In the area, DJ Pretty Boy Tank was known for DJing high school parties and for being part of locally known rap group Die-Hard, alongside Vee and Myko. He was in the midst of parlaying his success to adult clubs but hardly anybody came to Decatur’s A-Town East for his first attempts to do so in 2007. The club’s owner believed in his popularity enough to give him another shot, which became the following summer’s Wasted Wednesdays, a weekly bouillabaisse of sweat, twerk, and colorful polos that lasted all season long.
The $3 per drink/$15 per pitcher deal was an easy draw, and Pretty Boy remembers the procession of pitchers serving the thirsty crowd. “Wasted Wednesdays was one of those parties where it was like walking into somebody’s basement,” he says. “There were barely seats, one big ol’ stage, and the DJ booth. It was just a vibe. If you didn’t leave sweaty, you didn’t have a good time.” As for what was in those pitchers: “No Hpnotiq, but we had punch that looked like Hpnotiq.”
Mook, Myko, Vee, and Easton were pretty much the only ones leaning left-to-right in unison when Pretty Boy Tank dropped their record for the first time at a July 2008 edition of the party. The next week, half the club followed along. Most of the venue joined in by week three. The anthem then circulated around several of the Dekalb County clubs it eventually outlasted, hitting Figure 8 when it wasn’t just the site of a humble discount mall, and Studio 72 before it shuttered its doors. It’d eventually become a mainstay on Atlanta radio. “[Radio DJs] were like, ‘The shit sounds horrible,’” says F.L.Y.’s then-manager Major Profit about that original mix. “But they had to play it because it’s in high demand. By this time, the city knew it. It was one of those things where they had to play it.”
Pretty Boy says “Swag Surfin’” grew to accumulate millions of MySpace plays, which would make it a clear target for major labels eager to duplicate the success of Soulja Boy, hip-hop’s first viral star. Def Jam signed F.L.Y. at the top of 2009 and officially released the re-recorded version that March. The opening horns became clarion and the bass grew muscle. “With the Def Jam version, when them drums hit, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I know what song that is,’” Pretty Boy says. “Even to this day, you hear them drums or them horns, you’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, I know what song that is.’ You could hear it from outside the club, a couple cars down if you’re in traffic, or wherever.”
Thus, “Swag Surfin’” became yet another Southern hit in an era that delivered Gucci Mane and Plies’ “Wasted,” Young Money’s “Every Girl,” and Roscoe Dash’s “All the Way Turnt Up.” Ten years later, those singles’ charm largely rests on nostalgia. But “Swag Surfin” has remained present and restorative enough for many to earnestly believe in its spiritual properties.
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