for Complex, Jack Irwin and Noah Callahan and
Bella Head of talent relations for Complex. It is Anthony
Already Special thanks to Tyler Klin, Tyre Harrison, Chris Senator,
Nolams Griffin and Candice Howard Unbig Rude Beast
Atlanta is where dreams become real, where legends are the
result of simply wanting to chill at a spot where
you could listen to the music you and your people
could feel like when we used to party till the
sun came up, around the time casting Goodie made the
city come up, when Lula came through with some of
the best punchlines. A club that really got it jumping
(00:20):
was the five five nine. It was popping off and
on its way to being the shit, and the West
End Atlanta stayed straight up. It cats was parking lot
pimping like it wasn't no thing, while inside the DJ
had the whole crowd off. The chain. Wasn't long before
Little Joe and got shit going and the legendary style
called krunk was born. From the club to the radio,
(00:41):
folks was losing their minds and it all started right
here in five five nine. I'm big rude and Atlanta
is too clunk for the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
By the mid two thousands, krunk was everything you saw
Little John screaming and on Chappelle's show, his grills and
ad libs were all over MTV, B E, T, and
late night interview. They gonna say that at my funeral,
they gonna be like he was a good man.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The sound of Atlanta was blasting out of car windows,
filling clubs across the country, shaping with hip hop looked
and felt like in that era. But before Krunk hit
the mainstream, it was born in one Atlanta club, the.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Five five nine.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
For years club five five nine has just been a
footnote in history, an old magazine mentioned, or a random
Instagram post, But the full story of what this club
did for Atlanta hip hop and how it fuelled the
rise of Krunk, that story ha'd been told you until now.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
So once I.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Really know about the Wayside heads.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Or something, bo hold of death A nine underground.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
To say down all day, ey night.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm Maurice Garland, and this is episode two of Atlanta.
Is the five five to nine popped up around nineteen
ninety four. We're gonna take you inside the club and
even the parking lot later, but first we're gonna walk
you through the neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
It was in the West End.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This is a part of Atlanta where you can see
and feel the whole spectrum of blackness. Five five nine
was just one of many worlds within maybe a two
mile radius that sits right next to downtown. To understand
these worlds and how the club fit in and stood out,
I brought my man Bam Joinder a law to take
us on a tour.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
This is not a classroom discussion, It's a homie discussion.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I've known Bain for about twenty years and I can
safely say that he is the unofficial mayor of the city.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
In the streets are his office.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He has a consulting firm that connects Atlanta's civic, corporate,
and cultural communities. It's called Atlanta Influences Everything You've probably
seen the T shirt. Bame knows everything about the West
End because he grew up there. He can explain why
it's different from the West Side more Bankhead type, and
then how that's different from Southwest Hashca Campbellton. This dude
(03:30):
can even tell you how the West End was in
the Civil War era.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
When General Sherman marched through Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
He had Union soldiers stayed over in the West End
for a while and loved the neighborhood so much that
the West End was spared from the fires that General
Shermon said.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
But coming back to present, day.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
When you get off at the West End Marta train
station and look to your right, you're a five minute
car away from the Atlanta University Center, which is home
to Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and Morris
Brown College. If you walk straight ahead, you're on the
neighborhood's main corridor, Ralph David aber Nanfty Boulevard, a street
(04:18):
named after a Baptist minister but home to multiple religious groups.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
You have the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Next door
really is St. Anthony's Catholic Church, but it was the
Black Catholic Church experience, so very well dressed, hoity toity
positioned black people.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Across the street from the church, you have the sole
vegetarian restaurant that's ran by the Hebrew Israelites. Then you
got the West End Baptist Church that's around the corner
from the Masjit where the Muslim community gathers.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Scattered among this are.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Blue collar folks Section eight housing historic Victorian homes, squatters
and trappers.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
And you had the Senior Citizens Home.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Then you have the heartbeat of the neighborhood, the corner
of Abernathy and Lee Street, where guys were slinging random reptiles.
The Nation of Islam is selling the Final Call newspaper,
and you'll see some interesting fruit on this corner too.
