Introduction by Christopher Kevin Au // Words by DJ Levins, Captain Franco and DJ Leonard Smith

Halfway Crooks have spent the past seven years delivering turn-up anthems at their rambunctious club nights, and this weekend might be their most spectacular Southern soiree yet: A night dedicated to the city of Atlanta.

It’s no secret that Atlanta’s burgeoning rap scene has always been influential on a global scale – Dungeon Family and 1017 Records are just two revered stables from ATL, and in recent years everybody from Rae Sremmurd to Young Thug have found great crossover success. Moreover, trap music – the city’s signature sound pioneered by the likes of T.I. and Young Jeezy – has gone on to dominate not only hip-hop, but dance shows and festivals to this very day. #EDM

This Saturday night, Halfway Crooks residents DJ Levins and Captain Franco will be banging out all that ATL goodness at Plan B Small Club, but they won’t be alone. They’ve recruited Australia’s Number. 1 Strip Club DJ, Leon Smith to join the activities! It’s a special guest that makes a lot of sense: Leon is perhaps one of the only Sydney selectors who has a photo with crunk legend Lil Jon, while his preference for playing to pole-dancers aligns well with Atlanta’s reliance on strip clubs for hits – just ask Future.

In preparation for the night, Levins and Franco deicded to test out some of their favourite Atlanta anthems against Leon Smith – who helpfully adds some advice on strip club etiquette into his editorial. See how it went down below, and prepare to get ignorant this Saturday night:

TRAVIS PORTER ‘MAKE IT RAIN’

Levins: I once saw Leon DJ at Bada Bing for four straight hours on his birthday, ending his set with Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’, triumphantly pumping his fists as every single person in the club gave him the finger and yelled at him for playing Miley. Before he did that though, he played this Travis Porter song twice in a row and not one person gave him the finger. Random trivia: The only person I’ve ever made it rain on in Bada Bing is Jake from Mary’s Burgers, as seen in this Vice video.

Leon: As I’ve mentioned before, this is maybe the quintessential strip club anthem. It’s almost literally a strip club scientific equation/mathematical formula. The perfect track to play when the guys sitting around the stage aren’t tipping enough. And if they don’t start tipping they get ‘Window Shopper‘ played for them. Don’t be a window shopper.

GUCCI MANE ‘FREAKY GURL’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIMaYajamyw

Levins: We are pretty much only doing this party to celebrate Gucci Mane being free now. This is maybe my favourite Gucci anthem.

Leon: The word on the street is that Sydney hip-hop personality Ray Jones is going to throw hands if at least 34 minutes of Gucci isn’t played at Crooks on Saturday. I’d say it’s more likely he’ll hear at least 34 minutes of Gucci from each DJ. Dive into the YouTube comments of this track for an excellent debate on whether or not Gucci’s songs have been ghostwritten by Drake because he references ‘The 6’. Holy shit, people are dumb.

CRIME MOB ‘STILETTOS (PUMPS)’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5uwJZEYBOM

Levins: Crime Mob are one of the most underrated groups from Atlanta, mainly because of the two female rappers in the crew, Diamond and Princess. Most Crime Mob songs are an impatient wait for the male rappers to shut up for Diamond and Princess to start rapping, but this song is the best because it only features Diamond and Princess. Also it’s the most crunk song about shoes since The Eagles.

Leon: Maaaaaaan I love Diamond. She should be a top five female rapper, but then who do I take out of my list: Honey Cocaine, Zendaya, Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea or Sky’High? Rhetorical question, do not answer. Also, fun fact: If you hear something that sounds like a gun shot in a strip club, nine times out of 10 it’s a stripper banging her stiletto on the stage to get the manager’s attention. The 10th time it’s an actual gun shot though.

SHAWTY LO ‘POCAHONTAS’ FT. TWISTA & WALE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6sogxyr0cE

Franco: Ultimate strip club anthem in my opinion, putting the onus back on the stripper who claims she can, in fact, make it rain. I play this song a lot and it never gets old.

Leon: Wale is on a disproportionate number of great strip club tracks considering how kinda boring he is, right? To be fair he’s never that bad on these jams. ‘Bounce It’, ‘So Many Girls’, ‘Clappers’, ‘No Hands’ – You do you, Olubowale.

YOUNG JEEZY ‘SUPAFREAK’ FT. 2 CHAINZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9chJZcHU6_o

Franco: This is basically a modern day love song: Getting super gik’d in the club, money flowing, good times – but even tho everything looks good on the outside, Jeezy is really just looking for a companion, one who has supafreak-ish tendencies. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Leon: As heard on my award-winning mixtape Ignorant Shit 2: Valentine’s Day Edition. Hey, it took five tracks for 2 Chainz to pop up in a strip club tracks list, that has to be some kind of record. This is a banger. I’d love to have more adjectives to throw in here but it’s simply a banger.

LUDACRIS ‘DO SOMETHING STRANGE’ FT. RICK ROSS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnkAb70jisM

Franco: I love the fact that ‘do something strange’ could mean almost anything, for instance a stripper just standing in front of you and pulling strange faces, which would be a really bad strip show.

Leon: If the word ‘strange’ wasn’t added to the end of this track’s name, it would be the worst possible thing you could say to a stripper. Just tip them and they’ll do nice things. Never, ever tell them to ‘do something’ before you tip.