♪ Choke no joke ♪ ♪ It's choke no joke ♪ ♪ Choke no joke jigga choke no joke ♪ ♪ Choke no joke niggas choke them joke ♪ (soft music) - What up y'all? It's Arthur D. Alston, better
known as "Choke No Joke". We out here at the
legendary "Tunnel" nightclub. Or at least where it used to be. Everybody asks me, what's the "Tunnel"? The Tunnel was the nightclub
that was owned in the nineties here by Peter Gatien. In 94, "Stress Entertainment"
started a party called Mecca. In 96, "Franchise
Entertainment" took it over and they had it until it closed. All the biggest names in
hip hop performed here. From Jay-Z, Method, Red, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Nas, Puff Daddy and the family, Eve. You name it, they was all here. If you had heart, you came here, but everybody didn't have heart. So it's time for y'all to enter the club. Most people feared to enter, The Tunnel. - The Tunnel was a unique hip hop club and its foundations were based on the
concept of bringing hip hop from all the boroughs to one location. And it was the brainchild of Peter Gatien. (upbeat music) - My name is Stirling Cox. I was the head of Security aid. - Alpha Grinion, Brooklyn, New York. - My name is Vee. - House. - Sincere from Brooklyn. - Glen Beck. - Jumping Lee, whatever
Lee you want to call me. - Omega. - Ray Mac. - Diamond. - Craig - Candy. - Big Box, Big Country. - Ramona Diaz. - Big Panna. - Big CB. - Jon Base Brolic. - Sean Brophy, Sound Engineer. - DJ Johnny Walker Red. - MC Frank Jugga the celebrities choice. - Choke No Joke, legendary videographer. - Supreme bigger figure,
Big Kap The Warden. - Big G. AKA The Ringleader. (upbeat music) - The Tunnel was a hip hop nucleus. - It was the epicenter. - It was the domain, the temple. - It was the mecca. - It was like the hip hop, Woodstock. - Nothing was that melting pot of hip hop. - They kept a paradigm going. - It's almost like what Rucker did for- For like street basketball. The Tunnel was that of the music industry. - Hip hop had a heart. That shit was one of the main arteries. - It was actually a mecca. That's what the original
name of the party was. Mecca. - It was like a time machine. That's how the Tunnel was. You came out a whole different individual. - We went in there, young men with attitudes and came out there
wiser men with our lives. - It was definitely a
starting beginning spot for artists to come and
mingle and branch out and get your record heard and get your- your shit together, really. To go into the next phase of your career. - The Tunnel was not open, or did not open. A lot of new artists, or a lot
of artists that you know now to this very day would
have never been known. - All these artists out
today need to be happy that the Tunnel was fucking open. Nobody would hear none
of y'all singing tight pants niggas right now. - The Tunnel was a platform for niggas like Jay, and Puff, Wu (Tang), and Mobb (Deep), and D M X and Ruff Ryders. Niggas don't respect
these niggas today, man. You need to realize man, without them niggas man and their platform. It made a lot of moves for niggas today. - It happened there, it made it relevant. - Became a pillar of hip hop. - The Tunnel is the nucleus of hip hop, and I'll say all the way down south because when the Tunnel was open, wasn't too much going
on down that motherfucker. Y'all could say what y'all want. Peace to the South but
New York made the shit pop. New York was where it's at. The Tunnel in New York, is where you needed to be to pop. - The Tunnel was definitely
a hip hop nucleus yo. It was just like the galaxy
and bring other planets in. You have people from France, Germany, London, everywhere. We were like if they came to New York, they had to go to the Tunnel. - Hi Premier, I came
here to meet you and I, I'm going to every place. I'm going to the Bronx, to Cedric Avenue Where DJ Kool Herc threw the party in Cedar and then I'm going to the Tunnel. - It was our barometer for, you know, how we were really gauging
records and we were really, you know, studying the
behavior of the consumer. - Saying it ain't just
like how they do it now. You could just throw a record out and you know what I'm saying. Wait eight weeks, 10 weeks, whatever for the shit to bubble. Niggas was putting them records on to see if them shits get that reaction. And if the shit was popping, Niggas would fast track it. If it wasn't, Niggas would go back to the drawing board. - Absolutely. It's the definition of hip hop, nucleus. Everything was there. - Everything that surrounded hip hop, from fashion, to music, hairstyles. - Like it encompassed every part of the hip hop experience and it put it all in one building on a Sunday night. - If you go as far back to
little hole in the walls and little, you know, centers
where people start elaborating, playing the sounds and
displaying the culture to within later on you have places
that was up in Harlem, like Harlem World up in the Bronx quarter. T Connection, just using them as an example of many other places
all throughout the city. And then years later here come
places like Union Square and Latin Quarters, the last of the Mohegans are for real hip hop had became the Tunnel. - Tunnel was definitely a hip hop nucleus. It really was. And you gotta say, believe it or not, the Wagon Master was a
one-eyed white guy from Canada, Peter Gatien. - Nothing will ever be like the Tunnel. - There ain't gonna never
be another Tunnel, B. (upbeat music) - What the Tunnel did for artists like the Puffs, and the J.D.'s,
and the Jay-Z's of the world, it solidified their street music. - Man gave them full fledge legitimacy. - It's almost like getting a
star on the walk of fame in LA. - Tunnel made you official. If you came to the Tunnel and
you performed at the Tunnel. You were official. - What the Tunnel did for artists, it helped brand them become who they are. - The Tunnel re birthed
the life of these people, shaped and molded them to
become who they are today. - That gave us a platform. Set up Ruff Ryders, Roc-A-Fella, Bad Boy. Slew of other artists. - You may have everybody
throughout the city say, oh yeah, that's the Tunnel. But if you go outta New York and you go somewhere across the country, or across overseas, "Oh you was at the Tunnel?". That's how much an impact that club had. - The Tunnel for artists
like Jay, and Diddy, and Capone, and Nore, and Nas, it was an outlet to their
music, to the streets. - They gave a lot of artists
what notoriety I would say. - All they favorite was
brought to the street like that. - Put them on the map. - It brought them to an enormous height, which they wouldn't
have got any other club. - If you wanted to get New York behind you, you knew that you had
to come to that Tunnel. That's one thing Jay-Z knew, but he knew that's where New York was. Where the hip hop was was in that Tunnel. Nas knew that, and Snoop and Dre, they knew na the Tunnel was where it's at. Master P, he knew that. Timberland knew that, Baby knew that. - You know how good it is to go to a spot like the Tunnel and seeing
them rocking to your music? Like you know what I'm saying? You know what that meant. That mean you was solidified. - That's why all those
labels and everything Def Jam, Elektra, Capitol, they was coming. They was sending those
reps every week with records. 'Cause they knew if their
record got played in the Tunnel, they had something going. - 'Cause not only hood
niggas was partying in Tunnel, like it was, it was definitely
a heavy presence of record execs and people with money that was really in there that was in position to do things for artists. - If they asked you to
motherfucking perform, that means you was that nigga. - You feel like how Nino and them was coming through in New Jack City. You know what I'm saying? You remember when they
came through in New Jack City? When you somebody in the
Tunnel, you had that feeling. It was that. - A lot of their songs that
you wouldn't hear on the radio because of the profanity in them, would get played at the Tunnel. Tunnel was the outlet for the streets. - It was a great vehicle
to break street records. - It brought you closer to the people that were gonna support you. - I feel as though what the Tunnel did for artists like me
and all the other artists in the naughty nineties was for the platform where you didn't
have to go to the Garden. - The Tunnel was
training for a lot of artists. - To me it was like a bootcamp. - It showed their mobility
of handling the crowd and their performance ability. So the Tunnel actually molded these artists that's here now that's
gravitating these big venues. - And it was like the Apollo. If you were not good, you're not good. You had to entertain that crowd, and if you were able
to entertain that crowd, it's the future which it
is because they're now. - The Tunnel molded Jay-Z. The Tunnel molded Jim Jones who was a hype man for Cam'ron. The Tunnel molded Cam'ron. The Tunnel keep Black
Moon in business right now. Evil D. - A lot of those producers would just leave the Tunnel at an early time and go
home and make beats. - What it did for us, it just kept all of us grounded. - I could definitely say the Tunnel made a lot of molded millionaires. - You performed in the Tunnel, you knew that you had
the heart of New York. - And if you rocked the Tunnel, you're gonna blast off. (upbeat music) ♪ As I step up in the place ♪ ♪ At a slow pace ♪ ♪ Looking real lace ♪ ♪ With my cellie to the face ♪ - Watch out for the sewage. - Yeah. - I was like damn bro. - Step back, step back, step back. - Even though the entrance to the Tunnel is on 27th Street and 12th Avenue, the entry really started on 11th Avenue. That that long block. 'cause that's where we
started stopping everybody. - You are not fly if they didn't know you to let open up the banister and let you drive and park on the block. - If you wasn't important you had to wait about three blocks to get in the motherfucker. It was about 3000 people on line. - The line is just so astronomically long. - Once you make your
travel trip up the block, you have to get on this long gate. - Everybody about to go get on this line. We about to go up in the Tunnel. - Your name is? - Liz. - Where you from? - I'm Dominican and Cuban. - What borough you represent? - Uptown Harlem World. - Oh shit Harlem World in the house. - So I remember getting out the car and you know what I'm saying, walking down the long
alley like man hold up cuz where we going? Like this ain't no club. You know what I'm saying? - It's usually first 500 women are free, and when I got to work the line was down the block and sometimes people were standing on cars and already rioting wanting to get in for free. - But once you got to that gate and it was strapped off and you had id, You was good to come in. If you didn't have that ID, you had to grease somebody
to get through that gate. - My man used to be at the top of the, the top of the block up there. Used to be charging cats