Like Peaches the strip.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Club, it's like the home of ratchet righteousness.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Since you're already here, we have to tell you about
Peaches now. Peaches of Atlanta is in a building that's
been under the westbound Morta Station train line forever. It's
gone through multiple names, and most Atlantans remember this place
as the infamous Mond Trays. Back in the day, Montreys
was probably the first strip club that every dude in
(05:45):
Atlanta ever went to. Hell by ain't went at age fourteen.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
They used to do a mustache peach fuzz tests, so
you ain't really have to all the way present the id.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
The thing was to have your money in your hand first.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
So as teenage boys are trying to get into Montrees
to see their first strip club, actual grown folks are
doing their thing just a ten minute walk away at
the club five five nine. What made five five nine
unique was its location, where other clubs in Atlanta kind
of belonged to the neighborhood that it was in. Five
(06:22):
five nine was right off of I twenty which meant
it was easy to get to from the west side,
east side, south side, everywhere.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Five five nine were along to Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
It felt more of like a club that you could
come to with your neighborhood and do your best put
your hood up impression.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
This was also a time where you know, people were
getting introduced to all the games that were being played
at the door when it came to getting into a
club in Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
For instance, some.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Places, if you showed up with three of your friends
and they were all dudes, they wouldn't let you in.
But if you showed up with two girls, girls, you
could get in no problem.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
I made it as far as the door.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
A fight broke out as we were for nagling our
way in, and then that was it.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Unfortunately, mister west End himself never actually made it into
the five five nine. Now, if Bang was ever lucky
enough to get in that door, it's likely that he
would have seen a woman looking just like this, matching
Mecca USA. Short set, crispy white Rebot classics, a fresh
(07:32):
set of nails, perfectly arch eyebrows, shiny microbraids, with a
light blue scrunchy to bring the outfit together.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
And to top it all off, a tattoo on the thigh.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
When I look at that picture, you could tell I
was getting money the micros back then. Hey, she's spending
two hundred and two fifty.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
On our air.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
That's Shakima Bailey.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
She's a woman of God now, but back in the
day she was at that five five nine so much
that if you bothered the Google five five nine, there's
a chance that the photo of her that I just
described to you will pop up. It's gone viral a
couple times already. Shakima is from around the West End
too Oakland City to be exact.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
She went to Booker T.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Washington High School, which is just a mile away, a
straight shot down Joseph E. Lowry where five five nine
used to be located. Like Bame, she wasn't old enough
to get in when she first heard of it, but
she did find a work around.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
I had older siblings and cousins that were outside and
whatever club was popping, they were in the building. So
I remember them coming home on Saturday saying they were
going to club five five nine, and I begged them, Oh,
I want to go. I want to go, and they
were like, you can't get in. You can't get in,
you gotta be eighteen. So back then you could get
(08:51):
id's made at the flea market. My cousin took me
to get an ID and history was made. I was
hating it, a five five doin at seventeen years old.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Fortunately, Shakima didn't have to pass a peach fuzz test
or put any base in her voice.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
I mean, they would check id's and I remember one
specific time the security looked at me and said, you
not this old, because I think I may put I
was twenty on the ID. He was like, you are
not twenty years old, but I'm gonna let you win
this time, and he let me in and I built
a friendship from there, so I had no issues after
(09:28):
that point of getting into the club.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Now, before you even got to the club, you had
to get your fit right shawty. So keep in mind
this was before everybody started shopping at places that you
couldn't even pronounce.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
This was when you got your shoes from Walters Downtown.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You shopped at Greenbrier Mall, South, the Cab Mall, the Underground,
or if you had it like that, Lenox Mall.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
I drove a Cadillac Deville back there. My friends and
I we would get together, go to the mall because
we had to make sure we had a fresh fit,
get out, hair and nails done. And back then, nails
was probably twenty dollars a set.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
I would get off of work, man, go home, shower up,
you know, change clothes or whatever.
