Donald Williams AKA DONWILL (1/3rd of TANYA MORGAN) drops his two cents on dress code discrimination while club hopping. Its a common occurance that effects many a fitted cap wearer. Take a read, you might relate to the haterade. *The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. (Hahahaha!)

A funny thing happened on the way to my homeboy’s birthday party. (Names are being withheld.. SOME names.)

Long story short, a few months back I received a personal invite to a very exclusive event. Now when I say personal I mean handed the invitation by the host/man of the hour himself. I can’t lie, I was pretty excited. This party was one for the history books (at least in the world of Hip Hop) and more importantly it was OPEN BAR, hell it probably was even gonna have passed hors d’oeuvres.

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So you know how it is when you are looking forward to something. You spend all week trying to NOT think about it. But instead you end up mapping out what you are gonna wear. Yup, that was me. I had it all planned out. A basic outfit for me usually consists of a fitted, jeans and sneakers. I mean its not like I’m rollin up in your function looking like I been playing a game of flag football, but you know I want to be comfortable, especially considering that I’m in New York. In my scene, NOBODY dresses up.

Well the day arrived . Me and the squad rolled out to the spot only to be greeted by a line that was dressed nothing like we were. The homies first reaction was to say f@#! this s@#! and go catch a drink at my favorite dive bar. But me, I gets in the party, EVERY party. This one would be no different. So we stand around scoping the scene for just a bit more chopping it up with a few of our colleagues and they are all saying the same thing, “… man they aren’t letting nobody in with fitteds or jeans on. “I’m like “…huh?!?! This is a rap event! They gotta! And besides, we got Golden tickets!”

So we stood on line and played the sore thumb role until our turn to be judged came. The bouncer gave us a swift once over, and said a bunch of stuff that basically equated to “You are not getting in with those clothes on”. At which point we retrieve from our pockets the officials invitations. It was like the scene in Pulp Fiction when they opened the briefcase. Dudes eyes got kinda wide and we were like, “… okay we’re good money now …” but AGAIN he refused us on the grounds of being underdressed - FOR A HIP HOP EVENT. To make matters worse, I roll over to [name withheld]’s website the next day to see Terrance and Rocsi and a few other smiley faces up in the spot dressed more casual than me! “Oh word?” That’s what’s hot in the streets? Contradiction? I mean I get it… they are who they are and I am who I am. Chances are they weren’t so much invited as their publicist gave them invites to make the party look well attended by A-listers. Celebrities are a whole another rant.

What these velvet rope swinging dress code police need to realize is that I put effort in to looking effortless. My sneakers and fitteds are no different than your hard bottoms and suits. The “grown and sexy” plague that has settled upon common culture making the legions of grown ass kids feel perpetually underdressed. It has got to stop. My occupation doesn’t require me to dress up and I’ll be damned if my clubs do. I mean, have these people looked at the retail prices of some of the stuff they frown upon? Obviously not.

- Donald Williams AKA DONWILL

TANYA MORGAN - Brooklynati May, 12th 2009 www.tanyamorgan.com

DON CUSACK - High Fidelity Coming Soon www.mcdayjob.com