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hen you think about Texas rap, Dallas is probably not the city that comes to mind. With Houston’s music scene as deep and vast as the state itself, Dallas constantly gets left out of the equation. “I don’t think [people have] heard the Dallas sound before,” rapper/producer Fat Pimp admits. “But my solo project is putting the Dallas sound out to the world.”
high school he’s pretty much been known as a beatmaker. After getting his first placement in 2004 on Big Tuck’s mixtape, he realized the game was wide open. Alongside his production partner, Mr. Lee, he delivered all of the tracks for Swag School.
Calling south Dallas’ Oak Cliff home, Fat Pimp isn’t exaggerating about the long reach his music has had so far. Although his Ball Hard Entertainment/ Warner Brothers solo debut Swag School is his first solid outing, radio didn’t hesitate to latch on to the extroverted rapper’s sound, especially “Get Money” and the up-tempo “Rack That.”
“Producing to me is an advantage because before I even create a beat, I try to hear how I would rap on the song,” he says. Even though he was making tracks long before he started spitting, he was always quick to start a freestyle session any and everywhere. Soon, he found out that he had skills both on the mic and behind the boards. A few years ago, when B.G. performed at TSU, where Fat Pimp was majoring in communications, he realized that rapping was something he wanted to take seriously.
“My situation is different than most,” says the self-proclaimed class clown, listing off DJs, promoters and radio stations who have supported him. “Those songs [being broke] at the same time is what helped us seal the deal with Warner Brothers. That’s really unheard of for indie artists.”
Swag School, which features Texas vets Lil Keke, Bun B, and Paul Wall and Bay Area rapper Mistah FAB, among others, is a mixture of the classic Houston sound he grew up on, Louisiana hooks, and Atlanta 808s. Fat Pimp says that creative mixture is actually what defines Dallas’ sound.
So is not even having a solo mixtape. Although Fat Pimp has made appearances on other rapper’s and label’s offerings, including the legendary Swisha House mixtapes, his solo debut will be exactly that. Making what he calls “feel good music,” Fat Pimp says that ever since he got his first keyboard in
“The [album title] is what my music represents,” he says. “That what we do in Dallas. Everything we do, we gotta have swag with it.”
42 // OZONE MAG
Jacinta Howard