Speaker 10 (10:10):
You know, you will polo down from the head to
the toe.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Demitchia is brown as somebody that I'd like to call
a Atlanta Army brat.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
He grew up all over the city.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I'm talking about Hollywood Road MLK on the west side,
Washington Road in College Park, East Point, but the five
five to nine it was like his second home. He
went damn near every Friday.
Speaker 10 (10:31):
I would stop at the Little x SN right across
the street from there.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Man, after you finally did get dressed, you also had
to do a little pregaming before you hit the field.
Speaker 9 (10:40):
And give me a couple of double duces, give me
some black and miiles.
Speaker 10 (10:44):
Hey, bro, you get yourself a little bit and then
you get in line.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Now that line that was a barometer on how bad
you really wanted to go as a dude. If you
saw a whole bunch of guys in line, that might
inform your decision on if you really wanted to go
inside for the ladies. It depending on how long you
wanted to be uncomfortable. But some nights that long line
wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
The line would be so long sometime you would just
stand out in the parking lot. The parking lot became
the club on the outside because it was so full
of people waiting to get inside the club.
Speaker 9 (11:21):
You didn't even really have to go into the five
five nine. You could parking lot pimp.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
The actual parking lot for five to five nine was
only about as big as your rich auntie's backyard.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
I wasn't going to nobody's club without getting a VP
because I don't want to stand in no line.
Speaker 9 (11:36):
But if you were willing to wait as I was,
you had an opportunity to get your game on in
the line as well.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Once you made it inside, you were straight.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
But the funny thing is most people who have been
inside five five nine can't tell you much about how
it looked inside, because, in all honesty, there wasn't much.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
To look at.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
DJ will the former house DJ for the club. He'll try, though.
Speaker 10 (11:59):
It's it's one square building.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
There's no upstairs downstairs, there's no fancy deckcord.
Speaker 7 (12:05):
They had tables set up in the middle of the club,
and they had a little dance floor right before the tables.
Speaker 10 (12:11):
It was grimy. It was a sweat box.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
It's mirrors everywhere that got fogged up every night that
you couldn't even see on them.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
No more.
Speaker 10 (12:18):
That mirror is epic.
Speaker 7 (12:21):
You gonna know the five five nine by this mirror.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
I had an internship with Social Death. It was basically
street promotions.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
I was underage.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
I couldn't get in, but I had a box of
demos and records, and you look like you're a part.
Speaker 10 (12:36):
Of the industry, so you could just walk in.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Jabari Graham only went to five five nine once, but
he compared it to that famous Ernie Barnes painting sugar
shack that was used for Marvin Gaye's I Want You
album cover and again for the intro to the nineteen
seventy sitcom Good Times.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
And that night it happened to be when eight Ball,
MJG and UGK performed at five five nine, and really
that was the only night I needed to go. I mean,
seeing them perform there, it was hot as fuck. And
I didn't need to go no other time because I
think that was the apex of what I need to
(13:14):
see at five five nine.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Just like how Bame told us that the club belonged
to the city of Atlanta, you could see all sides
of the.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
City in there a keen.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I could even tell you where someone was from based
on how they dressed.
Speaker 7 (13:29):
The West Side people, we were more stylished. We matched
our shoes, our shirts, gonna match the catera. Dudes and
women they counter or they did it. But you can
look at them and be like, Okay, they're not from
the West side.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Now, before we get carried away. I'm from Decatur East
Side all day and we knew how to dress too.
Don't get it twisted, but Shakima does have a point.
Folks on the east side we dressed to look good.
Folks on the West side they dressed to get looked at.
Here's Demetrius.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
But you know, it's a funny thing is even if
you went in that thing fresh, you weren't gonna be
fresh when you came up out of that. And what
I mean by that is the scent, the smell, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And what was that smell.
Speaker 9 (14:11):
Ah, Bro, you had that weed that was up and
that was in the in the air. You had the funk.
