Neighbourhood record store, 1700 block, East Compton.
A group of young black kids, all wearing hooded jackets with loose, baggy pants, entered a record store.
The shop owner, an old black man, immediately left the counter and stood right next to them, monitoring everything they did.
"Hey OG, no one's finna steal your shit. Relax."
The old black man looked unconvinced. "Don't I know what ya n*ggas like? Pick what you want, pay up, and go away."
A short black kid, wearing a hat in reverse, stepped forward confidently. "Come on, Gramps, you know us. We are from the block. Why don't you help a few young brothers out?"
The old man looked at the kids for a long time, and in the end, sighed. "You young'uns do this to me every time. Can't you just pay for the song and listen to it?"
A tall youth with a steel chain around his neck responded, "Come on, Gramps, we don't got the bucks, you know that. Help the n*ggas out, will you?"
The old man grumbled as he shuffled back to the counter, muttering under his breath, "Damn kids... always got me soft." He let out a weary sigh and shook his head. "Hope at least one of y'all makes it outta this neighbourhood before it chews you up."
He knew he was hoping for something that would likely never happen, but he couldn't help it. 'Maybe one of 'em will prove me wrong.' Shaking his head to rid himself of the useless thought, he lifted the lid off the record player.
"Oh, right, I forgot to ask. Which joint?"
"The new one, OG. The one where Reggie's featured."
The old man thought about the new arrivals and immediately understood the song they were referring to.
He walked towards the counter and pulled out a large sealed box.
He opened it, and a bundle of red records were neatly stacked, side by side.
He pulled out one record, and he read the title.
Thrift Shop (Lil Tjay featuring Reggie-E)
"This the one?"
The guys immediately got excited. "Yeah, yeah, this the one."
"All right."
As he walked towards the record player, he seemed to find the name Reggie E. familiar. "This guy, Reggie, is he Ronald from the next street?"
"Yeah, that's him."
The old man let out a disappointed sigh, but he quickly recovered. He had long since grown used to it after seeing so many lives destroyed by gang banging in the neighbourhood.
He installed the record and placed the needle on the disc.
He hit play, and the song immediately started with Tjay's vocals, but hearing it, the old man looked at the young guys with a weird expression on his face.
♪ What, what, what what ♪
♪ What, what, what what ♪
♪ What, what, what what ♪
♪ What, what, what what ♪
"Y'all lil n*ggas like this?" he asked, unable to comprehend what the music taste of this young generation had devolved into.
But to his satisfaction, the kids looked weirded out as well.
However, it was not for long because when the vocals and trumpets hit, everyone, including him, stood there dumbfounded.
"Yo, this joint kind of dope."
The short kid waved his hand and started to bob to the beat.
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The other kids started to feel the rhythm as well and started moving to the music.
♪ I'm gonna pop some tags. Only got $20 in my pocket. ♪
♪ I'm, I'm, I'm hunting, looking for a come up. This is fucking awesome. ♪
♪ Walking to the club like What up? I got a big cock. ♪
As soon as the lyrics hit, the kids looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"Yo, Lil Tjay craaazzzy," The short black kid clutched his chest and laughed uncontrollably.
"N*gga out there bragging about $20."
The tall kid doubled over and held his stomach. "He's bragging about handouts, hahahaha, let me breathe, mothafucka." He laughed intermittently, struggling to catch his breath.
They thought the song was about a shootout in the thrift shop or picking up bitches, but when they understood that it was actually about picking up the hand-me-downs, they were caught off guard.
The old man also started bopping his head, smiling. Any song that doesn't make gangsters cool is a good song in his book. Too many brothers died for that shit.
New York
Radio Station WBLS 107.5 FM,
A fat black man with a gold chain around his neck and large earphones on his head excitedly handed over a record to his DJ and pointed his fat finger at him, "Yo Breezy, spin that shit."
"You're listening to DJ Primer on 107.5 FM, and this is Lil N*gga Tjay featuring Reggie motherfucking E, "Thrift Shop". Let's go."
