February 15th, 2012 at 3:09am. Atlanta.
I had the camera. This is what was happening behind the scenes while "Same Damn Time" was becoming what it became, and none of this footage has been out until now.
Future who went on to stack multiple number one albums and reshape what Atlanta rap sounds like. Sonny Digital produced the record you were all listening to that night, and his fingerprints are across some of the biggest hip-hop records made in the years that followed. Luney Tunez was building in that same circle and went on to co-produce Rihanna's "Loveeeeee Song."
DJ Esco was locked in the way he always was around Future, the same partnership that would later give the world 56 Nights and everything that came with it. Greg Street was already a veteran of Atlanta radio, still holding it down at V-103. Waka Flocka Flame was Waka Flocka Flame, CEO of Brick Squad Monopoly, exactly who he has always been. Stuey Rock was in the building too, an Atlanta artist who kept making independent music long after this night.
Alley Boy. Young Scooter. (R.I.P. 🦅♾️)
This city was doing something at 3 in the morning that most people did not see until much later. I saw it through a lens. Now you do too.
Follow @grindhd for more footage from the archive.