And what I mean by funk, I mean a good
smell from the atmosphere that was created up in that thing. Bro,
If you came out the way that you went in,
you didn't have a good time.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
With all of this going on, there had to be
a soundtrack to match it. Through the early and mid nineties,
bass music, or as Atlantis like to call it, booty
Shake was king, and.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
It was because it got the queens hyped up.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Scrubbed the ground.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
That was the song.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
When you hear that song, all the women would run
to the desk, would.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Strub the ground.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
It's just dance, kizzy rock, DJ task raheem the dream
from Atlanta shape what your Mama gave you.
Speaker 9 (14:57):
It was stuff that we wanted to listen to. It
was stuff that we rolled to in our cars.
Speaker 10 (15:02):
You know.
Speaker 9 (15:02):
It was stuff that you, of course wouldn't hear all
the time on the radio, but it was Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
In the previous episode, we told you about Atlanta's first
hip hop station ninety seventy five, not getting here until
nineteen ninety five. So imagine the impact that clubs like
five five nine was making people loved coming here because
they were known for playing the songs that you liked,
not always the radio single that came with a music video.
(15:28):
Songs like Murdered by UGK, eight Balling Them, JG's Laid Down,
the original version of Trickle six, Mafia's Tear the Club Up, Masterpiece,
Break Them Off Something, and from our true at aliens
out there, you gonna love this the organization, Get That Bitch,
and mister COO's Born Threat that used to go crazy
(15:48):
in there too.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
What had been.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Up to this point, getting crunk was only known as
an energy, not necessarily a sound or style. It was
something you just did when these songs came on. But
one night, a light bulb went off in a local
DJ and record label A and r's head. What if
they made a song specifically forgetting crump. Before he became
(16:17):
known for producing multi platinum hits for Usher, Ludacris and others,
Lil John was an up and coming DJ and producer
working as an A and R for Jermaine Dupriez so
So Deaf Recordings label. A couple of nights out the week,
he and his fellow Black market entertainment DJs like Emperor
Sarci and DJ Will, but hit five five nine to
(16:37):
see what kind of music that DJ's like Kizzy Rock,
DJ Jelly and DJ Triple J were playing before they
eventually started DJing there themselves. One night, John and about
twenty of his friends jumped on stage and just started chanting.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Who You Whit?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Confused but intrigued, the crowd on the dance floor started
yelling it right back at at him who It was
then that John had an epiphany, if he could get
people to do this in the club, surely he could
record it and make a song out of it, enter
his debut single, who You Wit.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That's when the word crunk was really introduced. People don't
even realize it. Trunk was introduced to the ATL when
he started saying the chat the song.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
DJ Will had already known Little John since they were kids,
and later in life he became John's toward DJ for
ten years. But at this time he was the house
DJ for club five five nine, meaning he was there
all five days of the week that they were open,
so he got handed all kinds of music.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
But when John gave him this who You Wit? Song,
it stood out.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
It was totally different from anything that you ever heard.
When he first gave like you like, they really not
saying nothing. They just hooks, chats, They not rapping. But
then when you get into the club and dropped their
record and everybody just singing the same stuff that he's saying,
it's like I said, man, he's a genius.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
So does this mean that krump music was born at
five five nine?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Show that when you say the birth of krunk, I
would say yes, as far as the energy of the music,
you know, because that kind of energy of songs being
the club wasn't even out of at the time.
Speaker 10 (18:22):
When then when you drop a.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Who you with with the temple of the beat, it's
like everything just fell into place, and then Crunk just
took off from there.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Crunk was contagious.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I mean, this shit started getting into everybody's music, and
the stumping, jumping and elbows throwing that came along with
it start to eat up everything that came up before it,
including the bass music that made girls like Shakima want
to dance. I mean even artists who were known to
be more conscious caught onto it too.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Kind of good Mob used to perform at five five
There Yeah, yeah, they did.
Speaker 8 (18:57):
When they first came out with Das Nomo, they permitted
at the club.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That Sleepy Brown, one third of the legendary Organized Noise
Production trio and a member of Atlanta Royalty, the Dungeon family.
He's talking about the night that Goodie Mob debuted their
new single they Don't Dance No More, back in nineteen
ninety eight.
