Yesterday was Fool’s Gold Records annual Day Off in NYC. I have photographed most of them and they are always a good time but usually they are in my neighborhood. This year the all day party was on a helipad on 34th Street which was a really cool idea. I was running late so I took a $20 Uber there and when I got there it had been moved to fucking Queens. I started walking up to the N train but I finally gave up and got another $20 cab. I got to Studio Square NYC two hours later than I had planned but I quickly got to work.

When I got there Meyhem Lauren was in the middle of his set. Probably my greatest skill in life is moving quickly through packed crowds so I got to the front by the time he finished his set and got a few shots. My homie and Fool’s Gold founder Nick Catchdubs DJd between sets and I took a minute to wonder around checking out the place and saying whats up to everyone.

Next up was Leaf who kinda killed it and brought a bunch of babes out with her which is never a terrible move. Leaf can rap, sing and is a total babe which makes the fact that I shot her Sweet 16 party kinda uncomfortable. Seriously though she was great.

After that A-Trak did his thing and invited out a ton of special guests including MadeintTYO, K$ace and my buddy Telli from Fame School who hosted the whole event. Towards the end of A-Trak’s set the crowd started chanting for Lil Yachty and started basically moshing between sets.

Unfortunately the crowd got a little bit too nuts and Studio Square got a little too packed and the barrier between the crowd and the photo pit started getting pushed forward. The bouncers jumped in and none of the photographers were squashed to death but they kicked us all out of the photo pit. Pretty much took the entire Lil Yachty set for them to reenforce the barricade and we only had this little tiny area to shoot from.

During Lil Yachty’s set I tried to get a few good shots and then get out of the way so the photographers who aren’t quite as good as pushing motherfuckers out of the way could get their shots. Unfortunately my shots weren’t actually that good and I sort of missed out on getting any good Yachty shots. That’s some amateur bullshit right there. Still, I got some pretty decent wide shots when I climbed up on a table and shot from the VIP area.

After Lil Yachty I found a spot in between two speakers and on top of a bass cabinet or something. Basically I shot the last two artists while being shoved into this tiny space that was constantly rumbling and I felt like I was going to shit myself from the bass. It was a pretty good time. I actually got my best shots from there despite the 45 minutes or so of that minor misery.

Juelz Santana from the Diplomats came out next and fucking killed it. I feel like someone from Dipset is at every other Day Off and I am never mad about that. Cam’ron fucked shit up two years ago and Juelz kept that tradition going. Real fun set.

Migos headlined and unfortunately they only got a couple songs in before the cops shut everything down. I don’t know exactly what happened but they probably ran late cause of all the bullshit with the barricades. They got into the crowd and kept playing but eventually they got shut down permanently.

Once again Fool’s Gold Day Off (NYC edition) was a blast despite the $60 Uber bill and collapsed photo pit. I shot a ton of photos so you should go look at em already. Enjoy your Sunday or something.

Click here to see all the photos from 2016 NYC Fool’s Gold Day Off at Studio Square NYC.

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