The Fat Boys


The Fat Boys were an American hip-hop trio from Brooklyn, New York, who emerged in the early 1980s. The group was briefly known originally as the Disco 3, originally composed of Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales, Damon "Kool Rock-Ski" Wimbley, and Darren "Buff Love" Robinson.
The trio is widely known for using beatboxing in their songs. The Fat Boys were one of the first rap groups to release full-length rap albums, along with Run-DMC, Whodini and Kurtis Blow. Beloved for their comedic, self-deprecating rhymes, the group released seven studio albums, four of which went Gold by RIAA.
The first two albums of the group were produced by Kurtis Blow. Successful singles included "Jail House Rap", "Can You Feel It?", "Fat Boys", "Stick 'Em", "Don't You Dog Me", "All You Can Eat", "The Fat Boys Are Back", and "Pump It Up".
Their fourth studio album Crushin' received a Platinum status due to their single "Wipeout!", which was recorded together with the American rock band the Beach Boys. Their next studio album, Coming Back Hard Again, repeated the formula of the previous one and received a Gold status due to the successful single "The Twist ", recorded together with American rock and roll singer Chubby Checker. The album also included "Are You Ready for Freddy", the theme song for the film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which featured Robert Englund performing as Freddy Krueger.
The group starred in three feature films in the 1980s: Krush Groove, Knights of the City and Disorderlies.

Members

  • Mark Morales, also known as "Prince Markie Dee"
  • Damon Wimbley, also known as "Kool Rock-Ski"
  • Darren Robinson, also known as "The Human Beat Box" and "Buff Love"

    History

Beginnings

In 1983, a Swiss-born promoter named Charles Stettler, the owner of his own label Tin Pan Apple, decided to hold a hip-hop talent contest. To find a sponsor, Stettler went to radio station WBLS, which recommended him to a couple of sponsors. In the end, he persuaded the company Coca-Cola to finance the contest. For the next three months, contests were held to identify a winner in each borough of New York City every Saturday afternoon.
On May 23, 1983, the final contest entitled "Coca-Cola and WBLS present: The Tin Pan Apple After Dark Dance & Rap Contest!" was held. The event was held at Radio City Music Hall. The host that evening was Mr. Magic from the radio program Rap Attack. According to the terms of the competition, the winner signed a contract for a recording contract. The Fat Boys members, then calling themselves The Disco 3, were unexpected winners with their song "Stick' Em".

European Tour

In 1983, The Disco 3 released their debut single "Reality". It was produced by James Mason, jazz guitarist and keyboardist of Roy Ayers' jazz-funk band.
Since the group did not have a manager, Stettler took over this position. Stettler took the group on a European bus tour, where he told them to gain more weight. The concerts ended at 12 o'clock in the evening, and they could not get to the hotel until two o'clock in the morning. Only places like McDonald's and Burger King were open, so the group members gained weight from this. Since so much was happening, the group members did not even notice this on the tour and did not consider themselves overweight. A party was later held for the renaming of the group at the Roseland Ballroom in New York.

Meeting Kurtis Blow

Charlie Stettler introduced the group to rapper and producer Kurtis Blow, who helped them find their signature sound. To work on the album, Kurtis Blow recruited the drum machine programmers of Run-D.M.C., Larry Smith and Davy "DMX" Reeves, who were considered two of the best at making songs at the time. "Stick' Em" was the first song they recorded with Kurtis Blow.
The group's 1984 self-titled debut album, Fat Boys, is considered by many to be the first hip-hop album to feature the element of hip hop known as beatboxing. Darren "The Human Beat Box" Robinson was a pioneer in beatboxing.