Speaker 6 (19:16):
They don't dance no More, they don't just healed it
Toy down Ghil came around there good like a rockstock to.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
The funny thing about that song is that it was
supposed to be a tongue in cheek Trojan Horse type
commentary on how since Little John's Crunk took over, people
weren't dancing in the club anymore.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
They were just jumping around, up and down, tearing up shit.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't think people quite got that memo, because that's
exactly what we did whenever that song came on. But still,
once that song dropped, it took over the city. It
proved that if you wanted to get your song hot,
you had to bring it through five five nine.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Club five five nine was known for its.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
High energy atmosphere, which at times could get out of hand.
Speaker 10 (20:06):
That place is rowdy.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Man, when you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That's Ray Murray, another third of Organized Noise, who actually
co produced They Don't Dance No More.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Before World Star, before all of that, it was five
five nine, like straight up, like that's where it got
out from.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
You dig what I'm saying, Like it came from there.
Anyone that's been there will tell you.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
For every good memory they have, they probably have one
about fighting too. To some the fights were just as
legendary as the Knights themselves. Remember this was the spot
where every hood in Atlanta was coming to dance, show off,
and drink. Add all of this to a song telling
you to throw an elbow or two oh something down.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
To pop off.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
I was one of them fighters, believe it or not.
I always felt like I was being tried because I'm
so little. I'm only four to nine. So when I
get in the club, these bigger women and they're looking
at me, and we hung around the circle of guys
that were getting money. So when you were in that circle,
automatically other people that are not would tend to be
(21:10):
a little jealous and try to start stuff with you.
It was a lady that I fought prior to maybe
a month before she had told me every time I
see you, we're gonna fight. And I did not believe
that until I was in the club with poone and.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Chris Shakima is talking about radio personalities Poon Daddy and
Chris Love of Lover.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Hold on, let me sing this the right way Chris
Love of Lover and Poon Daddy.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Formerly of Hot ninety seventy five that Chris Love of
Lover guy went on to become known as Ludacris, and we.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
Were going into VIP. She threw her whole drink at me.
We had picked up barstools, bling of the barstools hit
the mirror and cracked the mirror. So that's why they
were going to take us to jail, and we were
able to get out of it. I thank god we
were able to get out of that because we were
with somebody that was you know, have pool in the city.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
This was a time where you could get in a
fight in the club and not really worry about someone
pulling out a gun and shooting the place up. So
it was kind of fun to see that sometimes, But
for people who lived nearby and had nothing to do
with the club. Five five nine started to become a nuisance.
Here's Bame again sharing what it was like to be
a neighbor at the time.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
I mean, this place was most definitely not years you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
It was like not the neighborhood watering hole.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Unlike other nightclubs that were often situated in a strip, mall, plaza,
old warehouse district, or somewhere downtown, most of the areas
surrounding five five nine was residential. The club's owner, Mike Cato,
knew this when he first opened five to five nine,
which is why his original idea was for it to
be a comedy club. When that didn't work, he turned
(23:01):
it into a blues club. When that failed, he finally
decided to shift his focus on the college crowd at
the AUC.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Down the street. When words spread to the rest of
the city that there was a new club playing mostly
rap music, shit, people started showing up.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
You could not go out, you know, because it was
like freaknick traffic every weekend on that block.
Speaker 11 (23:22):
So the people would come to the club, and once
the club closes, that's where the problems were.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
This is Jerry Takouma Brown in the nineteen nineties during
Club five to five nines heyday. He was a chairman
for one of Atlanta's numerous neighborhood planning units. His road
included duties like bringing citizen concerns to city council. In
the case of five five nine, he was often charged
with taking their complaints about noise and traffic to city government,
(23:50):
with many of them hoping to get the club shut down.
Speaker 11 (23:53):
They were out in the streets, they were blocking traffic.
