This Throwback Video Of Club Strawberries In 1991 Is Lafayette Gold
I love a good Lafayette throwback and right now this is one of my favorites.
Club Strawberries was a hip hop club located off of Lake Martin road back in the early 90s. Because it was BYOB the club was able to stay open until the sun came up (and most times it did).
As a DJ, the first thing I noticed were the records being played in the club—from D.O.C. to RUN DMC. Also, it was pretty amazing to see people actually DANCING with NO PHONES in their hands.
I spoke with Troy-D who was one of the DJs at Strawberries back in the day and he said that it was an experience that will never be duplicated.
Man it was our Soul Train. The Hippest Trip in America! The place where we did concerts that included every artist popular from New Orleans to Texas and National Artists as well. We literally stayed open til the sun came up.The only club where you can bring a WHOLE ice chest of beer/liquor. Lines would be down the Lake Martin road to the Breaux Bridge Hwy.
It's crazy to hear the lineup of artists that actually ran through that club. According to Troy-D, the legendary venue saw regional acts (at the time) like UGK, Master P, and Cash Money artists to national acts like Outkast, Ice Cube, and Too Short.
One of the biggest names to perform at Club Strawberries was 2pac, and the story behind it all reads like one of those VH1 Behind The Music documentaries.
2pac performed there and got his chained snatch off his neck...he was on stage getting ready to perform..we were doing a soundcheck...I was the dj..I remember what song I was playing while we were waiting for the soundcheck to finish(Scarface: Now I feel ya)when someone threw a beer can @ him. He told the crowd he would pay $50 to whoever could point out who did it...someone did!..he and his entourage jumped off the stage to go after the person that did it and someone snatched his chain off his neck...TOTAL CHAOS man!!!!!...things turned into a stampede!!!
Pretty amazing story. I'm not sure what other footage is available, but if you wanna dig deeper on this #TBT then check out what former Strawberries owner and local promoter Bobby Callier has up for grabs.
It was also borderline awkward to see so many people so close together. Will we ever see clubs this packed again? Only time will tell.