Lady Saw

There’s a reason why the Lady Saw show didn’t start till 4 in the morning: Church had just let out at 11:30 p.m.

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The nearly abandoned strip mall on Memorial Drive where Club Legacy is located is home to at least three “Christian centers” that apparently fill needs on a Friday night better than dance music ever could. If the righteous had any clue what X-rated rants were to come, the tongues they’d speak in would rival the somewhat indecipherable words of the three female DJs who took the stage early Saturday morning.

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Indecipherable to me, anyway. Luckily — and quite bizarrely — my interpreter was a half-Russian, half-Mexican hot mama determined to get food from Kool Runnings before the show. At 1 a.m., the antsiness started to set in. Her response was like a slogan from a Jamaican souvenir: “No worries, mon.”

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Back inside the club at 1:30, about 40 people — only 10 more than an hour before — had collected around the sunken dancefloor. Dancehall remixes of Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’s “Lovers and Friends” and Mario’s “Let Me Love You” got people moving, but the ladies reserved the real wind for authentic dancehall tunes.

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In general, the vibe was much more mature than Atlanta’s typical scene. Then again, this party was “for adult use only.”

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Sista Charmaine came out at 3:55 a.m., hand to her crotch, and clutching the mic like only a true MC would dare. A piece of dark chocolate hunkness took her up on one: He gets on stage and takes it off. Teasing like the tuff stuff DJs, he got down to his belt then stopped the show. Next, “dancehall diva” Ce’cile cranked it up another notch, but with a lighter touch and a more mainstream hip-hop vibe.

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Then came the “Queen of the Dancehall” Lady Saw, putting all the youngsters in their place by telling them how a real woman gets down. For anyone wondering, the “pussy is tight like a virgin” — and the beats were so raw that even a condom couldn’t protect you. With the set still going at 5:45 a.m., “sex in the morning” took on a whole new meaning.