King of Diamonds Closes For Good, Leaving Behind An Iconic Legacy
Not many institutions go hand in hand like southern rap and strip clubs. Ass and trap beats pair together like Hennessy and fried foods, big rims and trunk-rattling bass, and big smiles with gold grills. Only a few rap hubs are lucky enough to have a strip club supporting it, ready to let rappers, athletes and even drug dealers showcase just how long their money can stretch on any given Saturday night by throwing it till it kisses the ceiling and gracefully falls to the floor like an autumn leaf. Making it rain is absolutely romantic, especially with 808s as background music.
Only two strip clubs have made such an impact to a city and rap scene--Atlanta’s Magic City and Miami’s King of Diamonds. Last week, the Miami New Times reported King of Diamonds, commonly known as KOD, will be closing its doors for good due to foreclosure after failing to make mortgage payments. Those same doors once welcomed some of the biggest rappers and athletes, some of the richest parties, and will go down as one of the iconic locales in rap history. And now those doors are now held shut with a lock and chain, likely forever.
South Florida was in the midst of a renaissance thanks to burgeoning talents like Rick Ross, who was just beginning to build his Maybach music empire, and DJ Khaled, who was making street anthems and putting the entire city of Miami on it. Plies, Ace Hood, Flo Rida, and Brisco slowly rose behind them as more eyes began to focus away from the scenic beaches and towards the music being created in the neighborhoods that won't make any postcards. Lil Wayne, arguably the best rapper at the time, and the rest of the YMCMB empire took refuge in Miami during Hurricane Katrina and never went back. He bought a house near South Beach and offered his talents for some of the biggest records to come out of Dade County and Opa Locka.
In a 2012 Miami New Times feature, Disco Rick remembered the starting point for KOD’s stardom. The moment was 2009, specifically Super Bowl XLIII weekend in Tampa. Rick--a long-time Miami bass legend who worked his way into the nightlife business and eventually became one of the club’s managers alongside Trick Daddy’s father, used the connections he made from the music industry to bring big-name athletes and rappers to party at King of Diamonds. Of course, the party was a hit, and the gentleman's club nestled next to Miami’s I-95 became the talk of the black entertainment world.
The next year Miami hosted Super Bowl XLIV, and Diddy decided to throw a party at King of Diamonds that lasted the entire weekend. The Super Bowl would leave town, but the parties never stopped. Suddenly, an influx of black rappers and athletes from around the country packed into King of Diamonds to flaunt their wealth by throwing it in the air. The timely combination of good sports fortune mixing with homegrown Miami stardom began to put the city on a new level.
Before the 2010-2011 NBA season, LeBron James took his talents to South Beach and made the Miami Heat, along with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the most exciting team the league had ever seen. By day, Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, Birdman, Rihanna, Rick Ross, Diddy, Drake, and countless other black celebrities (and Justin Bieber) were likely seen courtside at Miami Heat games while the team made it to four straight NBA Finals appearances, winning two of them. And when the lobs stopped on the basketball court, the rappers and other athletes took their talents to KOD, throwing lobs from the VIP section with sparklers and ass surrounding them.
Diddy and Ross courtside at a Miami Heat game
The success brought a ton of money and ample amounts of opportunity for flexing, and all of it needed a home. The pink and blue "King of Diamonds" neon sign that wrapped around the building was a welcome mat. Eventually, the King of Diamonds name started to ring out beyond the Florida panhandle as more rappers began to flood the club with ones and champagne showers.
Worldstarhiphop would drop promo videos from the club’s escapades on any given night. A video one month might be an album release party for DJ Khaled, next month is Lil Wayne’s coming home party after a one-year bid at Rikers. Two months after that might be Worldstar’s anniversary party (the site’s owner Q, was a regular patron of the club), or a few cameras caught a high-profile rapper like Lil Wayne or Gucci Mane throwing insane amounts of money on a random Thursday night. Those videos were all mostly formatted the same: [Insert rapper] throws [Insert event] at King of Diamonds and throws [Insert money amount] + [Insert other rappers or athletes]. The footage that came from those nights were always must-see.
