A Night I'll Never Forget: The Story of The Dollar & A Dream Trip

Imagine going on an epic road trip with your best friends. Now imagine having the pleasure to see your favorite music artist for only one dollar. Yes I said that right! For only one dollar, you could have an adventure that you will cherish for your entire life. Well, in the summer of 2015, I experienced one of the best nights of my life while in attendance at the J. Cole: Friday Night Lights, Dollar and a Dream concert at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia. It was everything that you could imagine and it was on this night that instilled in me was a greater appreciation for my favorite artist, sparking my love for hip-hop.

Music has this amazing ability to bring us back to specific moments in time. J. Cole's classic mixtape, Friday Night Lights happens to be one. Young college kids trying to make that transition from learning the tools to using the tools with all the doubts & insecurities in between, and this mixtape told that whole story. So when he announced that the third rendition of his Dollar and A Dream Tour featuring his classic was making a stop in Atlanta, as a huge fan of his music and rise to stardom, my friends and I had already penciled ourselves in as attendees to the one dollar, fan friendly show.

It was during my freshmen year of high school J. Cole released a mixtape that would go on to be the main catalyst of why I feel in love with hip-hop. This mixtape was Friday Night Lights, which would quickly become an instant classic. It was the third official mixtape from the Fayetteville, NC rapper, also known as “Dreamville.” This mixtape would later go on to receive widespread acclaim from critics and fans, be downloaded over a million times on mixtape sites like Datpiff.com, and would turn Cole into a household name for years to come in the rap community. This was the release that put doubters of the Carolina artist on notice, showcased the talent he possessed, and gave him the recognition he deserved.

Up to that point in my life I didn't have a favorite rapper, nor had I ever listened to a J. Cole mixtape. I knew little about him, other than the fact that he was from North Carolina and that I had heard him before featured on a Miguel song (a duo that would later become dynamic every time they linked on a song). A lot of the guys at my barbershop talked about Cole and how he was the next savior of hip-hop and that he was the next big thing because he was signed to Jay Z's label, Roc Nation. This legendary mixtape changed my life, as it became one the soundtracks to my life and one of my therapeutic escapes throughout the years. Only 14 years old at the time, I was able to connect so well with this iconic mixtape, with songs like “Too Deep for the Intro,” “2Face,” “Premediated Murder,” “The Autograph,” and many more amazing classics. Cole was able to masterfully incorporate great soulful production with the blend of meaningful lyrics and a dope sound that reflected his New York experiences, mixed with his southern up-bringing.

See, I was still learning at the time. But I would soon find out that it was very easy for me to connect with Cole, for Friday Night Lights took us on a journey through the Dreamville rapper's life. His lyrics touched on him several personal topics, such as feeling trapped in his mind state as a young black teen, trying to beat the odds and escape from the sad reality of becoming another statistic in his hometown, using college as a gateway to pursue his dreams, having the courage and resiliency to take on a new city, and trying to take his mother out of the struggle. At that moment of life, I was just a young kid from Charlotte in high school still battling trying to find myself in life. Going through my own pains. My mother was diagnosed with Scleroderma, my parents had a temporary break up, my father who was my hero soon began to develop a pain pill problem, finances became tight and our house got foreclosed, which caused us to move in with my aunt. It was at this point in my life I didn't know how to feel sometimes going through the journey of life. But I was a kid still managing to find ways to smile through the pain even during the toughest periods of my life, for I would escape the pain by listening to music.

Fast forward to the summer of 2015 when I had just finished my freshmen year of college at North Carolina A&T University. Things were going well. I had just made the Dean's list, enjoyed my first year away from home, and Cole had just released his third album 2014 Forrest Hills Drive in December. I had never attended a J. Cole concert up to that point and I had purchased a ticket to see Cole on tour that summer and was super excited to see him live for the first time ever. But one afternoon at the basketball court with all my friends, Cole managed to break the internet. We got on Twitter and saw that Cole had announced his second ever Dollar and a Dream Tour. The announcement stated that the tour would take place in Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles. The concert was only a dollar and the location wouldn't be announced until the day of. Originally I was hurt that the tour wasn't coming to Charlotte or anywhere in North Carolina, but then my friend Bryce was the first to ask “who is to make that move to Atlanta, to see Cole?" Initially we were all kind of hesitant and pretty satisfied because we all had tickets to see him that same summer for the Forest Hills Drive tour. We didn't want to drive all the way to Atlanta and not be able to get into the concert. But Bryce who is a diehard Cole fan as well was persistent and managed to talk my friends Gino, Tuck, and Justin into driving down and getting a hotel to witness one of the best nights of our lives. However though, myself and my other two friends, Kevin and Ike, were still not locked in. We didn't want to spend money on a hotel for a concert that we weren't even sure that we would get into. We were of the mindset that if we decided to go to this concert, that we would just wake up super early and drive the day of. Our other friends looked at us like we were crazy and that there was no way in hell, that we would all manage to wake up early enough to hop on I-95 South and make it to Atlanta for the show.