In fact, there was a house that caught on fire
and the our truck was only a couple blocks away
from the house, but it had to go completely around
because people were in the street party and cars were
blocking them. They couldn't get through.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Almost thirty years later, another night in particular still stands
out to bang.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
My mom had to pick me up from school and
we were coming back home five five to nine. Traffic
felt like freaknick traffic, and it was a vibe like
my mom was tired of it, but I was enjoying
the music and the sights. And We're stuck on the
highway in this traffic and the guy is playing pouring
on his big screen, but I'm in the car behind
(24:39):
him in a passenger seat with my mom.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
As crazy as that sounds, trust me, this was actually
somewhat of a norm in the city and the South
period at the time. Guys would go out and get
TV screens and start in their cars, dropped the top
and entertained everybody they drove past.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It was a.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Traumatic periods to have to endure that. With my church
going mom.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Takuma remembers that wasn't the only trashing material polluting the
block either.
Speaker 11 (25:09):
On Sunday mornings our parishioners would come to church. There
were beer bottles and condoms and you name it trash
in our parking lots.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
But soon enough there would be no five five nine
or crowds to clean up. After Friday, January fifteenth, nineteen
ninety nine, was supposed to be just another night at
the Nine. Longtime Atlanta radio personality Greg Street was planning
on hosting his birthday party where he was going to
have special guests eight Ball and MJG Fall Through.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
DJ.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Will was getting the night started as usual, setting the
vibe as the crowd started to fall in, but then
Will heard a sound that he knew did not come
from his turntables or the speakers.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
It felt like somebody drove a car into the building,
like they said, boom, and the whole building just shoot.
And then they think, you know how, you could just
see smoke just start seeking through the walls.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Demetrius was also there that night.
Speaker 9 (26:07):
It was some smoke, if I remember correctly, coming from
the kitchen area, and you know, and it was unusual smoke.
It wasn't like the typical smoke that was in there.
It was a little bit more white as opposed to
you know, cloudy or whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I just told everybody to clear the club. Everybody exit
to the front door. We go out the back door.
Not even three four minutes after that, fire just started
shooting at the top of the club.
Speaker 10 (26:29):
The building was on fire. It was burning up.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
This fire started at eleven o'clock at night, but it
didn't actually get put out until two or three o'clock
the next morning. I spoke with somebody that was close
to ownership and to let them tell it. They think
the fire department let the place burn down because so
many people wanted it gone in the first place. But
either way, just like that, five five nine went from
(26:55):
turn to burn. In the weeks that followed, as news
started to spread about the club burning down, the rumors
started to fly out as well.
Speaker 7 (27:05):
My first thought was they done burned the club down,
for the issue is money.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
So it was like a rumor started that like my
mom and some other like elders from the neighborhood got
together and set the fire. And then eventually when you
start running through all of that, it goes to like,
was it the boyfriend who killed her?
Speaker 5 (27:24):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11 (27:26):
Rumor had it that we started the fire and people
took it seriously. I do not believe in doing harm
to anyone because things didn't go my way.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
So here's what actually happened. An electrical fire started in
the club's kitchen. The losses from the damage was estimated
at one hundred thousand dollars, with more than eighty thousand
dollars in monthly revenue going up in flames as well.
Speaker 9 (27:51):
But the word around the campfire was, you know, ultimately
they were gonna open the nine back up. You know,
we just thought it was something that was minor as
far as them being able to repair it within a
few months.
Speaker 10 (28:00):
You know, we were going to be back jamming again.
But it never happened.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Indeed, club ownership and patrons of the club expected for
the five five nine to return in about four months,
but those plans were met with heavy opposition from neighborhood
leaders who wanted the club gone for good, and now
that it was burnt down, at this point, these folks
actually had more AMMO to plead their cases about what
(28:24):
went on inside the club, not just outside of it,
so they started telling city government about some of those infractions.
Speaker 11 (28:32):
There were young people coming in there, and the police
had information that people had been coming into the club
and they were not being carted.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
They were also accused of running in a legal kitchen,
but Mike Cato tells me that the building already had
a kitchen in it when he opened the club, and
that of course they had a license to cook in there.
Community members were also fighting to have the club's liquor license.