$10 just to get on the line and they used to pay it. - You ain't know the
homie that was running it or they ain't know you, somebody ain't know you, big top flight security
and all the diesel brothers and Ak's that was out there then more than likely nine times outta 10 you was getting played. - By the time you get a, you know in the club you might
be down a hundred already. - I don't know, just to get in you, it seemed like you had to be thorough. Make sure you cut that line, get to the front. - Me and Jim used to always
run up to the front of the door and just Deebo our way through. - Fuck a line, fuck 11th Avenue with the bike racks and nothing. We came down 28th Street around the back to the west side highway right in it. - Paul, you over here, Nigga. - The guys lined up along 27th Street and the guys line was
always the longest line and it was like hours before they got to the front door. And the ladies lined up
along the west side highway. - So if you came with your boys and you came with girls, it's no telling everybody got in or not. You know what I'm saying? And remember back then
everybody ain't had cell phones. - We outside the Tunnel. And we about to go inside in like five seconds, you know what I'm saying? - You started from 11th Avenue. - That was a security check. - ID please. - Then you had to get online. - The gates was
actually the first ID check. - ID. - Got down to the middle of the block, was another security check. - And then you had to get to the door. - Was another ID check. - ID. - And then you had to get to the stairs. - ID. - It was various channels
to get into the door. - And you'd have to
walk upstairs into the cub and be searched. - At one point it was all one search area, male and females in one area. And eventually they decided well let's just cut that up and put the girls in one side
and the guys in another. - The search procedures was no other. - We did actually search you very tightly. - Those searches were
the worst searches ever. - The search was sheer disrespect. - They was doing in the Tunnel, what the airport security does now. - Search at the Tunnel was
like Rikers Island search. - Rikers. - Rikers Island. - It was like going into
the penile in penitentiary. Yo, you had to check in at the door, you get frisked down, get your clothes to go in and you stepping in with a whole bunch of motherfuckers you ain't done seen before and shit. So you gotta get your corner and you gotta get your backs turned to the shit. So if it pop down, you ready to get it in 'cause you feel like you
in a motherfucking yard. With ass big system playing. - So the minute they walked in there, you had Big Rob saying we're gonna search you down, we find any type of weapon, we're gonna kick your ass
and dump you in the dumpster. - Took the jackets off, kicked off their boots. You know sometimes even the socks. First time I ever heard
of take your shoes off, open your mouth was in the Tunnel, - It was damn near everything but a full cavity search and shit. Because niggas back then they was spitting razors and shit. But they be either I open your mouth, - Take grab the boots, bang them, hit 'em on the ground. Just like they do on the island. Make sure they ain't got no knives and razors up in there. - If you got dreads, you gotta shake out your dreads. They check you, check the soles of your feet, give you a nut check, check under your collar. - They did everything but made you squat. - Yeah it really reminded me of when I used to go to the island. To see my loved ones. - And I don't care how well
you hid your contraband, they will find it. - We used to catch all sorts of stuff coming up through that search area, man. Guns, knives, dope, coke. - motherfucking bouncers used to be trying to find any and everything. Not to find, not to include everything they were trying to put in their pocket on the side. You know them type of niggas that go search you find 20, you know what I'm saying? Find something dirty, tell you my nigga you gotta fix me up and let you go in with it regardless. You feel me? You know how that go. You could always pay
for the Tunnel security. - I had a searcher, I won't say his name, he'll know once he sees this video. And he would have a box in the middle of the search area. So all the weed that was confiscated, was to go into that box. So during the course of the night I would walk by and talk about weed. My god we're talking about A box half full of weed. Now the cops have a habit of walking in the building all the time. Say Sterling man, this
place smells like weed. I said that's impossible. No one even smoke inside here. No, it smells like un smoked weed. Like you got a like a, you got a plantation of weed in here. Not knowing that this MOOC got a box full of weed right over there. And I'm walking the cops right by it. I am like, what the fuck? What are you doing bro? When I found out, I was so- I fired him, dude. They go, that's not me, I'm not telling them to put it in there, they put it in there. I said, where does it go
at the end of the night? Where does it go? - I used to get everybody's weed. They would put it on the table right there, me and the homies. I never had to bring weed to the club. To be honest with you. So yeah, shout out the Tunnel security. - So we're searching,
I'm searching the kids, search his boots or
whatever he had on sneakers. I search his body. I said, okay, I gotta go through your bag. So he goes, okay. He opens up his bag and when I did this, the other guys that were behind the, the magnetometers
that they're all like this, like they all just sort
of leaned forward like, like, yo what's up? It was- In there was money. We're not talking about one stack of money. We're talking about stacks. And he had to have what I
thought back then might've been 30,000, was probably closer to 60. That's a guess. It was all in there in cash. I said look, I gotta stick my hand. I, I realized what was up and I had to stick my hand in there and search around and
make sure there wasn't, it was nothing but fucking cash. And they had the skinniest
kid wearing the bag like in the front. You know, like in the front of him. Now again, I'm not robbing nobody. It's not my thing. But I'll tell you what, considering all the security
there was 99% black. I wish that one day in my
whole life I was black because, because if I had the op and not because I wanted to be black, but because then he
wouldn't have noticed me choking him out from behind I'd, I'd had somebody start
a riot and choke the kid. He'd have disappeared
into the crowd with me. The bad would've been gone and I'd have showed up next Sunday like all was good. - It was the regular person search, which was like a full
body prison cavity search. And then it was like the, like the celebrity search, which was a high five a pound. Go ahead. - A funny story about that, me and Red Man we worked out together in the same Fifth Avenue gym. So I'm like, you know Reggie. He came in with Meth and the whole Wu-Tang posse one night and you know, I'm like, you know, and Sterling was standing like right, right next to me like
over there he could hear. And I'm like Reg, well what's going Reggie? And I gave him a pound, let him slide by. Method Man stepped up to me and I went to search him. He's like, and he was like mad loud, yo you ain't searched Reggie. And I'm like, shut up man. I'm like, and I don't, I don't front like you know. I'm like I know who you are but I don't know you like that. I know him like that, but I don't know you like that. So I flipped open his jacket and he had Mad Dutches in there and I'm like, yo, hold that down. And he was like, oh yeah, you know he thought I was
the coolest person that night. - New York has always
been notorious for that. Like you from Edenwald, there's a nigga that works the door. You good. You can come in with a fucking Uzi and niggas wouldn't say nothing to you. But if you wasn't from, and if that nigga was doing the door and you wasn't from Edenwald, he about to take off your shoes, take off your socks, pull your pants down, pull your shirt up. - There was girls that I, I said I can't search her, she peed on herself. She was like it was cold outside. I said you still coming in? And we were like no you gotta go home. And she didn't. She went right inside. She went into the water and she put it in the dryer and she kept on partying. - The girls used to have to come in, they used to have to remove their shoes. - I mean they wanted to go through your purse and everything or whatever, but I just really didn't
like taking off my shoes. That was the thing that I
just really just didn't like. - You know they said we searched them worse than going to Rikers. They didn't have to have
that much cavity searching. - When we searched, we had to put our hand because you could tell the difference when they're walking they will roll up whatever
they had to roll up and put it in their pads. So there were incidents
and times that were, they'd give knives and
stuff to their partners that are waiting inside. So we will let them know that before we were going to search that if they don't feel
comfortable with it, that they could go ahead and leave. And they were like, go ahead. But this one particular female, they pulled it out and it
was done in the camera. - It was just crazy, like they check everything
but you still get it through. - The entry to the Tunnel
was worse than entering the courtroom only for the
fact of a safety purpose. But you knew that once you
gain access into that building, there's a glorifiable night
that you will never forget. (upbeat music) - Tunnel security was the realest group of security officers
I've ever seen in my life. - That time. And still probably to this day was the best security in the world. - I miss it. I miss them brothers. Some are still here, some are gone. - We had the best security force in America, - Felt like Vegas security. - And they was like correction officers. - I could remember one thing in a word, they were big. - Just imagine like a village of Shreks. - It always looked like
they were like gorillas. Solid, scary looking. - Big Black, mean dudes. - I couldn't stand 'em for a while. - They was extra a whole lot. But you needed it 'cause it, you had, you had gangsters
coming from all over. - They was like the police for the, for the thugs and the gangsters. Inside the club. - Tunnel security- They- Obama should have them. - I would always say that Tunnel security is number one, the best. - All the best in the whole city. - I was in Cancun and somebody said Yo you from the Tunnel dog. It's like yeah. Yeah we we we're known worldwide. - Well I've been
everywhere in the world man. I ain't never seen a security
like how the Tunnel security. - Ain't take no shit off of nobody. - They had a room in the Tunnel in the back and they used to have weights and and punching
