AJ Dance Legacy

OMG 3F

The night consisted of the three F’s: fiyah, flatulence and a fight.

Fiyah. “At the Club” by Timmy Regisford featuring Lynn Lockamy started the night off right after informal praises were offered to Yoruba deity Olodumare. From there deep tech vocals filled the restaurant/bar that “Surely” pleased the ears. Sassy Latin house brought finger snappers to the dance floor while East London’s, Brassroots cover of Inner City’s, “Good Life” kept all feet marching with joy. Perched high in the DJ booth above, the night’s headliner Carlos Mena dumped sexy siren house serenades on the party people on the dance floor below. Soon afro-beat with its percussions and talking drums followed suit to a deep-tech Halo & Atjazz Remix of “JuJu” by Black Coffee. Intertwining the present with the past, Carlos dug deep and produced vintage NYC garage for the old heads. However, the surprise of the night, Usher’s auto-tuned, “OMG” startled the crowd with perplexed visages of questionable commercialism. Not to worry because for all the lovers in the house or freaks that is, soul singer Kem’s, “Without You” (Woz Shelter Mix) returned the sounds to the deep that submerged the room in subterranean sex.

Farts. “Somebody farted,” mentioned BE in rare form not DJing but dancing with a sprained ankle.

“Man that shit stank,” he continued fanning his nose with a frown of disbelief. So, without hesitation BE ran up to another dancer in mid-squats on the floor and accused her of the flatulence. After the brief dispute the two laughed and hugged one another in love. Unfortunately, despite lofty efforts the source or culprit of “the stank” were never found.

Fight. The night was on fiyah, going well as one could expect. No interruptions were found in music or dance. All were having the times of their life. Until….until….but wait a minute! What is that small crowd of people doing? Seems the small gathering was preoccupied with something swaying back and forth. Within the darkly lit room, elbows and arms were seen pulling something or someone. The visual not easily seen could not be interpreted without further examination. So, a closer inspection revealed a male dressed in all black with black fitted ball cap and a couple females dressed in black holding back an individual dressed in black. The individual short in statue being held back could not easily be traced out due to the towering man draped in all black. A look to the right revealed another short figure in a turquoise hat pointing fingers and in mid-swing. This individual too was being held back but by the party’s promoter. How odd. This was strange. Could this be the inevitable “F” word not mentioned or seen in the house music scene?

Yep. A catfight broke-out. WTH??? Luckily the minute scuffle was stopped before further distractions or interruptions could affect the music and the dancing. Thankfully, the music kept playing and the dancers too wrapped up in asymmetrical movements paid little mind to the incident. Unfortunately, how embarrassing for this to occur with an out of town headliner playing at a restaurant/club.

This embarrassment marked the first in a seven year long history of partaking in house music parties or events. Never had a scuffle ever been mentioned or seen in the scene. The house music community considered loving bordered on boring when it came to action oriented events occurring at niteclubs. This was not stereotyped movies or music videos where fights and bar brawls broke out resulting in smashing whiskey bottles over people’s heads. That was Hollywood, not house music. How or if this incident would change the face of the underground house music scene remained to be seen. For instance, would the city require security to be present at every event held that night forth? Would every event require security to pat privates and run searches like city airports? Hopefully, house heads could continue to party in peace and hopefully nothing would change. Please people, can we all just get along?

Photography by John Crooms