It was a hip-hop wonderland of ass, alcohol, and debauchery. Its stars were dancers Blac Chyna, Tip Drill, and Skrawberry, and there were never too many visitors. The brand became so well-known the club was close to starting its own reality show called Make It Rain. King of Diamonds became a household name, and rappers name-dropped the club on as many verses as possible.
Drake famously sent out a beacon to one of KOD’s most famous dancers on “Miss Me” when he said, “Call up King of Diamonds and tell Chyna it’d be worth the flight/ I’ll be at the table stacking dollars to the perfect height.” His mentor Lil Wayne gave a two-day travel guide to visitors on Ace Hood’s “Hustle Hard Remix”: “Liv on Sundays, King of Diamonds Monday.” Philly’s Meek Mill said “I done did the DOA’s, I done did the KOD’s” on his hit “Dreams and Nightmares.” And Juicy J said “She give me dome when the roof gone/ After KOD she leave with me,” on “Bandz A Make Her Dance.”
Every rapper who threw a dollar in King of Diamonds has mentioned the club in some capacity in their songs in an attempt to one-up any rapper that came before them. But few have done it bigger or better than Rick Ross, who named a song after the club.
“It’s nothing to go in there and have 50 ballplayers and some street dudes,” Ross said to Angie Martinez on Hot 97. “It ain't nothing to spend some real change in King of Diamonds. Well that night, we broke the club. They did not have a dollar to give us as we requested more money...not one dollar.” The story Ross is talking about is simple: a crew composed of Ross, Diddy, Pharrell, and others collectively threw $1 million dollars in one night. For comparison, the next biggest reported sum spent in one night was $100,000 by Floyd Mayweather. They were throwing so much money the club couldn’t handle all the cash requests, prompting Disco Rick to order a Brinks truck to the club to deliver more money. That night easily tops the time Ross flew into King of Diamonds via helicopter for his birthday.
Suddenly, things began to take a tragic turn. Early in 2012, one of the club’s most famous dancers, Tip Drill, took a horrific fall from 35-feet and fractured multiple bones in her face. The club’s original owner Jack Galardi--who became a nightlife mogul opening successful clubs in Las Vegas before moving into Miami--passed away in 2012, and the club had to be sold to a group of New York investors in 2014 to keep the doors open. That same year, the club was forced to pay $375,000 in a settlement to its dancers after they claimed they weren’t being paid properly for their overtime and standard wages.
In August of 2017, King of Diamonds and its owners were sued for foreclosure after failing to make the first mortgage payment. On Nov. 7, news broke that King of Diamonds was being forced to close. The place was cleaned out in October.
There was an outpour of reactions over the clubs closing on social media. Jalen Rose gave his condolences on ESPN between basketball highlights. Most are rap fans who grew up seeing the wild parties of rap and sport’s upper echelon are upset they didn’t get to experience the lore of King of Diamonds with their own eyes. Others are locals expressing the club had fallen off a long time ago, redirecting attention to other clubs like VLive or G5ive.
Despite the report, the King of Diamonds official Twitter and Instagram accounts have commented on the reported closing, sort of. Their latest post on Twitter was a link to their Instagram account, specifically a post of a newspaper with “Fake News” in big red letters. The club's address and phone number are listed below. The phone number no longer works.
There’s still slight speculation on whether the club is really closed for good. Small rumblings on Twitter say the club is just renovating, while others try to predict if they’ll turn the location into a Whole Foods or a skating rink.
Today, Magic City holds stands alone as hip-hop’s most beloved establishment. The club is credited for being a money factory, generating its own dollars for its dancers and workers, but for the artists who are able to get their music played in the club. It’s not a coincidence that Atlanta is now rap’s most influential city--and similar to Miami and King of Diamonds--Magic City is a vital piece to Atlanta’s triumph in the industry, as it helped launch many rap careers with every stiletto step.
King of Diamonds and its three-letter acronym are staples in 21st-century rap culture. The club became more than a gentleman's club. It earned the hearts of many rappers and eventually slid into the hearts of every rap fan. Its influence is etched in history with Drake lyrics, video promos, and wild stories even though the last dollar has been thrown in the iconic Miami venue.