bags and everything. And they used to go in there and stretch, and do karate sparring matches before, before they come out. - Every time I'd come in at five 30, they were suiting up in the hallway and they were putting
on shields on their arms and their legs. Everybody had their little trick of what they were gonna use for the night. - And I used to be like, is there a reason why y'all doing that? Few of them was like yeah we gotta whip a niggas ass tonight. - And they pretty much
rolled in packs of ten. One radio with 10 guys, and they would just circle the whole place and you know try to keep
peace where they could. - Had to learn to be on their good side. - Certain niggas used to run down on you. They see you smoking, they try to tell you gimme $20 some shit like that. But you give 'em that shit and get the fuck outta here. You smoking all night. - I mean that was our hustle. We we used to tax dudes. You know you smoking, you wanna smoke weed in that corner, you know you gotta pay for that. - It was a lot of security in there that overdid they job sometimes. But overall it was cool. - Soon as a fight broke out, you might get two three hits. They were coming in a line and if you wasn't looking
when that line came, it was going to run you over. - They beat you up first, and then they ask questions later. - They would just hit people up, have you out the door. - They'll lift you straight the fuck up. - They wouldn't throw you out, they would bounce you out. - They loved knocking niggas out, yo. They loved it. - Yeah we had to put our paws on niggas. That that was part of the game. - If one got into a fight, you better believe you was getting your ass whipped by that whole side of the Tunnel. - That was a place where you come and you know you couldn't act up 'cause you act up, you going out one way or another. - I seen dudes seven foot tall, 500 pounds. Go to my boss talk about yo you can keep that bread for the night. I can't have no parts of this. I'm outta here. 'cause they was soft like that. - Nowadays you can take a test and anybody can get certified. You couldn't get certified in that building taking that type of test. There's only one test you
had to pass up in that building. Certification hands on. - It can be a fight amongst 20 people. Security's going to get in that fight. You just see giants coming everywhere, every angle. - And some of them motherfuckers had guns. The leader of the pack behind Sterling 'cause he was the head security. He would've a four pound out. - And then on the way out, they going to rough you up and break you up, and rob you, and take your chain, and your money and your ID, and then toss you off these four steps. - They was quick fast to
catch you fighting, or drunk. Once you drunk that was straight payday. So when they throw you out, your wallet gone, everything gone. Your motherfucking coat gone. Winter time nigga you freezing fucked up drunk. They took my coat. They talking about what you talking about, you had your shit. - Absolutely and if you make, and you know what's crazy
about Tunnel security now, if you see them same dudes and interviewed them, they would tell you that they used to rob
niggas back in the day. - 100%. - 100%. - Were people getting robbed at the Tunnel by security? Allegedly. - Well you know I plead the fifth, you know what I mean? I ain't going to say but you know. You know what I mean. I honestly man the security
was some good dudes man. If a nigga said he got robbed, he was doing wrong. - You got in the problem in the Tunnel, your fucking arms got stretched like this, nigga put you in yolk and they went in your pockets. - Niggas took your watch, your rings. - Trust me. - All that. - It definitely happened to my mans. And them when we got into a couple fights. It never happened to me. Probably 'cause we had the face but my mans definitely was like yo, those niggas when in my pockets. - Could have been while they were getting, you know, roughed up. They dropped something here and there, you know usually happens. - Altogether. I think it was like 80 of us. Outta that 80 maybe it was like 10. - Just like anything else, if you got a law firm, you got one or two bad lawyers. If you got a, if you got a precinct, you got one or two bad cops. It's not the whole precinct. - My son went home with a lot of stuff, you know he went to school with a lot of different things. You know what I mean? I ain't saying I took nothing. - Them niggas gaffle game is crazy. Straight Brooklyn. Niggas stop the fight. Break the fight up, in the niggas pocket at the same time. Nigga's chained, off a nigga's chain the same time. Next thing you know they- they breaking the fight up and them niggas spinning on you like this with your shit in their pocket. Spinning right back. You heard? Fight is over. - It was like cut it out and going in your pocket. Y'all break it up. Y'all break it up, and going in their pockets and shit. - As they're bringing them out the club, they popping his chain off they going, they digging his pockets, taking his wallets. So by the time he get
to the door of the club, he got one shoe on. His chain is gone, his wallet's gone. He got rabbit ears and it's four degrees outside. - That basically what would happen. So you know you run, you running your mouth, you get fucked up, you wake up, your shit's gone. Who took your shit? I don't know. - I ain't even mad at them. 'Cause if I was, if I was the security nigga out there busting my ass in the heat or in the cold out there
for a hundred dollars or one 20 whatever
they was getting a night, you know what I'm saying? I'm already out here but nigga now you fronting, you drunk, and we gotta throw you out? You're not leaving with that. - Tough guys is in there, everybody's popping off. Everybody's talking crazy. You pop off yo, by the time you leaving, you don't leave the same
piece you came in with. Know what I'm saying? Or you, you fall apart by the time
you get to the front door 'cause it go out. There's a lot of I'm gonna kill you, and wait till I see you again, and you dead and whatever,
whatever, whatever. So yo guys left not
necessarily all in one piece. - A lot of dudes used to come in here on they rah rah thinking security was soft. Now as a man, if you going to test a man, certain men, they're not
gonna go for the bullshit. If you gonna run up on
somebody thinking you tough and you gonna come into their domain, what you think going to happen? If I come in your domain and I play tough guy and you got a bunch of tough guys with you, what's supposed to happen to me? So what was supposed to happen, happened. You got washed, you got washed, you took a loss, you took a loss. - So if you wasn't tough
enough to handle it, B, you ain't belong there. And if you didn't belong there, it showed very quickly. - If you had that chain out, that shit was leaving with one of them niggas that night. - The chain is like a magnet to their hand. - Seriously, if they
came in with big chains, they would get robbed. I don't wanna say this artist's name, but this artist came in big mouth running it like I'm this that and the other. Around 20 minutes later he comes to the front door. - Hey look. One of your security just robbed me. - Yo man they took my chain, they took my chain. - Well how do you know he was my security? So they started talking, you know, he looked like this and this and this. - I said, who took your chain bro? Niggas inside took my chain. I said, all right, come inside, show me who took your chain. - So they start walking
all around through the club. And the guy's scared. He's like you know, that's him. Not like that's him! More like, yo, yeah that's, you know that's the guy. - I go, dude, it ain't those guys. Those guys security. Telling you man, them niggas got my chain. - So he's like, yo, you robbed my fucking friend? And he's like, no, no, no, no. I mean what you talking about? I ain't never, no, no, no. Yes you did, yes you did. He goes, nah I mean come on man. I mean, I mean what you want back? - Open their jacket, they got several chains. - Yo, show me which is yours and I'll give it back to you. - Dude man, you guys are supposed to be protecting people. You're taking their chains? - That was his last day. (upbeat music) - You was working in security and you was about coat check, man. You saw everything before it got inside. - Whether you was a celebrity, or you was just a regular Joe, you had to go past the coat check. - Coat check at the Tunnel was basically like the
line to get in the Tunnel. - It's like another 3000 people. - That coat check was
like a whole nother income. - I gotta say it was literally a gold mine. - It was crazy it was mandatory, because if it was mandatory then that's a problem. 'cause brothers didn't
want to hang their coats up. Mandatory coat check, mandatory coat check. And there'd be cats out there with minks and fly shit and I'm not going to check my coat, and something happens to it. 'Cause on the front of the coat check it says "We're not responsible for certain things that
happen with the coat." So F that, I am not checking my mink. - You're checking your coat at the Tunnel. There's no way you get to rock your shit at the Tunnel unless you were respected by the bouncers
and everybody at that front. - You might be on that
line to check your coat for like half hour, 45 minutes. - Checking your coat was good, but getting your coat out afterwards, woo. - It was time you pick your coat up. All hell was breaking loose. - Shout out to every chicken head that had a fight at the coat check. You used to make our nights. - I never really checked my coat, but when I did check
my coat a couple of times, I left my coat there. Wasn't even worth it. - You could always make
a little extra dollar or two, you know, "Yo get my coat for me man." Here's $20 dollars, here's $50. - I'm gonna keep it real. You better know the right people. 'cause if you came in here coat checking Pelle's and furs and all that, and you didn't ring bells, woo, bye bye. - Leave a mink, come back and get a hoodie. - Sometime the bloops happening where you might not get your coat or you might get somebody else coat. - Sometimes coats went missing because people would
find coat check tickets on the floor and claim people's things that weren't theirs. - I remember motherfuckers
would jump over the counter and start stealing coats. - More shit was happening there, then the shit that was happening on the fucking dance floor. - A lot of fights broke
out at the coat check, a lot of minks got stolen. - Coat check was no good. I seen him give a bitch fur a coat away. And she was crying and she was like, my brother going come down here. I swear to God. Yo, this bitch was in tears. Word the mother. She's like yo no I want my fucking coat. Like girlfriend is not gonna work tonight. You fucked up. - The hanger there with the ticket but there's no coat. You know. So a lot of times when they
