Trinida$ James at Velvet Jones

By the time Trinidad Jame$ took the stage at Velvet Jones last week, most of the crowd had been there for hours. However, that time spent in anticipation of the Atlanta emcee was not spent in vain. The stage was occupied the entire time by groups of rappers or dancers, some (or most) of whom appeared to have been members of the audience in the minutes prior to their performance.

It wasn’t really clear who was performing most of the time, though a couple of guys wearing matching tee’s bearing the text “SAILOR GANG TILL I DIE” seemed to be some sort of formal outfit. Throughout the night, we were implored to “GET READY FOR TRINIDAD JAME$!” and “LIGHT BLUNTS!” So by the time he took the stage (around 11:45), I was both ready and mildly contact high.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Trinidad Jame$ phenomenon, go ahead and search for “Trinidad Jame$ All Gold Everything.” This was his first video, for his first single, a cut off of his first record, 2012’s Don’t Be S.A.F.E. Less than eight months after the release of “All Gold Everything” (which eventually charted on Billboard’s Hot 100), Jame$ signed a collaborative deal with Def Jam Records to launch a label for approximately $2 million.

Trinidad performed all but a few of the songs on S.A.F.E., but a call-and-response portion of “All Gold Everything” was, essentially, the star of the show, which clocked in at right around 20 minutes.