FAT BOYS!

Fat Boys - 1984

Say hello to the human beatbox. At a mere 15 cents this album was a freaking steal from the newly opened CD/Game Exchange in Takoma Park. It features strong production from the one and only Kurtis Blow and some ahead of its time hip hop from the boys of fat. The songs feature some deft rapping that borders on the ludicrous at times, but never deep ends into clowning. It's a solid effort that can get a living room dance party going in short order. The sleeve mysteriously had a single for "Sex Machine" from a later album crammed in with it. The single (featuring a straight rip of James Brown's "Sex Machine")is "meh". Our copy came in a sleeve that looked like it had been chewed on by a pack of starving hyaenas, but after some close inspection of the dense shmootz at the shop, the grooves were unharmed.

So the guys are fat and they rap. Haha, I get it. That's it, right? WRONG. This stuff is tight, the guys are on their game, and it's a good time! Tracks like "Jail House Rap", "Fat Boys", and "Human Beat Box" are just awesome! The beat boxing, while groundbreaking at the time, still holds strong and is a zillion times better than any auto-tune bs that the new school guys are putting out there. GET A COPY RIGHT NOW.

Not sure why this album got lost to the sands of time, perhaps the Boys let the quality slip a few notches after this first LP, as evidenced by the "Sex Machine" single I mentioned earlier. Maybe they were having so much fun that they became a self-parody. The important thing to remember here is that future platters don't matter much when the one that's spinning is so damn tight.