The Last Stop for The Last Stop for Hip Hop: R.I.P. Fat Beats

At about 1 PM today I heard the news that Fat Beats was closing. Bloggers and other people cooler than me apparently received this:

After 16 years, Fat Beats has announced the closing of the legendary label’s two remaining retail locations in New York and Los Angeles. Fat Beats will celebrate the legacies of the stores, which are scheduled to close in early September (New York: September 4th, Los Angeles: September 18th) by throwing a series of blow-out sales and tribute parties open to the public during their last weeks. Fans can check www.FatBeats.com for updates.

For the remainder of the release, click here.

The rest of the afternoon, my twitter feed was filled with people's memories of the legendary hip hop shop. Some of the biggest hip hop sites (e.g., HipHopDX and XXL) solicited fans' reactions with hashtags such as #FatBeatsMemories, #FatBeatsForever and #FatBeatsRIP.

The Brown Bag AllStars followed in the footsteps of Non Phixion and the Arsonists in making the original store on 6th Avenue in Manhattan their stomping grounds.



And they weren't alone among artists simultaneously lamenting and celebrating. At about 1:30, Fat Beats's DJ Eclipse tweeted: "Fat Beats NY & Fat Beats LA are closing in September. Fat Beats Records, Distribution & Dotcom will continue." Then, before his Halftime Show kicked off, he added: "Gonna talk a little about Fat Beats tonight on The Halftime Show, but next week's show is 100% dedicated to it. Many guests. 89.1FM WNYU".

All I can say is that I'd be honored to be a part of next week's show, especially having witnessed past Halftime Show Anniversaries.



They Reminisce Over You

• ILL BILL -- "during the mid-90s & early 2000s @FatBeatsNY was a record store by day & Non Phixion's rehearsal studio by night #ThanksJoe \m/".
• Talib Kweli -- "Wow my career started at #FATBEATS for real."
• Dante Ross -- "RIP Fat Beats I did a lot of lurking In The NY store over the years.... I also bought a lot of records there Much Respect @Djeclipse".
• Dujeous -- "R.I.P. to the legendary Fat Beats...thanks for all the love and support you've given us through the years."

As of 10:53 this evening, the Fat Beats Records myspace page read:



While the Fat Beats team has been slow to update at least one of its social networking sites (read: we still have a myspage page???), the news IS final -- and, for many, terminal in more ways than one. Some aint afraid to point fingers.

DJ Scratch tweeted: "Fat Beats is closing because of you sucka ass downloading MP3, AIFF ass no having any vinyl ass DJ's."

Detroit DJ HouseShoes took it to the inevitable (re: fans): "Hey guys? Wanna know why @fatbeatsla is closing? Cause y'all aint buy shit. From artists, to dj's to "fans". Thats why. #thanks4thesupport".


[Fresh Daily x Homeboy Sandman (2009)]

It's OK to be AWKWORD

Well... as far as I'm concerned, we're all to blame. Artists, fans, BIG CORPORATIONS... The ART of DJing is hanging on by a turntable needle, all because it's so damn easy to cut out the mechanics and just punch buttons in front of a screen. But Fat Beats the physical stores are closing not because of the DJs, who happened to keep them afloat for the last few years. The stores are closing because the fans stopped buying. And the fans stopped buying because most record labels -- mega and mini alike -- chose to fight "pirating" instead of embracing -- and leveraging -- the inevitable.

I believe in copyrighting, as I am an artist who understands how painful/pleasurable creation can be, and how clearly one's own that creation always is. But I do not believe in bleeding the people dry. The middle ground -- teasing with freebies while strategically dropping joints at cost -- is the answer. See: B.o.B.: I had like five of his mixtapes before his solo debut went #1 on the charts!



Anyway, here's what I said on twitter (times are approximate):

• 1:30, in response to news from XXL -- "So sad. This the place I 1st met @ItsDJEclipse @ILLBILL1972 10+ years ago."
• 3:30, in response to solicitation from HipHopDX.com -- "More than a decade ago, before I ever recorded 1 of my rhymes, I met elder Jewish NY MC @ILLBILL1972 at #FatBeats".
• 3:30 -- "we always kinda measured our success by how well we were received by patrons, workers & other artists at #FatBeats".
• 3:30 -- "Back when graf was about hand control & the right cans & caps, I copped from #FatBeats... It's all wheatpaste & stickers now."
• 3:30 -- "Before DVDs/mp3s, I got VHS freestyle battles from #FatBeats, 406 6th Avenue. And I copped my 1st fake ID across the street."
• 3:30 -- "1st realized what "underground" meant at #FatBeats -- when I walked in wearing a punk rock T & got more love than ever before".

As "female MC, producer, painter, photographer, filmmaker and all round good chick" H2L Browntown declared: "we are THE LAST RECORD STORE GENERATION".

And that's something any hip hop head or punk rocker could shed a tear over.


Written by AWKWORD.