So the night before the concert, Bryce, Gino, Tuck, and Justin drove down to Atlanta and stayed the night in a hotel, while Ike, Kevin, and myself decided to take a chance and hit the road early in the morning. Ike was going to drive and I can remember us all setting like ten different alarms. I managed to wake up on time and woke up to many text messages from my friends saying that they didn't think we would make it on time, they had little to no faith in us. Ike proceed to be on the way to my house and then we grabbed Kevin and got onto the highway right on schedule around 4 in the morning.

The road trip was off to a good start, we were on schedule, the tank was full and the road was clear of traffic. I can remember Ike now telling his mom that he was staying the night at a friend’s house because his mother told him not to drive to Atlanta. Going against his mom's request, we all chipped in gas and made our way down to Atlanta for a night that we simply couldn't pass up. While driving down, we played nothing but classic Cole. First, The Come Up," Cole's first ever project. Then, The Warm Up, followed by Friday Night Lights and Sideline Story. We played it all while traveling until we reached our destination.

The sun started to rise and around 8:30 am we finally made it to Atlanta. The morning traffic was ridiculous, but we managed to get through it. We were super anxious to link with our friends and prepare to hunt for the secret location, as there had been no announcements of what venue the concert would be held at. I remember once we got through traffic, I texted my friend Bryce to get the location of where their hotel was. They were staying close to downtown Atlanta, right by the CNN building.

Before the trip we tried to look up as many places as possible, so we could have an idea of where the concert would be held. As soon as we parked at the hotel where Bryce, Gino, Tuck, and Justin were all staying, a group of people with North Carolina license tags spotted us and they had their Dreamville gear on. They looked at us and saw that we had North Carolina tags as well, and proceed to ask us if we were there for the Dollar and a Dream concert. We told them yeah and that we were waiting for Cole to announce where the concert would be. Right after that comment, one of people from the group we were speaking to pointed across the street to the Atlanta Tabernacle concert hall which was right across the street from where our friends were staying. They said that's where the concert would be and told us that Cole had performed at that venue before and that they were positive it would be there.

Taking their word, we went inside the hotel to meet our friends. As soon as we got inside we told them how we spoke to a group of people who were heading the show and they said the concert would literally be across the street from us. Not eager to wake up, my friend Bryce freshened up and said let’s go check it out and see if a line had started or not. So that's what we did, Bryce, Kevin and myself walked across the street to check out the Tabernacle, while everyone else got ready and prepared to check out the hotel. Literally as soon as we made it over, it was already a crowd of people lined up outside, and a work crew setting up barricades. Still with no confirmation, we were certain that this would be the spot.

Our friends then hopped in line with us, and the line to be admitted continued to grow and the heat began to pick up as well. When I tell you that it was HOT, it was the type of heat that literally makes you mad. With the crowd growing more impatient by the minutes, a few hours went by while we were in line, and then boom a huge roar from the crowd arose as something big had just happened. Cole finally tweeted where he would be performing at that night and it was the Tabernacle Theater. The concert was limited to a few thousand people (capacity 2,600), doors would open at 7pm and the show would begin at 8pm.

After the confirmation from Cole, they proceeded to pass out wrist bands for the concert to the first couple thousand people. And just like the tour said, the admission cost was only one dollar. Our time finally came in line and we paid our admission. So there it was. After withstanding the brutal heat, we finally got our wristbands for the show. This was about to be a performance for the history books and we were so ready to be in attendance to witness this.

Now we had to kill time and wait until the doors opened for the show. Since my friends checked out of their hotel we passed time by going to the CNN building and grabbed a bite to eat. The heat had drained us so bad that no one could even eat. Our phones started to die and everyone split up so we could find places to charge up. Kevin and I walked to the Omni hotel and tried to get some rest in the lobby but we soon got kicked out as a manager said it was only for paying guests. Time was moving so slow but it finally got to around 4:30pm and we all got back up and went to go grab a spot in line.