started wearing their furs, they wouldn't check their furs. You know, We had to put up little signs, check at your own risk. That means look, you never know. I mean a lot of boys wanted to get their girl some fur coats, you know? So I mean it was free. - Do not put your shit in coat check. - We lost many eight
ball jackets up in there. - I left my coat in the car. - Ain't nobody dig the coat checks. - I'm from the hood. We don't check our coats. - I never took my coat off. I used to have my dutches in that bitch. - I never wore a coat in there because it was the worst. - Yeah, I put my coat in the booth. - My coat check was the booth. - We stuffed our coats in our bags or we never even had to give up a coat. - Never used a coat check. Ever, ever, ever. - You could really just come out there on a cold winter night and be going home to the train station
with no coat, no nothing. And no explanation. No I'm gonna reimburse you. No we got you. Oh I know who got- no, we gave your shit to homeboy. He said it was his. What you going to do? - Who thinks that you have to have 17 security guards to watch the fucking coat check
at the end of the night. But when you got over 2000 people in there, talking about, nah I'm not waiting. Because they're drunk or they're thugs or frankly if they're drug dealers or from a team of guys or just any 10 or 15 guys who figure, fuck that, I'm not waiting. You gotta have a strong team there. - You got a bunch of drunken knuckleheads at the end of the night. You know that's what you gotta deal with. (upbeat music) - The bar, the big money maker, the bar. - Upstairs bar was in the middle of the unisex double bathroom. You sitting up there drinking, waiting for all the chicks to come upstairs on that high heel shit. - We had a bar in the back area that had anywhere from
four to five bartenders. And we had a little back bar area once you stepped out of the bathroom area that had maybe two or three bartenders. And each one of those bars
did unbelievable business. - It's not a bar downstairs
connected to the booth. That was just pure madness man. - It was the longest
bar I ever seen in my life. - A 360 Degree. I want to not even a circle, like a rectangle. And it's just like bam smack in the middle of the club. - It used to be set up kind of like how the boroughs are connected because on one side you had queens, then you had uptown and the Bronx, and then on the other
side you had Brooklyn. And so it's kind of set
up like how the city was. - Yeah the front part of the bar where that was closest to the pictures and the cameras and stuff. It was really chilled out over there. Then you had the, the other side of the bar which was away from the coat check. That's where it was all clicked up. If you, if you wasn't even
supposed to be over there, you ain't even go over there. - We had a wall on the Tunnel. You had the DJ booth, you had the bar. That wall was a lot of history, a lot of deals got made, a lot of shit got popped off. A lot of money changed hands right there on that wall by the bar. - That's where we chilled. - Everyone stood there. The best of the best artists, the guys that were making the money. - That side of the bar
was all the industry cats. If you come in and, and you go straight to the right, that bar was all the killers. All the killers and all the gangsters. So the industry cats, you didn't belong on that side of the wall. Like I said it was like, it was like you was in jail. So if you are on the wrong side of the bar, Something gonna happen. - That's the meeting spot right there. Whether you bought a drink or not. - That was when the bar was the bar. - The bar used to be hectic. Like a thousand people at the bar. - You stand there, you stand there and stand there. - And it was so hard to get to the bar because that was like the line. - You either have people
spending lots of money, Or you could have the motherfuckers standing there looking and trying to get a free glass of water. - Bar to Tunnel line was too long. I got drunk before I got there. - We would try to get as many
drinks as we can at one time. I'm double fisting 'cause I'm not going back to that bar and waited 30, 40 minutes. - Every alcohol that
was ever sold was there. Was sold out. - Yeah everybody from every borough had their own preference
in what they were drinking. - I want to know what niggas in New York like to drink? (crowd shouting) I think I heard someone say apple juice. - V8 juice. - I can see you guys
got some Moet right here. - Tomato juice y'all. - Lets all make a joke out here. (indiscernible speaking) where my Hennessy drinkers out there? - That was incredible Hulk times. You know what I'm saying? That was the drink of choice back then. - Incredible Hulk. - Incredible Hulk. That's what we used to rock. - That was absolutely
my drink for like two years. That's all I drunk. - Thug passion. - The Hennessy. - Especially when they
came out with the red Alize. - I to get Remy Red Alize. - Hennessy. - Henny first then we
converted to Courvoisier. - Henny. - Straight Hennessy. - Colleagues used to be Becks, I was Jack Daniels. - Remy and Alize, but Remy. Double shots of Remy baby. Shout out to Patrick, you already know. - Patrick. Every week. My boys, we was all good. - Bottles was super cheap. - All night. He the homie. - Some nights we would
sell out of champagne, we'd have to drive over to
Jersey to get more champagne. That's how busy it would be. Anytime there were big crews inside, each member of the crew would
have a bottle of champagne. If they saw another crew, they would send an entire crew bottles of champagne. - That's the original
buying out the bar spot. - I can't even say a handful of niggas buy out the Tunnel bar. - We would always open the bar. Now when I mean open the bar, the bar would be open for an hour on us. FUBU. - Hold on, hold on this is
Daymond John from FUBU and, this motherfucker it's hot tonight. For real. We gonna show the S N double O P Dr. Dre and Xzibit how
the east coast niggas do it. You ain't never gonna see no designers do the shit we're about to do. If you ever been to our parties, you know how we set it off. I'm gonna get it all loosened
up for y'all fellas in here because I'm gonna open
the motherfucking bar for all the ladies word up. The bar is now open for
all the motherfucking ladies. Free drinks on Fubu. - I remember LL came in one night, bought out the bar like 25 grand whatever 'cause he was supposed to perform. Everybody expected him to perform. He is like nah. And he just compensated I
guess by buying out the bar. - Everybody in the club can drink what they want for an hour. Drinks is on L. Let's get down baby. Do your thing. - Puff and just a whole bunch of dudes just just from the hood would buy that bar out. - We did it because we were
giving back to the people. - I paid 50 bucks for a
jar of orange juice for a, for a carafe of orange juice. 50 bucks. I was like look, I was with my people. I got like three bottles
and the thing about the Tunnel was there was no bar. Let's go to the bar, let's go sit in our section, your section was that
little carved out spot at the bar and you had to have at least a couple
people guarding your bottles. - That bottle service nonsense today. That's a different story. - Nah, it was no such
thing about a sparkler. - If you have one or two
bottles and the sparks flying, the shit looks stupid
as hell If you ask me. - The bar was was always beautiful. It's just that some nights you got it good. Some nights you didn't. You might get fake alcohol. Bartenders might've got counterfeit. - They would charge extra
money on Sunday nights 'cause people wouldn't tip. So they had to add a tip to the price. - Easily every night man, they'd clear about 150 grand
cash at that bar or better. (upbeat music) - The dance floor was crazy man. Massive ass fucking space you know. And it would just be filled
with just people vibing and and being controlled by the music. - When the Tunnel first
opened it was a train station. So you had two sidewalks
and you had an area that was actually recessed downward. Peter took wood and built
right over that recessed area. So every time he stepped
on a dance floor it had a little play to it, it would bounce,
it would go up and down. So anytime the DJ was spinning music, especially if it had a strong bass, you would feel it in the floor. - The floor literally moved. - I thought the floor was moving up and down like this one point. It was so crazy one night. - It was one of the biggest
dance floors I've ever seen. - The dance floor was always rocking. - Looked like a video all the time. - All you saw was a sea of people. Going like this. - And the deeper you
went pause back up in there. The more gutter it got. - A lot of security used to be scared to walk on that dance floor. - The dance floor in the
Tunnel was a war zone. The night we had N.O.R.E and Cam'ron, they surrounded my niece and robbed her for her jewelry. - Niggas was back there fucking, niggas was back there selling weed. Niggas was back there gang banging. - One of the biggest battlefields ever, 'cause a nigga might just be dancing on the dance floor with a niggas bitch and a nigga don't even know it. You might just turn around
and your whole back is slit. - For me the dance floor was a spot where I would go and film a lot. Walk through the crowd, which when I think about it
now was kind of ballsy of me thinking about all the gangsters
and thugs and gang bangers and everything that was in the crowd. Me just running up on dudes with the camera with the bright light in they face. I'm surprised nobody ever
tried to crack my head back then. - So as you came into the floor and the music started pumping, it'll just go around and
like almost like a skating rink kind of a circle. - You throw on something like MOP Ante Up guaranteed somebody get robbed. - A banger come on you just, you just know to hit the wall and just watch how the club starts moving and how
the club starts shifting. And you know it starts shifting and people can't control their balance. You know niggas is getting robbed and you watch the robbers. Nine outta 10 times, We knew who was going to rob, you feel me? Because you can just
sit back and watch 'em. They come in with their click. We knew 'em. We bring into 'em every week. We watch them, after we watch them, we go home smiling. - You may not catch the fight, but you'll know that there's a fight by the, the crowd moving. That whole wave of crowd. We're not talking about, oh it's 10 or 15 people moving. We're talking about like
250 people moving at once. - Watching Alpha and Bolo because when they spot
something in the crowd, they diving in and we going right to it. - I used to stand on top of a speaker and just play the wall. Shit jump off. You run to it. Some of y'all used to run from it. - I'm standing like on the stepper so, just looking at the dance floor and I see the crowd just moving like waves, like fish in the ocean. All of a sudden one guy pops