Revolt Club five five nine burnt down in January nineteen
ninety nine. Just a few months later, the final nail
(29:03):
was also put in the coffin of another Atlanta party institution, Freaknik.
Both finally succumbing to the pressure of complaints from neighbors,
police presence, and shit, the city finally decided to just
shut it down and its aftermath. There's been a lot
of back and forth on whether or not this energy
or era should be recreated or if it's just best
(29:25):
to let it go.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
That that was like the biggest.
Speaker 10 (29:27):
Myth for years, like you were nine, was coming back.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It was almost like, man, you're postible, alive and now
coming back.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So do you think that five five nine needed to
come back?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 9 (29:46):
During that time, yeah, you wanted it to come back,
you know, cause you missed the spot. But just looking
back on it, man, you can't recreate that time that era.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Can't.
Speaker 10 (29:56):
Nobody duplicated.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
People have tried to have five five our reunions and
all this kind of stuff. It's gonna go down as
one of the best clubs in Atlanta ever.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And you know when it went away, Like what do
you think the five five nine took with it?
Speaker 10 (30:11):
When it left?
Speaker 7 (30:14):
It took the cultures of being able to come together
have fun, not so much violence, just people getting together
having fun. It was never the same after five five
nine because after other clubs came, things became more violent,
(30:38):
Prices went up as to how much it costs to
get in clubs. It's just it was different.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Night Life in Atlanta did not die with the end
of Club five five nine by any means, and neither
did krunk music. Remember this fire happened in nineteen ninety nine,
Atlanta's club scene exploded through out the two thousands and
two tens. Krunk became a Dictionary word, and Lil John
went on to become a multi platinum Grammy winning producer
(31:09):
and be immortalized by Dave Chappelle. People were still hitting
clubs in Atlanta after five five Dome, but none of
these places were as centralized as this small club on
the West End where the whole city showed up.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Like you go to the Bounce on Bankhead or like
Club Crucial.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
These neighborhoods had more defined personalities where sometimes it's like, well,
if I'm not from over there, I don't need to
be there. That club seems like it's their club, like
the club itself belongs to the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
And that griminess that Will talked about that kind of
went away too. It became more about vip sections and
sparkling bottles.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
It hurt the underground part of Atlanta because you got
realized you had guys that came out the hood man
like projects.
Speaker 10 (32:01):
You had your dope boys.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
They was making records, that's what the That was their
platform to come test their music out at the five
five nine.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
As five five nine goes away, the club scene in
other parts of town, like Buckhead is starting to grow,
except in these spots the DJs were catering to more
of a sophisticated radio listening crowd. You couldn't just go
to the DJ booth with a song that no one's
ever heard and expected to get played. So indirectly, five
(32:30):
to five nine shutting down led to another phenomenon that
Atlanta is known for.
Speaker 10 (32:35):
So when they couldn't go to the five five nine,
they took it to the shrimp clubs.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
So you mean to tell me that five to five
to nine being open gave us crump music and then
it closing down gave us making it rain in the club, Well,
I be damn now. At the same time, with this
club being gone, people on the West End, some of
them at least, they were throwing their own type of party.
Speaker 11 (32:58):
We were all happy a shit go and not be
able to open back up.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Two years after its demise, the street that five five
nine was on, Ashby, got renamed after famed civil rights
leader Joseph E. Lowry, signaling that the neighborhood was indeed
moving on and getting back to itself. The black and
white street signed that once towered over the club, though
it stayed there for more than ten years. Over time,
(33:25):
some people would drive past it, knowing what it represented,
while others wondered about the story behind this sign with
no building.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
I remember telling Jabari like man, I got to get
the sign because it's legendary.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Bam is talking about a conversation he had with his
close friends since college. Jabari Graham, the guy from earlier
who compared a knight at the five five nine to
that legendary Ernie Barnes painting. In two thousand and four,
Jabari founded an art show called Art Beats and Lyrics
that started at the five Spot, an Atlanta venue that
(33:58):
was about the same size as five five nine, But
now Art Beats and Lyrics tours all over the country,
often occupying sports arenas in large art galleries. For the
twenty thirteen show in Atlanta, Jabari had the idea to
showcase the five to five nine sign gallery style.