The man became dumbfounded just when the song started. The way it started was unique, to say the least. No one had done it like that before, but after the trumpets and the vocals hit, he started to vibe with the music.
"Yo yo, I was hesitating at first, but this shit kind of hits."
"The trumpets sound scrumshous, that's a new word for you all. Look it up. Anyway. Beats need to use more trumpets. Don't you all agree? I miss those days, man!"
However, his voice abruptly stopped when the lyrics started to come in. He burst out laughing the next moment and continued to bob his head.
"Now that's a curve ball."
"Motherfucker really rapping about the thrift shop."
A few minutes later,
"Pahahahahh"
"Nahhh man, motherfucker out here talking about Velcro straps on his shoes. This n*gga Tjay is special. Haha."
By the end of the song, he became completely silent; he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Reggie is singing?"
"Am I hearing this right?"
"Nahh, G, Reggie is singing." He ripped off his hat and slammed it into the ground as he jumped up. He held to the chair and continued to bob his head, completely hyped.
When Reggie started to brag about $20 in his pocket and shopping in a thrift shop, DJ Primer completely lost it. He screamed and started to jump around, the headphones barely clinging to his head.
Everyone was laughing in the studio until the very end of the song, and DJ Primer continued to have a smile on his face even after the song ended.
"I'll be honest, guys, the lyrics caught me off guard. It was not what I was expecting."
"When you hear 'Reggie-E is on a track,' you'd expect some tight gangster shit, but this is something else."
"But honestly, no bullshitting, it's fire, ain't it?"
"I think it's fire."
"I really do."
"Because think about it, right? Every motherfucker is rapping about bitches, gangsters, and money, but if they're really all about that life, why are they in the ghetto?"
"We all know that when a motherfucker gets rich, he leaves the ghetto. Most of the time that's the case."
"So the truth is, motherfuckers are usually broke, all the n*ggas, usually broke, we all been to the thrift shop."
"We wore the hand-me-downs. We looked for the bargain. We don't talk about it. Because it's not cool!"
"Until now."
"Lil Tjay and Reggie E made it cool."
"Alright, get your copy at the nearest record store, fuckers."
With the song officially released, it started to appear on various radio stations hosted by DJs, and people started talking about it.
Some people, the people who were expecting a gangster rap, were disappointed, and they concluded that it was a shitty song. Young black kids, poor kids in the ghetto, and even some white people who inadvertently heard it felt that it was an awesome song.
On the first day, the sales were not too good. Even after all the publicity, only 3,700 copies were sold.
However, as word of mouth spread and more and more DJs started playing the song, by the end of the week, over 56,000 copies had been sold, making it the fastest-selling song of Lil Tjay's career.
By the end of the month, it had already surpassed 280,000 copies, breaking his previous monthly sales record while also gaining traction in authoritative magazines and on television.
Streetlevel Magazine
"What Lil Tjay and Reggie accomplished is phenomenal. Whether the song is good or not is secondary. Well, it is good, but that's not the point. The point is, for the first time ever, a rapper is actually singing about normal life, not guns, not bitches, and not money. Normal fucking life. Although it is kind of ironic because it is coming from Reggie E, one of the people who pioneered gangster rap, but I'd say it's about damn time." -Rex Luthor.
Vibe TV
"So what do you think about the new single by Lil Tjay featuring Reggie E?"
A stylish-looking young man with black-on-black clothes and chic sunglasses rubbed his hands and contemplated for a while before answering.
"Brave."
"I'd say it's a brave choice."
"Why's that so?"
"Because you need to have balls to rap about a thrift shop, and actually talk about thrift shop."
"I don't think I could have done that."
"So do you like it?"
"Yeah, man, I do. It reminded me of my childhood in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle. There used to be this one thrift shop I used to visit all the time. Of course, after I became famous, I avoided talking about this because you got to be tough to survive in this industry."
"You can't make others think you are weak, but," he lifted his head high and nodded, "it's all right to talk about where you came from."
"Thrift shop for me signifies just that."
"Opinions are subjective, and I don't know if everyone will like it, but I'll say this, this song is definitely good for the culture."