up and it's him and his crew fighting in there. I'm like yo what are you doing man? Just having fun. And he dives back in and
the crowd is doing this. - A lot of the older dudes
really just stayed up by the bar. All the young wild niggas
stayed up by the floor. - But I felt like that's
where the newbies went. - I would never go in there. - When ain't nothing happened. You really seen a party. - I liked going all the way to the back 'cause in the back you can kind of like you know a little more private in the back on the dance floor. You know you might catch a girl booed up with your favorite rapper. - You see bitches doing the dance from the the Nino Brown shit. You like, oh my gosh this shit is real. - You had certain cats that played the dance floor all night. They just came up for water and headed straight back there. Like it was the porn video. - 'Cause when the right song come on, you got motherfuckers, I mean legs on the motherfucking shoulder, - A lot of side action on the side and the speakers and all that. - And you'll see a
chick, she got a skirt up. - And you'll trip over a girl's feet 'cause she on her knees. - I seen people having
sex on the dance floor. - I saw my first Homo Thug couple make out on the dance floor. - Women in cages. - We would just look from the sidelines and look at people just
sweating and getting it in. - You'll find in that Tunnel, Some of the best dancers. - The video dancers, they
came there to let loose, they came there to battle each other. - A serious circle, meaning it was a certain
people that would be dancing at that time was the mop tops, misfits. These are cool dancers that that ran the whole club scene at that time. - All around the side of the dance floor. You had all of the stick
up boys, the grimy niggas. Niggas just came home. - I used to run in there with
the older guys from my hood. You know on some, they was on some stick up shit. I was a little homie at that time. - Even though it was so
much thuggery going on in the spot, you was seeing
niggas was enjoying themself. Smiling and having a good time. (upbeat music) - Back then at the time
it was so much music. Dope music. ♪ Yo ♪ ♪ When the Remy's in the system ♪ ♪ Ain't no telling will I fuck him ♪ ♪ Will I kiss him ♪ - Niggas is mad it get
more but than ashtrays. ♪ Stop ♪ ♪ Drop ♪ ♪ Shut 'em down open up shop ♪ ♪ Do ant to party with me ♪ ♪ Let me see this ♪ ♪ What you got for me ♪ - Ain't premiere. God damn when them tracks come on. Whew. - One of the dopest things
about the Tunnel from me to remember is hearing my
records get played up in there. You know that's a big deal
and seeing everybody go, oh. - The top maybe of all time Tunnel banger. - The Benjamins by Diddy and the family. That record rocked for two years straight. - The number one bang in
the Tunnel was the Benjamin. That record reigned
Supreme for a long time. - Busta came with, put your
hands when my eyes can see. - Man Busta used to have
that shit lit in the Tunnel. - Well anything bad boy, every Biggie record. - That Biggie banged in the Tunnel for Brooklyn every week. - Any Biggie. - Real Love remix. - 10 Crack Commandments
was like danger in that bitch. - They put on Big, the Tunnel would just
almost flip upside down. - Where Brooklyn at Biggie in Tupac. - Hypnotized. - So I'm in the Tunnel and Dreams is playing and I'm standing next to Patra Biggie go something something Patra. Patra's like this. - Big poppa. - Craig Mack. - Black Rob. - Whoa. - Any shit by Hov. - Jay-Z joint that was
kind of bananas in there. - "Jigga what Jigga Who". - That 2:00 AM up in the club. - Where I'm from. Marcy Son. - Anything Roc-A-Fella. If it was Jay-Z or Beanie and Beanie Siegel or Freeway record. - It was another level. When the Roc came on, - Memphis Bleek "Mind
Right" was big in the Tunnel. - Nore and Capone with that bang bang. - Lil Kim was popping at that time. - "No Time" Lil Kim. - When Lil Kim came
out with the gangster rap. Forget about the girls were
throwing singles and moving like guys, I'm like look at this shit. - Lil Kim "Big Mama Thing". - Master P "Bout It Bout
It" used to tear the roof. - All the Big Timers joints The Lox. - Anything lox. - "Wild Out" would actually start a fight, "Niggas Done Started Something." - I know we ripped the Tunnel to shreds. - When "Cream" came on. That was a moneymaker song. - There's so many damn songs. That dog. - DMX shit, It would just be like. - "Get At Me Dog" might be like number one. Or at least gotta be like
number two when that. - "Get at Me Dog". Boy that was like Tunnel like. Whoa. - MOP. - The Number one
Tunnel Banger is "Ante up." - Yo when MOP used to come on, even for me, I used to be like yes. - From that Bootcamp Click. - "Throw Your Guns In The Air. Onyx was, oh my god. - C-Murder. "Down For My Niggas". - "One For all." - That Brand Nubian record. - "Da Rockwileder" by Method Man & Redman. I used to love the way that sounds. - Mobb Deep "Shook Ones". - "Shook Ones", woo hoo. You lose character up in there. That's when you might
just get your shit snatched. - "Shook One" was bananas in there. Put a hood on it. "Quiet Storm" was number one at the here. - Nas "Hate Me Now." - I Forgot Akinelye. "Put It In Your Mouth." - Man you know a lot of the West Coast stuff was was popping also. Snoop Dogg, that "Gin and Juice" record. - "Hail Mary", you know "Dear Mama". - "Pop that Coochie", that was the song in the Tunnel. - The one I hated the most, but it was a good song of the
Tunnel was "The Water Dance". Flex used to always wanna play that shit when we was picking the money up. And that shit used to have
the crowd going bananas. - Cam'ron "Let Me Know". Ma$e and Cam'ron "Horse
and Carriage", Bravehearts, "Oochie Wally." - And at any moment you was like right there with your favorite rapper. So you know it was kind of like what's up? Your song is nice. Yeah, let's dance to it up in the Tunnel. (upbeat music) - The unisex bathroom was a
mind child of a promoter named, I'm trying to remember, I think his name was Cheech. And he said when he was in
Europe it was a big thing to unisex bathrooms and you, he said no one felt uncomfortable. - Yeah they had all like neon blue lights in there and it was all
the white marble tile. It was crazy. That bathroom. - Bathroom at the Tunnel had
a bar in the middle of it and there was guys on one side, girls on the other and they
would mix and roll through. - They had benches in the
bathroom where you actually could sit on one side of the bathroom. - A DJ in there. - Music banging. - People smoking weed, people sniffing coke. - You walked in there, you took your piss and you got outta there. - You better go in and come out quick. - Better hope that you can get a stall. Without being looked at. - For me it was uncomfortable. I never went to the urinal. - A chick could walk over, lemme see what you working with. - As soon as I went in
there I was like this looking, trying to look past the dudes like when they was going in the urinal. - Men and women going to the bathroom like it was crazy. I hated going to the bathroom. I, I never would go to the bathroom. - So the average black woman ain't used to using the bathroom with a man standing right there. - You went in and took a piss while there was a woman standing there washing her hands. Or you went in there and took a shit if you were stupid enough, and there was a woman sitting next to you talking about
yo you got toilet paper. I mean it was constant. - Sometime that was the
nastiest shit in the world. Sometime it was the best in the world. 'cause you'll go to the men's bathroom and you'll see some fucking Kotex and bloody shit on the floor. You like, yo what the fuck is this? - One time there was a woman in there, she had a dress on, she changing her pad. She just took out the dirty one, got the fresh one in the other hand, this nigga coming there talking about yo, what's good, let's pop. You know we had to beat his ass. - And it was kind of crazy 'cause the bathroom was up out of the way and most of the security was down on the dance floors. When it got crazy we had
to run from the dance floor, all the way up the stairs. So by the time we got up there, there was no talking. If you was up there and
you was fucking around, you had to go. - So it was cats that came to
the Tunnel and they went up in the bathroom area and
they never came downstairs. Only for Showtime. - Sometimes you just go to the bathroom when it's just not nothing happening. Where you at right then? 'Cause you know something
gonna be walking in, something gonna be walking out. - The way it was set
up it wasn't like it was, it was nasty like that. 'Cause the bathroom and the toilets and the urinals was all on the whole like another little side. So it was nothing you smelling nothing. - People came, you know, make money. - The gun deals, the drug deals, the prostitution deals. - Every once in a while I get a call, listen the ladies are
conducting business upstairs. So I say okay lemme go check up. Sure enough they'd be in there
conducting their businesses, hit you off with 20%. And for I could see they
weren't hitting me off with 20% looked more like 2%. - If you didn't want to
get put out, you gotta pay. - It was a hotel. What short stayed $35. - Some things used to
go down in the bathrooms. - We had nice times at the Tunnel, you know what I'm saying? Using the bathroom. - I also had to go up there
and extract people from the toilets because we had what I call bath, the bathroom stall chicks. - On nights you didn't wanna get caught but it was different. That was kind of like the only club in New York that had the unisex bathroom. So you know, sometimes
you knew that the cutie was going to the bathroom. Sometimes the guy would be waiting for you to come out the bathroom. So it was kind of like, yeah that was his own pickup spot. - Every time I was like, hey, get out, get out, get out. You see the legs up, the panties down, girls on their knees
and hey what you doing? We're almost, she's done. She's almost done. Come on, give her a minute. - Have I ever got picked
up at the bathroom? I mean I picked up
my lipstick off the floor but that's all I'm gonna say. - This dude was banging
this chick out so crazy. Next thing you know he popped
out with her and she fell on the floor and he was on top of her. I was like wow. - I would look down at the floor and I see four pair of feet like. - Carucci caught me in the
back smashing like this one nigga said oh shit, I'm back there smashing while the party, a lot of babies was made from the Tunnel. Just leave it like that. Just a lot of you niggas
is babies from the Tunnel. - That bathroom done seem some history. Shouts to Nelly, that bathroom done see some history. Oh my bad Shouts to Ja Rule. - We used to go in there 'cause we knew the girls was in there so we'd like to hang out to see who's who. See who would notice us. - Shouts to Bow Wow and that big booty Puerto Rican chick from Newark, New Jersey. By Broad Street in the projects. You know who I'm talking about. You know what you did with Bow Wow, why you going to rape that little nigga? (upbeat music) - Backstage is like the club amongst the club amongst friends and you, you see a little bit of
