May 10, 2024 • 8 mins
In an exclusive interview, Nikki Byles and Jay Allen, the producers of Hulu's Freaknik documentary, sat down with BIN's Tyrik Wynn.
Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told is a celebratory exploration of the boisterous times of Freaknik, the iconic Atlanta street party that drew hundreds of thousands of people in the 80s and 90s, helping put Atlanta on the map culturally. What began as a Black college cookout soon became known for lurid tales of highway hookups and legendary late-night parties that ultimately led to the festival's downfall.
Listen to BIN's exclusive interview!
Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told is a celebratory exploration of the boisterous times of Freaknik, the iconic Atlanta street party that drew hundreds of thousands of people in the 80s and 90s, helping put Atlanta on the map culturally. What began as a Black college cookout soon became known for lurid tales of highway hookups and legendary late-night parties that ultimately led to the festival's downfall.
Listen to BIN's exclusive interview!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What to do. Guys, it'syour boy Tyreek win A. It's the
Black Information Network on your home fortwenty four seven News. We got some
amazing guests in the building today.We're gonna be talking to us a little
bit about a documentary that's out,you know, kind of interesting. So
we got Jay Allen and NICKI Bowsand the building. How y'all feeling good?
How you doing? I'm good.Good to see y'all. Appreciate y'all
(00:20):
so much for coming here and talkingwith us. So tell us about this
documentary we got coming out. Wegot the Freak Nick documentary. Tell us
about it? Yeah, so,yeah, it's a documentary that's really highlighting
this innocent college screen break that reallyturned into something that turned Atlanta upside down.
(00:41):
So we were chronicling the rise andfall and the possible return of Freak
Nick. M Yeah, okay,And let me tell y'all. When I
first seen that this was coming out, now, I'm twenty three, so
I don't really know that much aboutit, but I'd heard some things about
it, and I said, man, they gonna be causing some problems,
man, in some households with thisdocumentary coming out. Can already see some
kids be like, Mama, isthat you on the TV? Calling up
(01:03):
mom to see what's going on?Did y'all like, was y'all thinking about
that? When y'all was like,you know, putting it together and all
that stuff, it was like athought, of course, you're gonna think
about it because you know, somebodygonna be like, oh my god,
what are they gonna what are theyabout to put out? But we didn't
put it together for any like momentslike for to tear if anyone's home or
anything like that. Yeah, okay, Yeah, we weren't looking forward to
(01:26):
be a Solations documentary, just informativewith a little bit of provocative you know
in the between them. Got you? Okay. So for the people that
may be my age that may belistening, may not know a little bit
about Freaknick, can y'all just kindof give us like a brief synopsis and
like what it is and like youknow what took place. Freaknick was really
just a party for the DC MetroClub. They couldn't go they couldn't afford
(01:49):
to go home, and and theywanted to still have you know, some
kind of fun and spring break.So they got the you know, the
group together and had a picnic atthe park, and from the picnic it
just grew, like it just thepeople grew. Every year it grew,
it grew, and then finally otherpeople started coming to the not not college
students starting coming to the event.Yeah, you know, until it ended.
(02:14):
Okay, Nope, nope, Ilike that. And so when has
it always been called freaknik or wasit called something else? Oh? It's
always been called yeah always Nick,Yeah, gotcha. Okay, So with
the documentary piece, right, whendid y'all start putting this together? And
how was y'all able to go backinto archives and get like the footage and
all that good stuff. Yeah,I think we started around twenty twenty or
(02:36):
maybe before. But again it startedoff as a concept of an idea that
Nick and I have put together fromtheir Nikki was like, to tell the
story, we had to have certainpeople. So she went out and you
know, really got JD and gotLuke attached, and from there we took
it out to the streaming networks tosee who was the best partner. Hulu
obviously was the best partner for usto be able to tell the story that
(02:59):
we wanted to. Okay, niceman. Y'all got some celebrities involved in
this thing to talk to us aboutthat who were gonna see on this documentary.
