• Christina Lee

As former residents of Le Castle Vania's Fuck Yesss parties, Street Lurkin has also warmed up crowds for Kid Sister, A-Trak, and Steve Aoki. They can command casually-dressed crowds with synchronized spirit fingers and severe bass drops. But last Friday night, in their attempts to open for Tommy Lee (yup, that one) and DJ Aero at Gold Room, Street Lurkin got stuck with a sparse and mostly sober Buckhead crowd that seemed slow to hit the dance floor.

Last night Lil B, the most unflappably uncategorizable figure in hip-hop, gave a rambling, near-ninety minute lecture at NYU's Kimmel Center in which the BasedGod shared his thoughts on life, love and the human condition to a packed and ecstatic house. Below, an audio clip of the entire thing for your workday listening pleasure. (FADER also has a transcript, which, wow, that must've taken all damn night to type out.)

The surprising thing about the Berkeley rap misfit's lengthy screed isn't that it's topically all over the place (insects? cuddling? hygiene?), or even that B touches on some relevant and pressing socioeconomic issues (war, commerce, media) in unique and interesting ways. It's that he somehow manages to pull it all together into one enormous, life-affirming message. Those familiar with the rapper's M.O. know that love and positivity are a big part of the dude's deal; that there's evidently such a deep well of substance behind the buzz words is an unexpectedly pleasant realization. (His lyrics haven't exactly, uh, confirmed this thus far.)

I'd post excerpts from the speech but really, none would do the full message justice on its own. Read or listen to the whole thing (there are also several video clips floating around). Trust me. You'll be glad you did.

• brandon english
• Terminal West

Since January, while covering a 10-mile radius within city limits, I've strolled into trendy lounges, gay dive bars and what felt like a collegiate's first nightclub — and then texted, from around 10:30 p.m. until, oh, last call. My behavior's provoked many questions: "What are you doing?" "Why aren't you dancing?" "Working? You don't look like you're working. Why aren't you drinking? You look like you don't know how to have fun."

To that guy at Havana Club — funny, I didn't catch your name — consider this (incredibly consolidated) notebook dump as proof that, yes, I was working. In fact, when I first dove into Atlanta's nightlife scene, I approached it like a tourist, complete with an itinerary of events, whether seemingly overhyped or overlooked. But as I've found at places like Opera, Mary's, and Terminal West, nightlife isn't solely determined by its venue and its marketing — but by some bizarre, elusive equation that also factors in the people, the social lubricants of choice and other things I've yet to completely figure out:

Love it or hate it, the Astronaut kid could very well be the Future of Atlanta rap. Here's footage from Dungeon Family descendant Future's album listening session at Stankoni Studios last night, courtesy Cam Kirk:

Future hosted his album, Pluto, listening session at the legendary Stankonia Studios. Future went through his entire album playing records with R. Kelly and Snoop Dogg. As his hit Same Damn Time dropped, Future took the mic and gave the crowd an exclusive performance.

Meanwhile, That Retail Chick Desiree Williams, took snaps of just about every Atlanta industry VIP — and there were many, from DJs to tastemakers, artists to label execs — that showed up. Looks like the home team's on board for the launching of Pluto, on Epic Records, April 17.

“I ain’t never been here,” T.I. let us know last night. “They been telling me a lot of shit about it.”

He commenced to playing the hits ("Rubber Band Man," “Whatever You Like,” “What You Know”), and talked a lil' shit:

“Ya’ll ain’t give me no muthafuckin’ dancers,” he shouted out...

But mostly, he gave people hope, and a reason to believe that the old T.I. was born anew:

It was a limited-run appearance, designed to remind everyone that when T.I.'s on, he’s really on. It’s been a while; it was nice to see again. A gentleman to the left of me certainly agreed. Presumably in appreciation of the rejuvenated T.I., the guy had lit up a blunt, then grabbed giant piles of cash out of his pockets. As the smoke swirled around him, and while rocking to the beat, he held the money triumphantly over his head. It was certainly an appropriate response.

• Prince Williams/ATLPics.net
• The Kang and the Godfather

Robert Deniro and T.I. partied (and politicked?) at Atlanta nightlife maverick Alex Gidewon's club Vanquish last night. TMZ posted pics shot by nightlife photographer Prince Williams of ATLPics.net, who's Twitter timeline shows he was justifiably crunk as he shot De Niro with Tip, Ludacris' manager Chaka Zulu, and Mr. Gidewon himself:

Could this be the beginning of an onscreen collaboration between the Godfather and the Kang? The Gangster and the Gangsta. Or was De Niro in Vanquish checking out the goods? (Don't act like y'all didn't know De Niro's been down with the swirl.) Perhaps he's shooting a flick in town? Or maybe he was just looking for the Trey Songz concert afterparty. I vote the latter.

See more pics below the jump:

• Chad Radford
• Allen Taylor of Mirror Mode

Taylor and Wakefield, along with Lockett Pundt (of Deerhunter), make up the Lotus Plaza live band for a show at 529 on Wed., March 7, with Mirror Mode, Psychic Ills, X-Ray Eyeballs, and Lyonnais. $8-$10. 9 p.m. 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769.

• Christina Lee

Inside Museum Bar's basement, on this particular Thursday night, they were the only sight worth beholding.

DJ Scream signed to Maybach Music last August. HOT 107.9 added his Sirius XM Hip-Hop Nation show, Hoodrich Radio, to its Sunday lineup two weeks ago. He's won over Rick Ross, and he's worked on mixtapes for Young Jeezy (1000 Grams), Travis Porter (Music, Money, Magnums), and CyHi da Prynce (Jack of All Trades, also hosted by DJ Spinz) among a dozen others. The New York Times didn't mention his involvement in Rich Forever, but the venerable publication still loved how the mixtape turned out.

But this particular crowd of close to 150 people at Museum Bar's Mardi Gras event "Masquerade" didn't need him to dictate their tastes — especially the handful with white earbuds on. They didn't mind hearing Future's "Same Damn Time" twice, the second time when HOT 107.9's DJ A-Plus took the stage after Scream. For every one female there were five males just standing there, spectating, maybe holding a Corona Light, and occasionally leaning back. Hardly anyone drank; then again, hardly anyone looked old enough to do so. If a girl walked up to a guy, turned her back toward him and thrust her vibrating ass into his hands, he stood and held on tight. Still, even though colorful lights rapidly circled and scanned the floor, Museum Bar's most noticeable glow came from iPhones. Whether standing on or seated off of the dance floor, bodies slumped into cushions as if they'd been watching TV for hours. The crowd texted, tweeted, Instagramed. More than an hour into DJ Scream's set, one of Museum Bar's hired dancers even started to check her phone; her right thumb texting as her left hand held onto the pole.