everything back there too. - Only a few people
can really get back there. - Backstage is where
we did all our interviews. - Since like you ain't on No Limit no more. What's the pros and cons of that. - Shit it got it got
motherfucking pros and cons. Because when I was brought with no limit, that was a motherfucking
mass unit, you know? But the pros, to it is you know I get, I get more attention
now to my individual self but that ain't always cool all the time, you know what I'm saying? But it's right now. Perfect. - What's up Cormega? - Chilling, chilling. What's the deal? - All right, so now let's
touch on your album. When is that coming out
and what can we look for? - The album coming out
like within three, four months. Like four months. And you could look for a lot
of rappers that lose they jobs when my shit come out. Because I'm real with my shit. A lot of rappers is repping thugs so I can't even rep thugs no more. I'm gonna let them keep that. I'm repping gangsters so you know, just gonna keep it gangster. - And if you a backstage man, chances are you got to experience what hip hop life and hip hop culture and being around hip hop
artists was really about. - Backstage of the Tunnel
was always a locked situation. What happens backstage is
mostly for the artists that were gonna perform that night, or the artists coming in that did not want to be too much in the crowd. - I'm gonna keep it a hundred. That's where all the so-called stars who was scary to be in the crowd, that's where they hung out at. - I remember we had Next one of the ones that go use the bathroom. He was like, I used the bathroom. I was like, it is over there. He was like I gotta
walk through that crowd. I said yes you do nigga
or you going be pissy. - Nobody was on a high horse at the time. - Like now backstage you probably have a lot of people that got their heads up high. Back then it wasn't like that. You know what I'm saying? Niggas was still on the grind. - So it was like a family atmosphere for a long time in there man. I mean niggas got they head busted but it was family fight. - I was back there one night. Pun whipped I think one of
Lord Tariq's people with a belt. - This little short black cat walking around talking about sex, money and drugs. Woo woo woo woo. Yo. All these German niggas in here. Pun got up. - Pun for a big dude, he got up off that couch. Yo, I remember that. His face got serious and I was like, okay, okay my man, they should have put him
on the Giants or something. - Took off his chain, grabbed the medallion. - He whipped that nigga's ass. - He backed up like that. About eight Terror Squad
started pounding on him. Pound, pound, pound. - And he was about to leave the building, but Peter Gunz made him come back in the building 'cause he wanted, they wanted to get that paper. - I seen Queen Latifah wild out, I remember Da Brat was drunk. They had to grab her ass backstage. - Jay-Z bodyguard tried to stop me from going backstage at my own party, my own show. Like I was head of security. You gonna tell me oh
you can't come back here. Jay's back here, it's shut off. He almost got 86'd. - We had Snoop out here. Snoop had like five charter
buses out here full of Crips and everybody that was down with
Death row at the time and we had to deal with that backstage. - The backstage at the Tunnel was where everybody wanted to be at because not only did we
have all the hottest MCs, all the hottest rappers up
and coming or very relevant at the time was backstage with the entourage. All the ladies, all the, all the hangers on, everybody wanted to get back
there 'cause they was either shopping their music or
trying to get into be part of the clique or be part of the entourage. - Half of New York City, the women that used to go to clubs, especially during the Tunnel days, you could say what you want. I don't care what kind of job, what kind of title you hold, you as a groupie because then everybody that came here
done got New York head from whatever, wherever they
come, wherever they came from. I know Nelly did I know Luda did. - You ready? You ready to fucking sink or swim? That's what, that's the conversations
that went down back then. Like look nigga, this
ain't no fucking bullshit. This is straight grimey
hood, hip hop niggas. If you ain't going up there to rock, don't go on that stage. - You know everybody wanna be on stage. That's my boy. You okay? We need one hype man. You need whoever's performing. We don't need all of this up here. - The Tunnel was one of the
only clubs in New York where you didn't really want to get
backstage because everything was popping so much. You know in the crowd by the bar. - God bless the dead. Biggie was my man. Biggie and them at the bar. LL Cool J with the red mink on, at the bar giving out shots of Alize with the FUBU dudes. - Maybe now that's backstage
the best place but the Tunnel. Outside. That's where all the action was. (upbeat music) - I'm tired of niggas always talking about the guns they burst. Nigga please, you only squeeze December the 31st. The time round bout 1145 is the only time lead come out your 45. - The best performance I ever seen Jay-Z performed in front of the DJ booth when
"Hard Knock Life" came on. The DJ booth was bouncing like a ball. - First of all. I want y'all to know tonight, right? If anybody ever been to the Tunnel. Y'all know. Niggas usually perform
back there somewhere. They make a stage and all that shit. They ain't wanna make a stage for me. They said if I perform it'll caused a riot. - Ain't being biased with Jay-Z. - When this nigga came on, yo and the nigga said all the bustas y'all got five seconds. All you see a nigga shit start leaking. They were winding that back. - Gimme that shit again Jay. - By the way, we run this shit. - Drop that shit for me scratch. - So Jay was like yo we not
doing none of the radio shit. I can't remember how I started this show but I think I was saying like uh- - If all the little youngins in here, y'all came here to hear. - Hard Knock Life. - It's not going down like that. You're in the wrong
motherfucking place tonight. - I was just naming all
big radio records Jay had. "If y'all came in here to hear!" (shouting) - And then I threw on something. I can't remember which record I threw on, but I threw on some gritty Jay-Z shit. And that's how we started the show. - Jermaine Dupri and Jay-Z. - Pun album release party. - The best performance
at the Tunnel for me, Hands down as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg. - If I have to go with one, when the West coast invaded the Tunnel, - Snoop and Dre. - When Dre was there. - Snoop Dogg and the whole Death Row. - When Snoop and Dre got on that stage and they saw the love that they had got from
all these east coasts. They couldn't believe it. - I never thought I'd see them in Tunnel. - Can I hit this shit? Somebody say smoke that shit. Say smoke that shit. And now look here, if the police come up
here trying to arrest me, Which one of y'all motherfuckers are gonna fuck them up? Say fuck the police! Say fuck the police! (crowd shouting) These are my kinda niggas right here Dre. - Nate Dogg was on stage with them too. - That DMX performance
at the Tunnel was my best. - DMX get at me dog. - DMX get at me dog. We went up to a hundred
dollars that night at the door. - Diddy and the family. - The best performance was Nas. - Nas. - Nas came in here and did his thing. - God son. - I'ma say Busta man, Busta used to just tear that shit down. He always had that energy. - You just knew Busta was gonna be a star. - Timbaland came and he
bought Aaliyah (indistinct). - I remember the
atmosphere just being crazy. I remember everybody
in the joint packed crazy. Everybody's just there supporting. I love the Tunnel man. - Onyx. - Onyx in the Tunnel was crazy. - We did the Tunnel shreds. You hear me? - Turn that shit off. - [Man] All right niggas what up? What's up, man? (crowd shouting) - Yo where you at? - No more shining suits.
- New York where you at? They're my niggas what's up? What's up dirty crowd? (indistinct) - We did out thing in
there a couple of times too. - Naughty by Nature, they rocked it when they were there. - When, Uncle Luke had a show in there. - Luke tore it down. - Avant. - The Fugees - Capone and Noreaga. - Red and Meth. - Andre 3000. - I was there for 50 Cent debut. He came through, everybody was looking at
him like "Who this little nigga?" - Put your motherfucking hands up. What's up? Put your motherfucking hands up. Now say do that shit, do that shit, do what? - [Crowd] Do that shit. Do that shit. - I said do that shit,
do that shit, do what? - [Crowd] Do that shit. Do that shit. - Now if you all about the cash and making money fast, say hooo. - [Crowd] Hoooo! - If you got some in the stash and you staying getting ass say ow! (upbeat music) - King of the Tunnel record
label wise was Def Jam. Def Jam had the biggest roster back then. - Bad boy. - Bad boy. - I used to always see Def Jam street team outside with the picket sticks up there. Them motherfuckers was in full force. - Bad boy and Ruff Ryder. - I say Bad Boy and Def Jam. - Loud Records back then. - I would say Loud. - Bad boy. - Label wise? Roc-a-fella would be the king. And they were all coming with bangers. They said Beans was hot, Bleek was hot, Freeway was hot, Jay was hot. They had that much catalog
that you couldn't deny. - Obviously Bad Boy. - Def Jam. - Roc-a-fella. - Def Jam. - The label that represented the most in the Tunnel is Bad Boy. - Ruff Ryder. - Nervous Records - Def Jam. - Bad Boy. - Def Jam had the most artists at the time. You would have to say them
than they're like the bad boy era. Ruff Ryder era. - I'ma had to be Bad Boy. Puff was like a, a genius of promotion. I remember Tinker and everybody else, they used to have motherfucking
post signs out and shit. Bad Boy, Bad Boy. - Ruff Ryders and Bad Boy. Well it was only two labels
that ran the Tunnel and that was I'ma keep it a hundred. There's only one label that
was Bad Boy Entertainment. - It went from Bad Boy, then Biggie passed away
and then Jay came through. So 5 million then X sold 4 million. Then Ja Rule sold 4 million. - Def Jam was definitely
king of the Tunnel. - Def Jam was always a label. But it was a, it was different 'cause
it was a major label with a shit load of artists and a bunch of different types of people. It wasn't lifestyle like
Bad Boy was lifestyle. - The label that had the
strongest presence in the Tunnel is the label that been having the strongest presence in hip hop. And that's Def Jam bottom line, you know, respect to Death Row, respect to Bad Boy, respect to all these other independent labels as well as majors. But when you see that stamp