We got two short Sea Low Killer, Mike twenty one Savage. Yeah,
it's a lot. It's a lotof people in it. Yeah,
(03:21):
a little. It just feels veryAtlanta like. We have much representation of
the people that were there in thetime as possible. I like that,
Man, that's gonna be awesome.Definitely seemed like an exciting, exciting thing
to watch. So if y'all haven'tseen it yet, y'all gotta make sure
y'all go check it out. Sowhat when building When building a documentary like
this, obviously there are some challengesyou're gonna face. Y'all talk about some
(03:43):
of the challenges that y'all encountered whileputting this thing together. I think the
biggest challenge was probably trying to getthe footage because again, you're in this
place where a lot of this stuffjust doesn't exist in just the world that
exists in people's garages and bins andeverything else. So to tell the story
that what we wanted to, wecouldn't have everybody sit out for interviews,
(04:03):
so you know that found footage thatwe crowdsource became how we really told the
story in the way that it hadto be told. Okay, So like
how did how did y'all go,Like did y'all have to reach out to
people to get this footage? Orlike did how did y'all know who to
reach out to? And all ofthat? It was just not even who
it was basically put up a post. It was like, send us all
(04:26):
of your footage. They came tous. Yeah, So so that kind
of gave people say they put thatout on like socials and stuff to get
me. Okay, so it's likerandom people just sent down footage and all
that. Yeah, and then Niggahad to go in people's houses and watch
the d c V c our tapes. It was it was scary to do
that for you went in people's house. Yeah, Like I'm like and imagine
(04:59):
watching the what we had with astranger and you like, I don't know
what this is, Like, justgive me the tape bring it back.
Wow, that's crazy right there.So maybe something that may have necessarily didn't
make the scream, But can y'alltell you what's like the wildest thing y'all
saw like while watching stuff that maynot make the scream. We have footage
(05:24):
from Uncle Luke. I'm gonna juststop right there. Yeah, yeah,
nothing, it's gonna be any ofthem. Like Nikki said, you're watching
tape. You don't know what you'regonna watch. So we have to say
a little bit of Uncle Luke's notjust freaking nick but his tour and you
gotta you gotta just have respect forthe man like he lived the he lived
the story. Like yeah, okay, So out of all the people with
(05:45):
the celebrities that y'all interviewed, whocan y'all say, like what was like
gave that gave that real best story. I can't can't give just one like
everyone had a story that's like damn, we can't use that story, like
it's too much to fit it in. Yeah, but all of everyone that
we interview did very well, Likeyou know what I'm saying, they told
their best stories. A horse couldn'tuse all of them. But yeah,
(06:11):
no one gave like a half assedinterview. Okay, that's good, that's
good. Yeah, because I wasjust I was wondering if there was like
the sting that made you get likewow, so reason why he told this
amazing story about Outcasts one of theirfirst times performing on the stage in Atlanta,
which is, you know, kindof crazy to think of it,
Atlanta, where Outcasts doesn't exist,and he was driving them to that performance,
(06:32):
which was at freaking neck, butthe traffic was so crazy that he
didn't know if they would get thereon time. And if they missed this
opportunity, it would be huge,you know, because LaFace is here.
It's a big deal. And sohe immediately decided that he probably needed to
try to figure out how to geta helicopter to get them from the interstate
to the Venyard. He of coursetries in Atlanta's out of helicopter city,
(06:54):
where you can just call it helicopterin the nineties. So then he reverses
on the highway of taking the backroads and gets I always forget how far
or how close he got. Theywere like maybe a mile out, well
maybe a mile out, but withequipment, Yeah, so that close.
So about a mile away with equipment, and he says, literally dre and
big hop out of the car andrun to the stage with equipment and made
(07:17):
it on within minutes of having toperform the first time for the first time
in Atlanta. Wow. Crazy story. Yeah, that's that's how I be.
Man. It should never be likethat. Yeah, but that's how
it is. Yeah. Man.Wow, Well, I appreciate y'all so
much for coming in talking to usabout the documentary. Go ahead, let
everybody know where they can watch itand where they can check it out Hulu
(07:41):
today. So right now, stopwhat you're doing. I need you to
go watch it and yeah yeah yeah, and create an account. You know
what I'm saying. Watch this onyour account, watch it on your mom's
account. Who's in the in thedocumentary? Like, watch it. You
should watch this and tune in andencourage friends have watched parties. You know,
these are black docs a culture,so we do want to make sure
they're getting as many eyeballs as possible. So watch it. That's what's up.
