Hannibal Buress has this joke about Atlanta strip clubs, the sort that Drake and Future shut down in lyrics and real life. “Those DJs are the most amazing DJs vocally, ever, because they drive the tipping,” he once said. “They crack jokes. It’s just so funny, it's like, ‘Man, you need to pay the pussy!’”

The way his imitation goes, they talk like auctioneers. But it’s a style so distinct, Buress could only be talking about William Fernando Barnes. As DJ Nando, Barnes was the most audacious strip club DJ Atlanta has seen in the past decade. He helped introduce B.o.B. and Dem Franchize Boyz. He made J-Kwon’s “Tipsy” and Rick Ross’ “Hustlin’” take off in Atlanta. He built hype for Usher's “Yeah!” ahead of its 2004 release. He re-established the strip club as a default setting, by breaking Travis Porter’s “Make It Rain,” YC's “Racks," Cash Out’s “Cashing Out.” Nando’s efforts affected Billboard charts but went unseen and uncredited outside of the club.

On January 14, 2014, Nando was fatally shot outside his Morrow, Georgia, home; he was 38 years old. Today (June 22, 2016), he would have turned 41. Two weeks after his death, friends held a vigil for Nando at Onyx, one of several strip clubs where he worked. Russell Simmons and Jermaine Dupri expressed their condolences. Could any other strip club DJ have had that kind of resonance?

Of course, strip club DJs have informed Atlanta’s music scene since the late ‘80s. DC the Brain Supreme was working at Magic City when he scored a smash as one-half of Tag Team with “Whoomp! (There It Is).” As even The Wall Street Journal has reported by now, artists pay strip club DJs to play their records. This helps artists gauge the crowd’s response and catch the attention of radio DJs and label execs there—hence why strip club DJs call themselves the A&R of the streets. Rates to play a song can range from a few Hamiltons to more than a grand.

The pay-for-play system was well established by the time Nando met Jay Jenkins in 2002. For two years Nando had been working downtown at Magic City, a now well-known spot that had hosted not just hip-hop and R&B elite but also superstar athletes like Michael Jordan. Nando was still on the “day” shifts from 3 to 9 p.m. Jenkins had one album under the moniker Lil’ J, though now he was going by Young Jeezy. He met at Magic City with his then-manager, Kevin “Coach K” Lee, who often asked for Nando’s help in breaking future hits like the Bun B-featuring “Over Here.”

“We go in that Tuesday or Wednesday, have a drink, and go to Nando like, ‘Man, I got something, I want to hear what it sounds like in here,’” says Coach K. “He’ll play it. If the girls move, he be like, ‘Yo, you might have something, Coach. Give me that and let me see during primetime.’” Primetime is Monday night, when the local hip-hop industry hangs out. But Nando would set an even higher standard.