TastyTREATS
In 2000, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Yameen Allworld and Flygirrl hung out together regularly. The three of them would go everywhere together. They often would end up at South Street Diner, a popular all night diner on 2nd and South Sts, at 2am. This is really where Tastytreats was birthed. After discussing what was lacking in nightlife for them, they began to conceptualize what their party would be and look like. They played with names, musical direction, venue etc. They came up with Tastytreats. There was an undertone of Philly in the whole concept. And of course, this is where "jawn" entered the picture, too. They dreamed of hostesses (Jawns in Jawn t-shirts) handing out Tastykakes and even sending private notes to someone in the party, Jawn merch, their fav guest DJ's, friends, family & good vibes. They hung out at Flygirrl's house & made some sketches of logos and then mocked them and a flyer up on the computer. Flygirrl still has the napkin drawing Questlove did of the logo and his image.
Jack Boogi, another party promoter at the time, brought the Saturday nights at Filo's idea to Squarebiz. And in May, 2001 they launched their very first party as Squarebiz - Questlove is is the DJ, Yameen is the Party Narrator and Flygirrl handles the business, graphics and promotion. If you've never been to Filo's, it was a very small basement with no real bells and whistles. Over the first year, they grew so fast that one night, a friend names Oronde came and could barely get through the crowd. He said to Flygirrl, "Yo, y'all wanna move this sh&!?" At that time, he was a bouncer over at Fluid, another nightclub near by on 4th and South Sts. They literally would do numbers like 2-300 people through a night in a space that held maybe 65. After some discussing they decided to make the move and ended up residing at Fluid every Saturday for 13 years. This is where Mike Nyce + Eve Simonson entered the picture. At the time, Ahmir was touring more and was harder to have him be the only DJ every week. I believe it was Yameen that mentioned Mike as an option. Mike was well known at the time for rocking the 3rd floor of The Palmer along with Rich Medina and Lyzel Williams. So, Mike joined the Tastytreats crew from that moment on. Eve was a writer, a friend and Flygirrl's roommate. When they moved to Fluid, Eve and Flygirrl kept Saturday nights at Filo's and produced a different party there. Eve was also her partner when they created The Jawn Newspaper.
Over the 13 (with some reunion events in the years since) years that the party had a weekly residency, aside from the Tastytreats DJ's, Questlove and Mike Nyce, they booked other DJ's such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Biz Markie (RIP), Lovebug Starski (RIP), 9th Wonder, Premier with Guru, Kool DJ Herc, Tony Touch, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Beverly Bond, DJ Cash Money, Rich Medina, Da Beatminerz, Pete Rock, J Period, D-Nice, Mr Sonny James, Aktive, Ultraviolet, lil' dave, and more. A true bucket list of legendary DJ's and Hosts throughout the years, the Tastytreats crew feels blessed to have been able to have such legends call Tastytreats home. Flygirrl remembers one of the first times they had Biz Markie spin with them. Biz would spin a lot of mainstream events so he was pretty used to spinning Top 40. When he started his set, he played some Wu-Tang and when he saw the crowd go off, singing every singe word, he was so excited that he played nothing but Wu for the rest of his entire 2 hour set. He was so excited. They loved that about their party. The freedom, the feel good music. The friends and family. It's been an amazing 20 years.
The crew just celebrated their 20th Anniversary on July 18, 2021. Below the video are the beautiful photos from the (rain postponed) 20 Year Anniversary. Special thanks to the sponsors Red Bull and WURD, Photographer Cathie Berry of Beau Monde Originals, tasty treats Sheba's Soul Plate and Whimsical, the Jawns, and the staff and management at The Fillmore/Punch Line.
Jack Boogi, another party promoter at the time, brought the Saturday nights at Filo's idea to Squarebiz. And in May, 2001 they launched their very first party as Squarebiz - Questlove is is the DJ, Yameen is the Party Narrator and Flygirrl handles the business, graphics and promotion. If you've never been to Filo's, it was a very small basement with no real bells and whistles. Over the first year, they grew so fast that one night, a friend names Oronde came and could barely get through the crowd. He said to Flygirrl, "Yo, y'all wanna move this sh&!?" At that time, he was a bouncer over at Fluid, another nightclub near by on 4th and South Sts. They literally would do numbers like 2-300 people through a night in a space that held maybe 65. After some discussing they decided to make the move and ended up residing at Fluid every Saturday for 13 years. This is where Mike Nyce + Eve Simonson entered the picture. At the time, Ahmir was touring more and was harder to have him be the only DJ every week. I believe it was Yameen that mentioned Mike as an option. Mike was well known at the time for rocking the 3rd floor of The Palmer along with Rich Medina and Lyzel Williams. So, Mike joined the Tastytreats crew from that moment on. Eve was a writer, a friend and Flygirrl's roommate. When they moved to Fluid, Eve and Flygirrl kept Saturday nights at Filo's and produced a different party there. Eve was also her partner when they created The Jawn Newspaper.
Over the 13 (with some reunion events in the years since) years that the party had a weekly residency, aside from the Tastytreats DJ's, Questlove and Mike Nyce, they booked other DJ's such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Biz Markie (RIP), Lovebug Starski (RIP), 9th Wonder, Premier with Guru, Kool DJ Herc, Tony Touch, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Beverly Bond, DJ Cash Money, Rich Medina, Da Beatminerz, Pete Rock, J Period, D-Nice, Mr Sonny James, Aktive, Ultraviolet, lil' dave, and more. A true bucket list of legendary DJ's and Hosts throughout the years, the Tastytreats crew feels blessed to have been able to have such legends call Tastytreats home. Flygirrl remembers one of the first times they had Biz Markie spin with them. Biz would spin a lot of mainstream events so he was pretty used to spinning Top 40. When he started his set, he played some Wu-Tang and when he saw the crowd go off, singing every singe word, he was so excited that he played nothing but Wu for the rest of his entire 2 hour set. He was so excited. They loved that about their party. The freedom, the feel good music. The friends and family. It's been an amazing 20 years.
The crew just celebrated their 20th Anniversary on July 18, 2021. Below the video are the beautiful photos from the (rain postponed) 20 Year Anniversary. Special thanks to the sponsors Red Bull and WURD, Photographer Cathie Berry of Beau Monde Originals, tasty treats Sheba's Soul Plate and Whimsical, the Jawns, and the staff and management at The Fillmore/Punch Line.