(08:03):
Yeah. It was funny because Iasked. I was like, I'm
not gonna see y'all in this.I had talked about my parents and uncles
at us. I was like,y'all not gonna be in this documentary,
So that's hilarious. But I waslike, Yo, you know we're gonna
see We're gonna watch and find out, definitely appreciate y'all so much for coming
in talking to us about it.And then yeah, like they said,
make sure y'all go watching tune incatch y'all next time.
What to do. Guys, it'syour boy Tyreek win A. It's the
Black Information Network on your home fortwenty four seven News. We got some
amazing guests in the building today.We're gonna be talking to us a little
bit about a documentary that's out,you know, kind of interesting. So
we got Jay Allen and NICKI Bowsand the building. How y'all feeling good?
How you doing? I'm good.Good to see y'all. Appreciate y'all
(00:20):
so much for coming here and talkingwith us. So tell us about this
documentary we got coming out. Wegot the Freak Nick documentary. Tell us
about it? Yeah, so,yeah, it's a documentary that's really highlighting
this innocent college screen break that reallyturned into something that turned Atlanta upside down.
(00:41):
So we were chronicling the rise andfall and the possible return of Freak
Nick. M Yeah, okay,And let me tell y'all. When I
first seen that this was coming out, now, I'm twenty three, so
I don't really know that much aboutit, but I'd heard some things about
it, and I said, man, they gonna be causing some problems,
man, in some households with thisdocumentary coming out. Can already see some
kids be like, Mama, isthat you on the TV? Calling up
(01:03):
mom to see what's going on?Did y'all like, was y'all thinking about
that? When y'all was like,you know, putting it together and all
that stuff, it was like athought, of course, you're gonna think
about it because you know, somebodygonna be like, oh my god,
what are they gonna what are theyabout to put out? But we didn't
put it together for any like momentslike for to tear if anyone's home or
anything like that. Yeah, okay, Yeah, we weren't looking forward to
(01:26):
be a Solations documentary, just informativewith a little bit of provocative you know
in the between them. Got you? Okay. So for the people that
may be my age that may belistening, may not know a little bit
about Freaknick, can y'all just kindof give us like a brief synopsis and
like what it is and like youknow what took place. Freaknick was really
just a party for the DC MetroClub. They couldn't go they couldn't afford
(01:49):
to go home, and and theywanted to still have you know, some
kind of fun and spring break.So they got the you know, the
group together and had a picnic atthe park, and from the picnic it
just grew, like it just thepeople grew. Every year it grew,
it grew, and then finally otherpeople started coming to the not not college
students starting coming to the event.Yeah, you know, until it ended.
(02:14):
Okay, Nope, nope, Ilike that. And so when has
it always been called freaknik or wasit called something else? Oh? It's
always been called yeah always Nick,Yeah, gotcha. Okay, So with
the documentary piece, right, whendid y'all start putting this together? And
how was y'all able to go backinto archives and get like the footage and
all that good stuff. Yeah,I think we started around twenty twenty or
(02:36):
maybe before. But again it startedoff as a concept of an idea that
Nick and I have put together fromtheir Nikki was like, to tell the
story, we had to have certainpeople. So she went out and you
know, really got JD and gotLuke attached, and from there we took
it out to the streaming networks tosee who was the best partner. Hulu
obviously was the best partner for usto be able to tell the story that
(02:59):
we wanted to. Okay, niceman. Y'all got some celebrities involved in
this thing to talk to us aboutthat who were gonna see on this documentary.