Fresh Fest Tour '84

One day in 1984, Russell Simmons stormed into Stettler's office and told him that he was going to have a festival titled Fresh Fest Tour '84, in which his groups and breakdancers would take part. Since Stettler raised $300,000 from Coca-Cola to finance his 1983 contest, Simmons wanted Stettler to do it again. The young promoter could not get the beverage company to return, so he called a friend of his and asked him if there was anything the Swiss were trying to sell. The Swatch wristwatch turned out to be such a product. Stettler persuaded the company to finance a tour of $360,000, while the festival was renamed The Swatch Watch New York City Fresh Fest.
Russell Simmons did not want to take the Fat Boys on the tour, because nobody had heard of them at that point. Stettler went to an old Tower Records store on 4th Street and Broadway, and handed out 5,000 flyers that read: "Guess the weight of the Fat Boys and the person who does wins 800 cans of Diet Pepsi and one dollar." Thousands of children lined up at the Tower Records store to participate. Stettler put the group members on the scale; at that time they weighed together. In the end, a boy from Harlem won. Channel 2 News filmed this event, including the delivery of the soft drink, but police did not respond when it was stolen a short time later.
The next day, Stettler saw in the newspaper that The Jackson 5 was going to be reuniting at a concert in October 1984. He called his wife and part-time partner, asking her to write a press release saying that the Jackson 5 have picked the then-still-unknown group the Fat Boys as their opening act. Stettler distributed this press release across the city. The next morning, Stettler and The Fat Boys appeared on the TV show Good Morning America. When the host turned around to The Fat Boys, they did not know what to say. They simply said: "Brrr, Stick' Em! Ha-ha-ha, Stick 'Em!", due to it being the group's popular song at the time.
Russell Simmons agreed to add The Fat Boys to the lineup of the festival, which included Run-D.M.C., Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Newcleus, and The Dynamic Breakers. The first concert of the tour took place on Labor Day, September 3, 1984. For 27 concerts in the United States, the organizers raised $3.5 million. The festival was accompanied by advertising on television.
In 1985, this was followed by Fresh Fest II, which included the same acts, with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five replacing Newcleus.

Film and television

At the time, the American office of the company Swatch was tasked with trying to advertise its product to American audiences. The company was known for using offbeat campaigns, and agreed to feature the Fat Boys in a commercial for the watches on MTV. The video "Brrr, Swatch ’Em!" was aired in December 1984. Swatch again featured The Fat Boys in a 1985 Christmas advertisement created by former MTV creative heads Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert. This commercial, "Swatch Watch Presents A Merry Christmas" was first broadcast in December 1985. These commercials were notable, because when they aired in December 1984, MTV did not feature many hip-hop artists in their programming, having only started airing music videos from rap artists earlier that year with Run-D.M.C.’s crossover hit, “Rock Box.” Due to the success of these commercials, they would become frequent guests on MTV, pioneering a space for hip-hop artists to appear on the network and ultimately increasing hip hop's popularity and legitimacy with MTV's audience.
Also because of these commercials, the group developed a reputation for their sense of humor. They starred in several feature films. Their first starring role came in the movie Krush Groove, followed by a second, Disorderlies, which also featured Ralph Bellamy as a millionaire invalid cared for by his good-natured yet inept orderlies, with a cameo by manager Stettler.

Making ''Crushin'' and ''Coming Back Hard Again''

Hoping to repeat the success of Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith with the single "Walk This Way" The Fat Boys made a cover version of the song "Wipeout" together with rock group The Beach Boys. The single peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The song "Wipeout" reached number 2 on UK Top 100 in September 1987 during a 13-week chart run. "Wipeout" was the last song the group members recorded for the album Crushin'.
The music video for the song begins with an announcement of a boxing match, The Fat Boys and The Beach Boys are attending the match. The match is interrupted by a fight. In the following scene, The Fat Boys load up a car with swimsuits and then drive off. The Beach Boys are driving in a dune buggy through the city. Both bands go around the city in the direction of a beach, while they perform the song and invite the inhabitants of the city to come to the beach. Meanwhile, at the beach one of The Fat Boys tries to lift a heavy weight and is laughed at by two women because of failure, another playing volleyball and another surfing. The Beach Boys on the other hand are DJing in the street. At the end of the video they all celebrate at a beach party.
The group was later approached to record the theme song for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, called "Are You Ready for Freddy", which featured Robert Englund performing as Freddy Krueger.
Their next album called Coming Back Hard Again repeated the formula of the previous one. This time, The Fat Boys recorded a cover version of the song "The Twist" with Chubby Checker, who performed it originally in 1960. The single peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 40 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The song "The Twist " reached number two on UK Top 100 in July 1988 during a 11-week chart run. Another song from the album, "Louie Louie", is a cover version of a 1957 song by American singer Richard Berry. The song peaked at number 46 on UK Top 100 on November 5, 1988, for 4 weeks.