On The Come Up: Joey Fatts

HotNewHipHop's On The Come Up series profiles rising stars in the rap game that show strong promise and the will to succeed. Most of the time, they're new to the site but deserve some shine. We will profile artists and producers ranging from those in the deep underground to artists just about to bubble up into the mainstream that you may have missed. You'll be able to check out some of their best work, and we'll break down what makes them great by category. Throughout the article, you'll find links to hear more from the artist or producer, and you can leave suggestions in the comments letting us know who we should profile in the future.

Vince Staple's Hell Can Wait just dropped yesterday, and you can should cop that right here. But that isn't the only thing we should thank Mr. Staples for. You see, he's also responsible for getting today's On The Come Up artist off the streets and into the studio, planting a seed that would eventually grow into one of the most talented young artist slash producers in the game today. If you haven't guessed already, we're talking about the pride of Long Beach, Joey Fatts. The 23-year-old West Coaster has only been on the scene about 2 years, but in that short time he's proven that he's one of the most versatile and skilled, not to mention in-demand, people in hip-hop. 

You know the deal, slide through the gallery while we catch you up on Joey's story and play you some of his best work. Hit the comment section and let us know what you think of his music, and make sure you get at us on Twitter and Facebook with the artist we should feature on OTCU next!

Nice To Meet You

Joey Fatts has lived in California his whole life, and you can see it, hear it and feel it in everything he does. Like his predecessors Snoop and Dre before him, he oozes West Coast. From his ironed white tee to his fresh Chuck Taylors, it's just a lifestyle that no matter how successful he gets in music, won't change one bit. While his music bears the traditional left coast staples like quick, sharp drums and brash stories of growing up gang-banging, he also puts his own personal touch on it. He has incorporated dark and gloomy New York-style themes into a lot of his tracks and made the two contrasting subgenres mesh quite nicely. While he's not the greatest lyricist to ever pick up a pen, he holds his own, and we'd rather hear his raw stories in his own words than have him forcibly make them more complex and risk losing sight of the message.

He was an aspiring football player that fell into a life of gang warfare, with a robbery arrest ending his sports career permanently. He was homeless, living out of his 1986 Camaro when he found his new path, making beats and rapping. We'll get into the rest of that story and who helped lead him there in a little bit, but it was an epiphany that changed his life forever. He quickly discovered this would be his ticket out of despair and has worked non-stop to assure he never has to go back to his old life.

Now he's independent artist who is managed by A$AP Yams, and he's well on his way to hip-hop superstardom. Him and his Cutthroat Records team are making consistently strong music and savvy business moves that have set them up for the long term.

Friends & Family

As we stated in the intro, it was Vince Staples who first convinced Joey Fatts to give music a shot, but there's way more to the story. When Fatts was living out of his car and trying to figure out what came next, it was his cousin, Staples, who said he should try his hand at rapping. Joey quickly realized he had a knack for putting rhymes together, but when he couldn't convince producers to slide him beats, he decided he needed to just make them himself. Guess what? He was great at that too. The two formed Cutthroat Records along with another California up-and-comer A$ton Matthews, and the rest was history. As for Matthews, the story of how the two met is actually pretty awesome. He told Mass Appeal in 2013, "A$ton was Vince’s homie. I never knew A$ton until like last year, in 2012 when I started rapping. Vince, I knew Vince since he was younger. Vince is like my brother, you know, he’s like family. He was always around so we were always kicking it with each other. But uh, Vince was rapping, I had just started rapping and this was like December 2011. I had just started recording. I had hit a lick for an iMac. I had robbed a crib for an iMac or whatever and then uh, after I was recording or whatever, you know, niggas go through notions of 'fuck this shit. This shit ain’t paying off.' So I was like man, fuck this rap shit. This shit isn't working. This was before I dropped the track “Cutthroat.” Actually, it was right after I dropped “Cutthroat,” I was gonna stop rapping. I was like man this shit weak. So then I tweeted 'Yo, who want a iMac?' Vince retweeted it and A$ton hit me up like, 'yo, what’s good, I’m trying to get that.' Then Vince linked us up. We met at like a Burger King and I sold him the computer.

Then we started chopping it up, just talking about street shit and talking about what we wanted to do and our vision with the rap shit. And then we realized that we shared the same interests. We just instantly clicked. He was already telling me about all the fake niggas in the industry and I was new to the rap game. So I was like 'yeah, I’m not trying to go through that.' He seemed like a real nigga, so we started to fuck around. Then we started hanging with each other real tough around January 2012. And then, I ended up moving in with him. The garage that I told you that I lived in was his garage. I moved into his garage in July 2012 and I started recording all my shit there and ever since then, we’ve been doing the Cutthroat shit. The Cutthroat shit was already like, the vision of my hood. That’s where me and Vince from. So we just made an entertainment side."

Fast forward to a few months later, and Fatts passes a few of his beats to a friend that knows A$AP Mob head honcho Yams. He didn't hear anything until he got a random call from A$AP Rocky, where he told Joey that he was currently his favorite producer and he wanted to work with him. This led to a fast friendship and the Long.Live.A$AP standout track and not-so-subtle SpaceGhostPurrp diss "Jodye", which Fatts produced. That gave Fatts the notoriety and momentum he needed to really make his music career take off.

As time went on and Joey Fatts had started to gain some traction, word spread to the dirty South. Waka Flocka had Joey put pen to paper as the first artist signed to his 36Brickhouse imprint, although, as he told us on Twitter, he is currently independent. You can hear the Turn Up Gawd explain the 36Brickhouse deal in his interview with Hot 97 below. 

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Chipper Jones

When you run through Joey Fatts' catalog, you'll notice a continuous theme, as all his projects bear the name Chipper Jones. No, all 3 volumes do not pay homage to the legendary Atlanta Braves 3rd baseman by the same name. Quite the contrary, actually, it refers to his marksmanship in the streets, and when someone gets shot where he's from, they got "chipped." He explained it in full in a recent interview with Complex:

Download Chipper Jones Vol. 1 here, Chipper Jones Vol. 2 here, and stream or download his most recent Chipper Jones Vol. 3 below.

Fatt Beats

Aside from Rocky's "Jodye", Joey Fatts has produced many of his own songs, as well as tracks for countless other artists. He has existing production credits with Cutthroat fam Vince Staples and A$ton Matthews, as well as fellow West Coaster Schoolboy Q on "Hit Em Up" which appeared on the amazingly titled Funk Flex tape Who You Mad At? Me Or Yourself?. 

He has stated he produced 4 tracks for Rocky's forthcoming sophomore album, as well as a track on Action Bronson's upcoming major label debut. Fatts and Bronson previously collaborated on "Live Blasphemous" from Chipper Jones Vol. 2 and we can't wait to hear what the pair have in store for us next. 

Up Next 

After apparently never having left his block before his rap career took off, the last year or so have been a whirlwind for Joey. He toured the country opening up for A$AP Ferg on the "Turnt x Burnt Tour" before heading over the pond for Rocky's European tour. His most recent work is a song he dropped with A$AP Ant, a fellow OTCU alumni, called "12345". While he hasn't announced plans for his next project, we can only assume there will be a Chipper Jones Vol. 4 somewhere along the line, and we need it like yesterday.