Speaker 8 (34:17):
It was just this beacon of yo come party here
or fellowship here, and I made my journey to try
to get it the right way.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
The right way meant tracking down five five nine's former
owner Mike Cato, who also owns another legendary Atlanta establishment,
the Blue Flame Strip Club.
Speaker 8 (34:37):
Can I get your permission to use your sign, you know,
in one of my art installations.
Speaker 10 (34:42):
And he gave me the blessings to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Mike's blessing didn't mean that he was going to help
Jabari actually get the sign down.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
It was still on him to do that.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
So in the midst of trying to figure that out,
Jabbari's bringing me home one evening and we get off
our twenty.
Speaker 8 (34:57):
It happened to be there when you know, they were
demo on that everything out, and I was just there
at the right time when they were just taking the
sign down.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
We just happened to catch them. Man, It's divine timing.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Jabari paid the construction workers a couple hundred dollars to
gently remove both sides of the sign and put it
in the back seat of his car.
Speaker 8 (35:19):
It's a bullethole through there that went through obviously both sides,
and it has so much character.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
When Jabari posted an Instagram photo of him getting the
sign removed. Some comments applauded him for a preserving history,
while others said they were gonna miss being able to
drive past the sign and reminisce. With both sides of
the sign now sitting in Jabari and Bame's homes, there's
no publicly visible physical evidence of five five nine even existing. Bame,
(35:48):
who admits to being a bit of a pack rat,
sees a day where he could loan it.
Speaker 6 (35:52):
To a gallery because krunk music in that era of
Atlanta was such a thing to African American culture. This
is why people wanted to move here for these vibes.
So let me get this sign and maybe one day
it could be in the High Museum of Art and
say on loan from the Joiner family.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Until that happens, all we can do is talk about
five five nine like the myth that it is. People
can't even ride past that old vacant lot where it
used to be because now it's a family dollar.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
If Atlanta continues going on the trajectory it's on then
the storytelling around who, what, when, where, why, and how
a five to five to nine is going to be
a thing.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
A lot of people still reminisce about those times how
they missed the way we kicked it in the five
to five nine. It was the type of joint that
really touched the hearts and minds. It was more than
just a club and really hard to define. We used
to kick it from beginning to the end of the night,
and those would be some of the most special moments
(37:02):
in life. The West End has really changed in many ways.
Sometimes I crave for times to return to the way
they were back then. But as long as the memories
alive and the mind, the legacy survives and happiness thrives.
This is how history is truly defined. So long live
the spirit of the five five nine.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
In the next episode, the city's HBCU culture inspires the
cult classic movie drum line, and one of those schools
resurrects itself from the brink of closure. In Atlanta is
marching to Morris Brown's beat.
Speaker 10 (37:45):
How do you get people to believe in something that's dead? Now?
Speaker 7 (37:49):
We never closed, but when I say dead, the world
thought we were dead.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Atlanta is a WILL pack of media production in partnership
with Idea Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,
and produced by Maurice Garland, with additional production from Christina
Lee and Joel Wicker. Our supervising producer and editor is
Shiva Bayat. Our managing producers are Rose through Linei bacon
(38:21):
O'mari Graham and Shamara Rochester. Editorial support from Sean Setero
and Jack Irwin. Original theme music by Aman Shota. Sound
designed by Siva Bayat and Aman Shota, mixed and master
by A Mind Sahota. Fact Checking done by Sean Setero.
(38:42):
Clearance counsel Donnison Khalif Perez, Lisa Khalif and Jacqueline Sweat
executive producers for will Packer Media A Will Packer and
Alex Bauden.
Speaker 10 (38:52):
Co producer for will pack Of Media is Nimi Mohun.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Executive producers for Complex, Jack Irwin and Noah Callahan and
Bella Head of talent relations for Complex. It is Anthony
Already Special thanks to Tyler Klin, Tyre Harrison, Chris Senator,
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