Def Jam from the LL Cool J era, later on, it's significant that they had
the mean roster and whoever came from that roster, they made it happen. Which is the reason why a person like Flex got signed to Def Jam to put out what you called the
album at that time or CD later on called the Tunnel. (upbeat music) - King of the Tunnel. - The king of the
Tunnel is a lot of people. - Whoa, that's that's a hard one. Whoa. That's a hard one. 'cause because I think B I G. - I would say Biggie first. - The king of the Tunnel. Jay probably broke the record up in there. Like Bruce Springsteen at the
Garden and Paul McCartney, the run that is how many
times you done wrecked and Jay probably done been up in there more
than any god damned body. - Oh Jay-z. - Biggie was there every
motherfucking week man. Smoking, drinking. - I think Big was the
Tunnel until we lost him. - I can't really say anybody was really the king of that building. Snoop came through the
building, he shut it down. Jay came through the
building, he shut it down. - King of the Tunnel was a toss up between Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. - I want to say Jay-Z, but it wouldn't be fair just to
say him because Fat Joe was probably the one that came
and always held us down. - Queensbridge come in
there real heavy behind Nas. LOX may come down there heavy from Yonkers. - Jay, DMX and Nas. - Jay-Z or Biggie or DMX, right? - The Tunnel was crowded every Sunday, but when Jay came in there, it was a whole nother level. - Jay-Z. Oh my god. When Jay-Z was coming, that was it. - The king of the Tunnel was Jay-Z. Hands down every time we had him, the police would be outside. You got five minutes
to get him off the stage and we coming in. That's never happened for
no other artists in that building. - Get into the X man, the dark man. - Yo, that was Biggie. - And you could throw
Busta Rhymes in there too. - The king of the Tunnel
had to be Jay-Z 'cause he was consistent. You remember he always said it. Jigs held you down six
summers, where's the love. - Big smashed the
motherfucking Tunnel up heavy. Jay smashed the Tunnel up. Can't front with them
Yonkers niggas though. Ruff Ryders came through there and smashed that motherfucker up. - King of the Tunnel for
me would be the DJ himself. - Nobody. (upbeat music) - Damn Queen of the skuns. - The queen of the Tunnel man. Gotta be Lil Kim, man. Between her and Foxy. - Fox and Kim. - I'm gonna put it between both of them. Foxy and Lil Kim. - Back then it was Lil Kim. - That was definitely Lil Kim. She was on her shit at that time. Foxy was moving but Queen was the queen. - I think maybe Foxy got it 'cause Foxy would come
through a little harder. - Kim had the army behind her. They was both in there
like they was niggas man. - Even Queen Pen was
in there doing her thing. - Queen Pen did her thing in there and Queen Pen was running it for a minute. - Mary J. Blige. - The obvious music wise, I would say Lil Kim between her and Foxy. When it came to touching the stage, I never seen Lil Kim rip the Tunnel stage. I never seen Foxy rip the
Tunnel stage with music, play and rip in the stage. It would be Eve. - I think I might've saw Eve
more in the Tunnel than Kim. So I would say Eve - I would say that's a good argument because Eve had a lot of
heat out at that time too. - It probably would have been Eve. - Probably gotta get that shit to Lil Kim. - Eve was hot, she was smoking but Queen B. - There is no queen when it comes to that. That's her building. (upbeat music) - The best DJ in the Tunnel. I would have to say. - Kid Capri used to come
through there and shake it. Clark Kent used to come
through there and shake it. Chuck Chillout used to come
through there and shake it. A lot of cats came
through there and shook it. - Oh well that goes without saying. - Who's the best DJ at the Tunnel? It was just a trick question. I was the best DJ at the Tunnel. - The best DJ at the Tunnel was Flex. - Big Kap all day. Flex use to break off the record. But he used to try to bully Kap like don't spin this 'cause when I get here I want to spin it. No nigga fuck wrong with you. - And then it was a lot of times I played joints that was hot and then Flex would come in there and hear him and then he'd be like, yo don't play that,
I'm gonna play that. I'm gonna start playing that joint. I'd be like, yo, go ahead. I got a million of them. - Fumble King. He was the fumble king sometime. I ain't gonna lie. Flex used to fucking
fumble like a motherfucker. - I like how Kap played because Kap will warm you up with a good R&B set. You know what I'm saying? Or he played a lot of joints that Flex didn't or wouldn't play. Everybody in this bitch make
some fucking noise (Shouting) - And I was fortunate enough to do the B.I. B.I. with Lil John and I remember and I'm
playing this song and Flex was like, yo, this is not gonna pop. This is not hot. But I know when I'm out
town and I'm we getting, I'm running with Lil John
and the joint is banging. But you know New York was
slow on a Southern record and then that joint popped off became
one of the biggest records and then not for nothing. I was the first New York DJ to start playing Southern music, south music in the clubs
and I started playing it in the Tunnel. - Them niggas that was before Flex. Used to have that shit popping big time. They was the reason I came. - I was in charge of setting you up and getting you right and getting you bouncing and making you bounce and keeping you going. I was the new and improved
version of Funk Master. Flex. - Kap would start him up. You may have skipped a couple records, still love you Kap. But Flex. - I'm gonna say Flex is the best DJ. - To star of the show. Funk Master Flex. - I'm gonna say Big Kap and Flex, I can't think of any other DJs but Johnny Walker Red, Kap and Flex. - Ooh, holy shit. Fucking Johnny. Yo Johnny used to have that shit popping. Johnny Walker. I forgot about fucking Yes, yo Johnny fucking. I don't think nobody even knew. That's when I was walking in the spot when Johnny was on the motherfucking set. That nigga was tapping shit. I was walking in there dancing like that. - The best DJ at the Tunnel besides me. Well I mean you gotta
give it to Flex Man like yo, he made that crowd almost
push bricks out of the building. - Best DJ was Flex. - Flex. - That was Flex's pet. Nobody's messing with his pet. - Flex. That's the house that Flex built. - Kid Capri was definitely one dude that that I would say was the best dj. - The outside of me. Flex was the only one I seen in rock it. - The best guest DJ at the
Tunnel was Jermaine Dupri. - Funk Master Flex. - It's gotta be Flex. - There wouldn't be a Tunnel without Funk Master Flex. - My partner Kap, yo Big Kap was terrorizing. - It was a setup the way he did it. We had Johnny Walker Red, he opened, he played all the Mary
and all the nice R&B. Then you had Kap come on, he warmed it up, he's praying the gritty. And then Flex. Flex is playing all the hits all night. - Flex is to the Tunnel
around the rest of the DJs like Michael Jordan is to the Bulls. But who is the best? I can't say in judgment because sometimes you may have one that have a better night than the other. You know it may be a night
that the opener may set the tone so strong that the finisher
may not be as strong as the opener and then it may be vice versa. So it's hard to say, you know and no, no, no. I'm not trying to be
politically correct on this. I'm just telling the truth
because I had bad nights myself. - Hold on Flex. Pop that Crystal Flex Compliments of my
nigga Irv Gotti (shouting) Flex is coming out with his
solo album too on Loud record. It's gonna be ill. Big
Kap on Universal records. Then we come back again. The
Tunnel Part 2 on Def Jam Record You good, Baby? You good? Let's do it. My nigga - There was a one time, there
was a shootout in a Tunnel. Yo started busting guns. - The place was going nuts. And Mark Murray said go
in there and tell Flex to start playing some ladies tunes and tone it down. And as I run in there to get
in the DJ booth, boom boom. - Some nigga started shooting. - Shots are fired. Up against the brick wall
right near the main bar. - I'm seeing the nigga shooting. They rushing everybody out. This nigga go run out. - Big Kap grabbed me. We all went down under the booth. - Shootouts fights, everything happened in the
Tunnel like it was just crazy. But we still came back. I don't know why but we did. We loved it. It was fucking crazy. It was incredible. - I seen a lot of people get busy, you know I'm gonna say I know
my man Nore and them used to regulate and I know we used to regulate. - Noreaga and Capone. - every time they in the
building or something jumping off the Murder Unit. - In the Tunnel. I seen rappers get smacked
like literally like by Niggas like, Son I don't give a fuck who you are. Whattow (smack) hold that. Get the outta here I don't
give a fuck you make records. Nigga, like, man I seen, I seen get chased around the Tunnel. Like oh my gosh yo, I ain't gonna, I ain't gonna pull, I ain't gonna put niggaz
on Front Street like that. - Puff came in there thought
he was big man, da da da. My man Tyson came through Excitement. Got that on tape. That ran out the DJ booth
like bitch took off like. Mother fucking Carl Lewis. Everybody. - Wanted to get that Diddy. Diddy was fly. You know they want to get, and it wasn't even Diddy then it was Puff. - Pun's girl was with somebody. She was hanging out with some dude. Man they beat that dude unconscious. I mean they just jumped in
on the stage and mean and just put the boot to this nigga, man. I mean he just just stretched
him out in the hallway and just left him. She's screaming, you know what I mean? Help we trying to help this lifeless. I mean they done beat
the blood out the nigga. He just stretched. - I watched Mobb Deep come off the stage performing and they men the godson robbed him right
at the bar 'cause they didn't wait for him to come in with him. - I beat up a couple
of niggas in the tunnel. Statue of Limitations is
up on them crimes anyway. Yeah been poked up all types of ish. You be walking out like, damn man This nigga bleeding on my shit
I'm laughing now because as I reminisce about it, you got me thinking
about it shit really funny but it was really, real and wicked. - Freaky Ty. God bless the Dead man
but Freaky Ty used to them, used to get it in. The Lost Boys I, I'm gonna move them to the
top of the list 'cause they used to get their asses whipped on the regular. - Lost. - Boys. Some was just
yo Yeah, yeah I've seen, I've actually seen Lost Boys
get thrown out the Tunnel. - Not meant to be trouble,
you know what I'm saying? No it just we roll deep,
you know what I'm saying? We just wanted to get
everybody in. You know man. - Them was the Knucklehead niggas. - Kind of hard to control a bunch of dudes, you know what I'm saying? That's just hype. You know what I'm saying? We was LB fam, you know what I mean? We he we doing the street team type thing. We just promoting. I don't know man. Wu-tang