We got two short Sea Low Killer, Mike twenty one Savage. Yeah,
it's a lot. It's a lotof people in it. Yeah,
(03:21):
a little. It just feels veryAtlanta like. We have much representation of
the people that were there in thetime as possible. I like that,
Man, that's gonna be awesome.Definitely seemed like an exciting, exciting thing
to watch. So if y'all haven'tseen it yet, y'all gotta make sure
y'all go check it out. Sowhat when building When building a documentary like
this, obviously there are some challengesyou're gonna face. Y'all talk about some
(03:43):
of the challenges that y'all encountered whileputting this thing together. I think the
biggest challenge was probably trying to getthe footage because again, you're in this
place where a lot of this stuffjust doesn't exist in just the world that
exists in people's garages and bins andeverything else. So to tell the story
that what we wanted to, wecouldn't have everybody sit out for interviews,
(04:03):
so you know that found footage thatwe crowdsource became how we really told the
story in the way that it hadto be told. Okay, So like
how did how did y'all go,Like did y'all have to reach out to
people to get this footage? Orlike did how did y'all know who to
reach out to? And all ofthat? It was just not even who
it was basically put up a post. It was like, send us all
(04:26):
of your footage. They came tous. Yeah, So so that kind
of gave people say they put thatout on like socials and stuff to get
me. Okay, so it's likerandom people just sent down footage and all
that. Yeah, and then Niggahad to go in people's houses and watch
the d c V c our tapes. It was it was scary to do
that for you went in people's house. Yeah, Like I'm like and imagine
(04:59):
watching the what we had with astranger and you like, I don't know
what this is, Like, justgive me the tape bring it back.
Wow, that's crazy right there.So maybe something that may have necessarily didn't
make the scream, But can y'alltell you what's like the wildest thing y'all
saw like while watching stuff that maynot make the scream. We have footage
(05:24):
from Uncle Luke. I'm gonna juststop right there. Yeah, yeah,
nothing, it's gonna be any ofthem. Like Nikki said, you're watching
tape. You don't know what you'regonna watch. So we have to say
a little bit of Uncle Luke's notjust freaking nick but his tour and you
gotta you gotta just have respect forthe man like he lived the he lived
the story. Like yeah, okay, So out of all the people with
(05:45):
the celebrities that y'all interviewed, whocan y'all say, like what was like
gave that gave that real best story. I can't can't give just one like
everyone had a story that's like damn, we can't use that story, like
it's too much to fit it in. Yeah, but all of everyone that
we interview did very well, Likeyou know what I'm saying, they told
their best stories. A horse couldn'tuse all of them. But yeah,
(06:11):
no one gave like a half assedinterview. Okay, that's good, that's
good. Yeah, because I wasjust I was wondering if there was like
the sting that made you get likewow, so reason why he told this
amazing story about Outcasts one of theirfirst times performing on the stage in Atlanta,
which is, you know, kindof crazy to think of it,
Atlanta, where Outcasts doesn't exist,and he was driving them to that performance,
(06:32):
which was at freaking neck, butthe traffic was so crazy that he
didn't know if they would get thereon time. And if they missed this
opportunity, it would be huge,you know, because LaFace is here.
It's a big deal. And sohe immediately decided that he probably needed to
try to figure out how to geta helicopter to get them from the interstate
to the Venyard. He of coursetries in Atlanta's out of helicopter city,
(06:54):
where you can just call it helicopterin the nineties. So then he reverses
on the highway of taking the backroads and gets I always forget how far
or how close he got. Theywere like maybe a mile out, well
maybe a mile out, but withequipment, Yeah, so that close.
So about a mile away with equipment, and he says, literally dre and
big hop out of the car andrun to the stage with equipment and made
(07:17):
it on within minutes of having toperform the first time for the first time
in Atlanta. Wow. Crazy story. Yeah, that's that's how I be.
Man. It should never be likethat. Yeah, but that's how
it is. Yeah. Man.Wow, Well, I appreciate y'all so
much for coming in talking to usabout the documentary. Go ahead, let
everybody know where they can watch itand where they can check it out Hulu
(07:41):
today. So right now, stopwhat you're doing. I need you to
go watch it and yeah yeah yeah, and create an account. You know
what I'm saying. Watch this onyour account, watch it on your mom's
account. Who's in the in thedocumentary? Like, watch it. You
should watch this and tune in andencourage friends have watched parties. You know,
these are black docs a culture,so we do want to make sure
they're getting as many eyeballs as possible. So watch it. That's what's up.
(08:03):
Yeah. It was funny because Iasked. I was like, I'm
not gonna see y'all in this.I had talked about my parents and uncles
at us. I was like,y'all not gonna be in this documentary,
So that's hilarious. But I waslike, Yo, you know we're gonna
see We're gonna watch and find out, definitely appreciate y'all so much for coming
in talking to us about it.And then yeah, like they said,
make sure y'all go watching tune incatch y'all next time.
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