When running down his list of production credits, Fat Boi names impressive placements with Flo-Rida, Gorilla Zoe, Jeezy, Rocko, Juvenile, and so on. But his work with Gucci Mane – most recently the “Wasted” track featuring Plies – has fattened up this Savannah native’s resume, and pockets. HERE, HE TOLD OZONE his story. I grew up in a musical household. My dad is a jazz musician. He’s a band teacher, and of course I was in his class, so he taught me music. I started DJing when I was in middle school. Being a DJ, you kinda see the reaction to certain types of records, so you can apply that into making music. I decided instead of playing the music that everybody likes to dance to, I would make the music. I already had a musical background, so I just started buying equipment—MPCs, keyboards, stuff like that. I basically started producing the way I would DJ. [I’m originally from] Savannah, GA but [I lived in] California, Florida, all over the place. I actually moved to Atlanta for the first time in ’97. I was just trying to make music industry connects, trying to get my face seen. Pure Pain Records started in ’98 and I went back to Savannah at that time. They had the artist Camoflauge and that’s where I caught my first major placement. I did a record for Camoflauge called “Cut Friends” in ’01 with Universal. After his passing, I stayed there another two years and then it was time to venture off on my own and get out of the in-house production side of things. That’s when I ran into my manager and partner Big Ron and
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Rasheed McWilliams. We had some big plans and it worked out. I moved back to Atlanta in ’06 and the rest is history. A lot of people didn’t realize I did Camoflauge’s “Cut Friends.” “Takin It There” with Jeezy featuring Trey Songz, Flo Rida’s “All My Life,” “Tryin To Make a Jug” Gorilla Zoe, “Priceless” Rocko, “Drifter” Shawty Redd, which spawned into “Sexual Eruption” with Snoop Dogg, Juvenile and T-Pain “Everything,” those are more of my records. They pretty much know all the Gucci and OJ [da Juiceman] stuff. “Wasted” came together when we were working on the Writing On The Wall mixtape with DJ Holiday. Gucci had just gotten out [of jail] and he was coming in the studio every day. He said he had an idea, and asked what I would think about a song called “Wasted.” I told him if we do it right it could be how urban people say “get fucked up.” Instead of getting fucked up, they’d say “get wasted.” We let Plies check it out and he told Gucci the exact same thing. We built it from scratch and it was outta there after that. We all knew it could be a big record as soon as we did it. The impact was a little surprising. Being a DJ I kinda already knew it would have the clubs goin’ crazy; that’s why I put the DJ breaks in the record without DJs having to break the record. But I didn’t know that radio would take hold to it the way that it has. Content-wise we didn’t think radio would get into it, but they love it. Ever since we did “Vette Pass By,” which is the first record I did for Gucci, it’s been that kind of work ethic with us. With everyone else in the industry, you might send a track in email and they’ll
work on it from whatever city they’re in—me and Gucci never do that. We always build songs from the ground up. The same with OJ too. The perfect example is “Wasted.” We’ll get in at 1 or 2 o’clock [in the afternoon] and won’t finish ‘til 1 or 2 o’clock [in the morning]. By the time we knock off we’ll have 4 songs and a 5th one started. It doesn’t take us long. I’m working on Plies’ album now, and Jeezy’s new album. I’ve worked with Flo-Rida, Yung Joc, Bow Wow, Nelly, Yung Ralph, R. Kelly, Sean Garrett. I just had a two-day session with B.o.B. I’m still more of hardware user, just because I get a certain type of feel when I use hardware. I’ve slowly been converting to software, but with the MPC, I still have to bang pads. It’s kinda hard for me to play drums on keyboard keys. I can bring certain nuances and feels by hittin’ MPC pads. Phantom is my baby. I fell in love with that ever since it came out. I’m not gonna get into the different types of programs I use, but that’s pretty much my setup.