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Exotica

by Fat Tony

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Sold out in the USA. Orders will ship from the UK or AUS

    Pressed on Red, Yellow and Green Vinyl. Includes digital download.

    While supplies last, physical orders will include a Fat Tony Scratch Off with a download code for "Gambling Man (Mariachi Remix)".

    Includes unlimited streaming of Exotica via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    6 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $26.99 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Pressed on black vinyl. Expected to ship by late January 2022.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Exotica via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25.99 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    While supplies last, physical orders will include a Fat Tony Scratch Off with a download code for "Gambling Man (Mariachi Remix)".

    Includes unlimited streaming of Exotica via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15.99 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    Printed on Gildan Alstyle 1301

    Shipped via Fine Southern Gentlemen (Austin, Texas)

    Size chart available here:
    www.gildanbrands.com/item-content/1301/alstyle-1301/pr_1511217
    ships out within 5 days

      $26 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    Jeremy Bixby '76 Campaign T-Shirt.

    As described in "Jeremy Bixby" from the album Exotica.
    fattonyrap.bandcamp.com/album/exotica

    Printed on Gildan Alstyle 1301

    Size chart available here:
    www.gildanbrands.com/item-content/1301/alstyle-1301/pr_1511217
    ships out within 5 days

      $24 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9.99 USD  or more

     

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Jeremy Bixby 02:48
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Intimate 01:54
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about

Storytelling isn’t merely a vehicle for self-expression, it’s a mode of transportation. A two-way mirror in which we process gilded dreams and grotesque nightmares, the transgression of cultural taboos and the upholding of ancient tradition. It’s also the animating idea behind much of the greatest popular music ever made. Consider Exotica, the new album from Houston iconoclast, Fat Tony, the latest brilliant entry in that fabled tradition, what Outkast once described as “shooting game in the form of story rapping.”

While hip-hop supplies the foundation of the Third Ward native’s assault on genre, his futuristic soundclash encompasses seductive velour soul, lecherous French chansons, fluorescent new wave, and even splashes of African pop and reggae; the latter two being the residual effect of Tony’s Nigerian heritage and a sojourn to Jamaica to record the Carpark Records-released album with engineer, Abijah Livingston.

“This album is an ode to the art of storytelling through music,” the polymath born Anthony Lawson Jude Ifeanyichukwu Obiawunaotu says, distilling Exotica’s essence. “Picture records like The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. Artists like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, or Bob Marley. Every lyric was carefully considered to make sure we properly conveyed each character’s narrative and motivations. I wanted to create a world of unique stories with room for each to be interpreted in distinct ways.”

Assembling a Manhattan Project-style team of experts, the atom-splitting production came via Tony and his longtime collaborator, GLDNEYE (aka Tom Cruz), and engineering via Livingston and Brooklyn’s Steel Tipped Dove. To make the Third Coast cypher complete, Bun B pops up on “What Wake You Up,” courtesy of a cross-island dash where Tony paid visit to the legendary underground king, then vacationing in Montego Bay.

Each song is a rich and compact iteration of rap short fiction: Biggie’s “I Got a Story to Tell” channeled through John Cheever. Take lead single “Feeling Groovy,” a frantic meditation on lust, desire, and the notion of throwing it all away while puffing on a Black & Mild. Picture something like if Fat Pat fronted Scritti Politti. Or “Gambling Man,” where Tony one-ups the late great Kenny Rogers to tell the story of a ne’er-do-well schemer named Johnny, obsessed with the thrill of the roller coaster emotions before he discovers whether he’ll win or lose. If the Tom Tom Club knew every word to DJ Screw’s Wineberry Over Gold, it would probably sound like this.

Bob Dylan once famously said that an artist should “always be in the state of becoming.” And in the case of Fat Tony, Exotica is the latest stage in an evolution that has included everything from a bravura turn on the first A$AP Rocky mixtape to co-hosting a TV show on Viceland, founding a DIY Houston culture magazine to subversively expanding the parameters of experimentally-minded rap. Here is Exotica, nine new stories, more untrodden ground on the left hand path, a novel strain ready to be unpacked.

credits

released October 23, 2020

Produced by GLDNEYE aka Tom Cruz
Music composed by GLDNEYE

Written by Fat Tony and GLDNEYE
(except Bun B’s verse on “What Wake You Up”)

Mixed by GLDNEYE

Mastered by Joe Lambert

Recording Sessions Engineer:
Abijah Livingston [Kingston, Jamaica]

Writing Sessions Engineer:
Steel Tipped Dove (Joseph Fusaro) [Brooklyn, NY]

Album Cover:
Negashi Armada

Back Cover / Graphic Design:
Derek Garcia

Photography:
Aileen Son [Oaxaca, Mexico]

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all rights reserved

tags

about

Fat Tony Houston, Texas

No artist personifies the DIY culture of both underground hip-hop and Houston as perfectly as Fat Tony, who stormed through the indie-rap gates more than a decade ago. He’s found himself as an artist among fellow Houstonians who mix inward-looking pathos with storytelling and a swagger all their own—from Devin the Dude to Scarface—as well as like-minded iconoclasts such as Prince. ... more

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