We thought that we had battled it all by waiting in heat to get our wristband, but we were so wrong because a storm soon approached. It started pouring down raining, everyone started pushing, shoving, and scraping to get some cover from the storm. Our group got split up in the line, so it then became Ike, Kevin, and myself in line. The doors still weren't open, but a media crew soon came out and started recording footage and interviewed fans for what would be a part of the 2014 Forest Hills Drive Homecoming tour documentary. During this time, as you can see, me, Ike, and Kevin managed to be a part of the video, though our part didn't make the cut.

Finally, the doors opened and they proceed to let people in. It was freezing cold because everyone was drenched. But we were so happy that we were finally inside. The Tabernacle has two floors and we were lucky enough to get a good spot on the first floor close to the stage.

Finally, it was show time, the energy from the crowd was electric. Everyone was cheering and ready to see a performance for the ages. To kick off the show, Dreamville artist, Omen, from Chicago, Illinois had the opening set. I wasn't that familiar with Omen. I knew he had appeared on Cole’s mixtapes and the Revenge of the Dreamers mixtape, but I had yet to hear any music from him. So when the news came that he would perform music from his album, Elephant Eyes, which was even called a “classic” by Cole himself on the last track of Forest Hills Drive, I was unprepared to say the least. Though I wasn't acquainted with Omen’s music, style and production, it only took about one or two songs during his performance to demonstrate that the man was very talented, even producing a huge portion of his own stuff to the point that one of the first artists I drew comparisons to was Cole. After that, Cozz performed and was then followed by Bas. At the time, they were still new signees to Cole’s label, Dreamville, and had just released their debut albums that year. Both albums were so incredibly produced and guided under Cole’s expert workmanship that they sounded like veteran projects. Needless to say, this allowed for a great performance by the two of them and allowed for a great kick off to a spectacular show.

We stood in the sweltering Atlanta heat for hours for a chance to pay $1 to attend the Dollar and a Dream Tour and the time was finally here for Cole to come out and perform his set. Thousands of his fans were chanting, “We want Cole!” as the Friday Night Lights intro began to be played. The anticipation grew even more. Then, all of a sudden, the DJ made a transition and the first song "Too Deep for the Intro" started to play. Right after that an eruption occurred as Cole came to the stage.

I was star struck as I was finally getting to see my favorite artist perform live. It was at that time that I was getting to hear all of the songs that made me become a fan. I can remember it like it was yesterday. Cole got on the mic to take time to explain the story behind Friday Night Lights. As Cole explains it, he was going through some things with the constant delay and pressure of his debut album. Performing live, he paints a thousand pictures through different dynamics in certain songs, from “2Face” to “The Autograph.” Many of these songs Cole never had the pleasure of performing in front of huge crowds. Bangers like “Back to the Topic”, “In the Morning,” “Blow Up,” and “Villematic” received plenty of love, but it was those more meaningful songs that made Cole want to perform those classics in their entirety.

Cole gave a breath-taking performance that night, putting his heart and soul into every song that was performed that night. With the blend of great production, real instruments, and a sound that moved the crowd, the third round of the Dollar and a Dream Tour was a success. Performing the last song of his set, “Farewell,” the lights faded and Cole proceed to walk off the stage and we all thought that he was done performing. The energy from the crowd was tumultuous as thousands of fans were cheering for an encore in the pitch dark, begging Cole to come back on and perform one more time. Then all of sudden the lights cut back on and the beat to “Lights Please” dropped. This was a classic song from The Warm Up and the song that got him his meeting with Jay Z. Cole gave us straight classics during his encore set. He also performed his verse from Jay Z’s “A Star Is Born,” “Power Trip,” and “Nobody's Perfect.” Then he decided to do something special for the fans and performed songs from 2014 Forest Hills Drive, that included “No Role Modelz,” “G.O.M.D,” and “Fire Squad.” Cole had found his clarity and peace of mind by not being confined to the music that people thought he should be making. Instead, he made the music that he wanted and stayed true to doing something strictly for the fans.

The show was over, and everyone was still in shock from the amazing concert that we had just witnessed. It was amazing being able to see such a genuine and pure artist performing. That was absolutely the best dollar that I ever spent for a concert that was every bit of entertaining and jam packed. It was everything that I wanted it to be. It’s a memory that I will always cherish. That concert showed me how powerful music truly is and how one individual can truly move numerous amounts of people. That same summer I had the pleasure of seeing Cole again during the FHD Tour, which was also an amazing night. But I don't think anything will ever be able to top that special night in Atlanta at the Tabernacle. Cole has since gone on to produce other platinum albums, like KOD and 4 Your Eyez Only. But I don't believe that anything will ever touch the first project that I heard, for Friday Night Lights holds a special place in my heart for music. And rightfully so, as this was the mixtape that started it all for me.