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Fat rat >> Cincinnati’s Fat Jon gabs from the lab
Mirror:
How in the hell do you maintain that output? Fat Jon:
I’m a boring dude, man! I don’t have a social life, know what
I’m sayin’? I am the definition of a lab rat. I’m not
that interested in too much other shit, man. I like music and cartoons,
and I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve been doing music for a long
time and I’ve just been stacking shit up. M: How would
you describe the style of your production? FJ: One
style is like a basic sample or a basic groove that continues throughout
the song and that’s it. Then you have the type of style where if
you put an MC on it it’s cool, but if there’s no MC it’s
still cool. Then there are the tracks I make where it’s basically
a “fuck an MC” frame of mind (laughs). M: Your
beats appear to belong to the “soulful minority” of hip hop
producers putting out music today. Is soul an important factor missing
from a lot of production that you hear coming out? FJ: You know what? I wouldn’t say that it’s missing, it’s just not necessary for them to put it in there. Everybody has their own approach, and some people go with what works for everybody, with what’s popular. For me, I just get bored, man, and I just want to make something that I feel. I could shit out a bunch of beats, but it would go against my integrity, everything that I felt growing up and everything that I feel now. : With Simahlak
and Alex Robbins on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 3616 St-Laurent, 9pm, $6
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It’s
probably a given that most of you do not think of Cincinnati, Ohio,
when you think of hip hop hubs in the United States, but believe it
or not, they have an internationally known cast of luminaries. Alongside
Lone Catalysts, MOOD, Hi-Tek and Five Deez, producer/MC Fat Jon has
surfaced as one member of the talented Wanna Battle collective representing
Cincinnati. With a presence on an impressive four LPs released in the
last six months—Maurice Galactica’s Humanoid Erotica, Five
Deez’s Koolmotor, 3582’s The Living Soul and the Table Noise
Vol. 2 comp—the Mirror had to ask this man just how he does it.