Just Jay: Back in the Day

 My goal with this BLOG is to take my readers on a journey through the EDM scene as I experienced it going back to the late 1980s in Chicago--where House music originated.

As my goal is to educate, I must first share some of my real-life accounts of some of the amazing things I've seen, some of which transcend reality.

I wanted to discuss an issue that is indictive of the EDM culture and has been for several years: club drugs. I cannot sit here in good conscience and go on a rant about how most EDM events are drug-free simply because that is not true. You may be asking yourselves, "who is this guy to inform us. What makes him qualified?" Honestly, I was a big-time ecstasy dealer selling in multiple states. I've sold at raves, festivals, concerts, hotel rooms, street corners, you name it.

Don't get me wrong. I have a lot of followers--mostly younger--who look up to me, so I am not trying to provide a "How to guide on selling pills." But at the same time, I want my readers to understand how I built a professional crew of sellers from the ground up. The most obvious reason is the money. Factually, if you're looking to make maximum profit, ecstasy offers that, even over cocaine. Ecstasy in bulk is sold in what's known as jars and boats. A jar is 100 pills, a boat is 1,000 pills. Simple math will tell you that if you can get a jar for $500 and sell each pill for a list price of $20 (give or take) your profit per pill is nearly $15. Multiply that by 100 and you get $1,500. Minus cost, your profit would be $1,000 on that jar (of 100 pills).

To put this into perspective I will share some of my real-life numbers. With our suppliers we were getting jars for $300 and selling them per pill for $20. That left us making $17 dollars for every pill sold! The risk was low, and the rewards were unbelievable. On a big night I made $12,000. 

Of course, there were downsides to running a black-market business. For me, I'll share something about both the money and the lifestyle of being the boss (or king): it was so unbelievably and powerfully addictive, I was driven to some severe nervous breakdowns. (If it sounds like I'm bragging, I apologize. I want you to join me on my journeys through the EDM scene, straight up as they really happened.) Was it all worth it? Bear with me...Just keep reading. 

It all started with a 15-year-old kid named Justin who was like my little brother. He adopted the title: "Just Jay's (Platonic) BFF (Best-friend Forever)." We spent countless hours smoking and selling weed, giving us a lot of time to get to know each other. There was nothing remarkable about our friendship except our massive age difference. I didn't make it a habit to hang out with kids half my age, but with Justin a made an exception. Why? He was the only one in my crew that didn't steal from me. He also saved my life. He didn't ask for anything except my friendship, which we discussed for many hours. I kindly suggested that we should wait until he turned 16 to announce our friendship, but he wouldn't hear of it.

As the days passed the rest of my crew noticed the favoritism that I showed Justin, everyone became jealous. The jealousness progressed into rage. His (younger) group of friends did not respect him and bullied him, which made me furious as I too was bullied as a kid. 

At this point in my life, I was graduating college while Justin was graduating middle school. This gave us the excuses we needed to party and celebrate our promotions. After graduation, I was offered a lucrative corporate job, which I selected. This meant that I could move into the city and get me own place. I ended up finding a penthouse studio by the lake. This too worked out great as Justin moved to the Northside of Chicago as well.

We hung out every night, smoking weed, getting the munchies, eating cereal and watching cartoons. We were safely away from the Chicago suburbs, where littering is enough to get you locked up.

And then it happened...

It Started with a Request

Justin: Jay, you know you said how owed me for saving your life that time, and how I could ask you for something?

Me: Yeah bro. For sure I remember. Did you want something, dude?

Justin: I want to go to a party...a real party...a rave party.

Me: Oh really? Justin, wait until you're older; the party scene isn't going anywhere. I mean, it's complicated. Why all of the sudden do you want to go to a rave?

Justin: People told me they used to call you King Rave. They told me that you only bring your most trusted friends into that scene. Can't I be one of those people...A most trusted friend?

I thought about it for a few minutes, coming to the conclusion that nothing too terrible could go wrong.

Me: I would have to understand how this all works. There's a lot of things I have to show you, like how to act and stuff. You could get blacklisted for life for one small mistake.

Justin: I promise Jay! I'll even take notes!

Me: Just remember you can't be shy. You have to be outgoing and correct. 

Justin: Got it. Also, I want to get involved in the EDM scene. I was thinking we could run a crew in the EDM scene the same way you did back in the day.

Me: Let's walk before we fly, Justin. I want to see how you handle your first party.

I wanted to make good on this promise if only to reward him for his loyalty and back-up for the last year. Justin was Autistic and Bi-Polar which made it near impossible for him to fit in at school. He needed to be with friends his own age, and raves were basically all-age events. When Justin left that night, I got on my computer and went to the underground websites that listed all of the parties. After looking around for a while I found a Party named "Planet Rock" (a Source Production), which was scheduled for Black Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving). That sounded perfect as I would be having a mini-vacation from work and Justin too would be on a mini-vacation from school.

I then called the info-line, where they secretly released the location of a checkpoint. (The checkpoint is a remote location away from the party where you had to go to pay the admission fee and collect your wristband [which was basically your ticket]. After you paid for your tickets and got your wristbands you were giving the address of the actual party venue (usually written on a small piece of paper). Another reason for the checkpoint was that it gave the promoters the ability to screen their ravers, to ensure that nobody on the blacklist or cops were admitted to the party. It was a big NO to let anyone know the address to the venue for which can get you blacklisted--especially if you get the party busted by the cops.

I couldn't resist. I had to text Justin to let him know that his so-called dream came true--I found a party! It was getting late and I hated bothering him knowing he had to be up early for school next day. I therefore sent the text.

Me (texting): Justin! I came through and found you your party...I'll give you all the details tomorrow when we meet in person, and I don't want to talk on the phone.

Justin (texting): Awesome Jay. I knew you could pull it off King Rave.