Security and Wu used to give it in? - Oh what artists games? The Tunnel security most problems. Wu-Tang Clan One night it
was a night of the Source awards. We had a all out brawl with Wu-Tang. One dude cut O's arm O was
bleeding O pull out pull out his weapon and he had one in the chamber. He tried to put another one
in the chamber and jammed it. And that's, that's what saved that guy. Black Rob man Black
Rob used to test security. - We would always get
into with Anthony Mason 'cause he would come from the Knicks. You know he played with the Knicks. He had that paper he would
come in there, get drunk, thought he was Wilder
Beast and we had to put them paws up on him. - That Dres alcoholic, I've
seen him getting tossed out. - I might got the most beef
with security on them days. My attitude was just horrible. - A lot of beef was over Chicks. - My man P and Keith, I know both of them so don't
take no offense to this Mobb Deep did the second album
"Infamous" and he had a acapella or he had a talk about yo these rappers talking all that space shit. And then Keith Murray
took it on his thing like "Yo you talking about me 'cause I be talking that space shit." Then he seen him at the
Tunnel outside right around here, put it on him, you know what I'm saying? Like I don't know exactly
what happened afterwards but I know that Keith put it
on P you know what I'm saying? (upbeat music) - My job at the end of the night was to clean out the building, make sure all the security
line up and make sure we clear the building out and then have everybody look over the building. - Clear the bathroom first down, upper level down to the downstairs, go to the back of the
Tunnel where the stage was from the food, clear it all
the way out to the coat check. Then we would come outside
and we would have to clear the block from 12th
Avenue to the 11th Avenue. - Most of the time we had
chicks waiting for us to get our bread and pack up them records. - Was clean up all the records,
put 'em back in their place, close them up and take
'em home for the next event. - So I would have to help all the other DJs carry their records out. - Making sure my street
team was at the male exit, the female exit, getting the email
addresses passing some flies off for the next week's event. - Soon the performance was
over and go right to the car and jet back to the Bronx. - I would mark all the
tapes, you know who I shot, the interviews, whatever,
pack up all the equipment. - My exit at the Tunnel,
get your coat, time to go. - Going to security first
and letting them say, "Yeah go outside, no don't go outside." - Spin a club by one two times. - We used to have arguments with my girls, these bitches never wanna fucking leave. So the exit was horrible. - When the lights came
on and nobody really moved. - A lot of people didn't
know that the Tunnel had another room that was full of fur. It had fur on the floor. It had these funky
little psychedelic couches and funky pitches, black
light pitches on the wall. - People were out of the Tunnel and we was back there still partying. - Are we gonna parking lot
pimp or we gonna hurry up through get something to eat. So it all depends on
who was rolling out with and how many you were rolling out with and where you guys wanted to go. But it was never really home. - You gotta go get to
your car first, get your shit, clip it up and get ready just in case the jackers
wanna borrow something. - You know I knew all of the thuggers, you know what I'm saying
'cause I'm one of the main goons. So a lot of shit used to go on and sometimes you gotta turn your back. So my shit was make sure
I wasn't nowhere where I really didn't have to
turn my back on somebody that I ain't really wanna turn my back on. - When I left out of the Tunnel I prayed. - You see B.I.G. shit
pull up right in front. He just hop right in it blunt
lit police ain't saying shit, you know what I'm saying? They let niggas get it
because they know niggas is about to leave. They tour about to be all right. - Loop around a couple
times. Smoke hit the west side. - Our ritual was stick together. Hopefully we park close. If we didn't park close to each other, we drive each other to each other's cars. - Don't walk all the way up the block and not be a familiar face either, man, you head to walk 11th Avenue
and turn the wrong corner, man, the Goonies was out there
waiting man to catch the victims. I ain't gonna sit here and
say I done seen a lot of niggas running back yelling "Help,"
you know what I mean? Don't know what happened to you man. But look, man, you are
running the wrong way. We off duty. - For the end of the night, we probably sit around and count money 'cause we made a lot of money out here. - My ritual at the end of
the night was to sit on the top of the stairs with a whole
bunch of envelopes in my hand and calling off guys names. And as I call off they name, they come get they money
at the end of the night. If your name wasn't called and you worked and we ran into a fight and
you sat there talking to a bitch and when we finished we
came back with the perpetrators and you was still there
talking to the bitch at the end of the night, you ain't have an
envelope because that shit was in my back motherfucking pocket. And it wasn't a motherfucking
thing you could do about it. - If shit broke out and
you was in the area, and you wasn't helping, you had to fight for that
money at the end of the night. I wasn't just gonna turn
that money over to you. You had to put that work
in and in front of everybody. Some niggas wanted to fight,
some niggas didn't wanna fight. Some niggas went home without their paper and some niggas decided, "Okay listen, I least
gotta step up for it." - Oh, we hitting the corner, get some from franks and like
that at the corner, you know, Shish kabob or something like that. - We either went to 23rd
Street to the Chelsea dinner and got the motherfucking turkey burger or we hit the bridge. You know what I'm saying? We hit the bridge and
went to Brooklyn and stopped on Flatbush Avenue at
the motherfucking Blimpies and got something to
eat to soak up that liquor before we went to sleep. - If somebody had a couple dollars and took them to that dinner you know what the next stop was, right? Or should I say short stay? (upbeat music) - Closing the Tunnel sucked. - I mean that shit broke my heart. That shit still hurt me till today. - When I heard that it
was getting to close down, I like, "Damn, it's always
a dynasty getting ready come to an end." - Oh my god, I was so sad. - Took the Tunnel away. Like, why you wanna take the Tunnel away? - That shit was like a death in the family. - I ain't been the same since. (laughs) - It was like a crushing event for my life. - The closing of the
Tunnel, it was kind of sad because that was a big piece of hip hop. - Yo losing the Tunnel was
like a little kid losing Disney. - The closing of the Tunnel was like a famous mosque closing down. - It was like the hood ain't really have nowhere to go after that. - I think when the Tunnel
closed, it was necessary. Niggas was coming up missing. - It was a shooting and
everything at the end. And it was over. Stabbing outside and somebody got killed. - I think it was time though, man, just 'cause niggas was getting hurt. Niggas was getting beat up, robbed. - The dude that owned it, Peter Gatien he was already involved with a whole bunch of other stuff. That last night was
like, I couldn't believe it. We was like, "Yo, it's over man." - It took away a piece
of New York night life. - A lot of people just lost, period. - Everybody dispersed,
went to different clubs. People moved up in the industry. - It helped me become an
independent entrepreneur by it closing, because
the content that I created, the shows that we did there,
it sharpened me as a producer and a director and I was
able to go on from there and do other television shows
that ultimately winded me up at BET producing Rad City. - For the mainstream
general market population in New York City, Limelight
closing affected them. The Latin side of it, when the Copa Cabana was
on 57th Street for all 'em years, you gotta see all 'em beautiful
performances and all that from Mark Anthony on down. When they closed, that
hurt a lot in that community. But I think in our era and in our time when the Tunnel closed
it closed a little bit of New York City. - To me it was like losing somebody. - My baby moms I found here. - It took a part of me away. - Once they closed it down, you was like, "Damn nigga, might as well
make it a NFL night all night." - Dude, your pocket changed,
man, when the Tunnel closed. - After the Tunnel was
closed, on Sunday, it's like, "Yo, wait a minute, I should
have more money than this." - If it didn't pay my whole
mortgage, it paid a part of it. - It fed a lot of security
guards, bartenders, bus boys, oh, the food people,
you know what I'm saying? It fed the parking attendants. It fed a lot of people for years. - Tunnel money put my son through college. - Tunnel closing actually
broke up a brotherhood. - Once the heart left and
kind of felt like, you know, there's nowhere to go. - All right, you gotta go
fuck with these suckers at this club. This little white bitch
witch with the clipboard who don't know who the fuck I am. - It was the end of an era. It was like how when you
hear people of the late 70s who went to Studio 54
talked about Studio 54 and they had their regulars
and their celebrities, you know, the Tunnel was the Studio 54 hip hop. - You couldn't do what
you could do in the Tunnel in any other club because
they was in the wrong position as far as streets. The zoning laws was different. The police commissioners
wasn't taken care of. The captains didn't like certain people. You know what I'm saying? And when that shit closed, man, it didn't affect me till
I really realized that, "Yo the fucking Tunnel closed, man?" That's some bullshit. - The Tunnel, it had a good run, man. You know, I mean. I forgot how many years it was, but it kept going
because after what Jessica and Chris Lighty, rest
in peace have prevailed, Flex kept it running right after them and made it stretch out as long as he can. But you know what they say, "Good things all come to an end." (upbeat music) - Oh man. Big O. - Big Otis. - Big Otis. Yes, God rest his soul. Yep. - Big Otis. - Big Ant. - Big Ant. God rest his soul. - Big C. - Big C. Yes. Bubba. Which one? The Bubba one or Bubba two? - Bubba. - Which one, I don't know which one. - Africa. - Africa. Yep. - Wow. - Troy. Big Troy. - Big Troy. God rest his soul. - A lot of brothers. - Just to name a few. Just to name a few. (indistinct) - Hold on, I got to think, man. It's a lot. Big J.C. - Big J.C. - Big up. - Bigga pass? - Yeah. Bigga pass. - Wow, I didn't even know that. - J.C my man, Dez. - (indistinct) - Oh, (indistinct) wow! (upbeat music)
