Fat Meech proves you don’t have to be from Atlanta to be able to hold a melody in hip-hop. The South Central Los Angeles native has been through a lot, especially coming up in neighborhoods filled with gangs, crime, violence, you name it. But luckily, music would be his saving grace.
The “Brothers” rapper lists Mac Dre and E-40 as his biggest influences, two of the biggest spitters to come out of the Bay Area. Now, he plans to create his own legacy by creating heartfelt rap records for his growing fanbase.
AllHipHop: When did music come into the picture?
Fat Meech: I’ve been addicted to sound my whole life. I grew up singing in church but taking music serious, only 3 years ago. I rapped to pass the time. I was bored, built a studio in the house, and played with it. We put stuff out, it started going crazy.
AllHipHop: Talk about recording “Damn” after Kendrick’s DAMN.
Fat Meech: The cover itself was inspired by it, but the song itself is totally different. I thought of the cover because of the name of the song. Kendrick’s a legendary person in LA, in Compton. If I use this, people will see it and ask “what the hell is this?” Be drawn to it. That album was dope, it’s legendary.
It’s a whole storyline behind that song. I was around 12 when my cousin got shot. I’m in the house with my sister, we’re in the living room and I hear firecrackers going off. Who the hell got firecrackers? It’s nowhere near 4th of July. I’m like “what’s going on?” We look outside, this cat’s skating doing 100 down the street. He’s still bussin’, but the car was full of people. Each person in the car had a strap, about 4, 5 shooters in the car. My cousin ended up getting hit in the back of the head and in his shoulder. He survived. He be chillin’ still, like nothing’s wrong with him.
He’s locked up right now but when he gets out, he’s going crazy with the interviews. All the stories I tell really happened to me, my family, people around me. That s##t be wild. He’s regular though. He smokes weed, does his thing. Everybody asks me if there’s anything wrong with him now, I’m like nah.What they think happened is it hit something, slowed down the trajectory. When it hit him, it went up. It didn’t go in. If it’d went in one more centimeter, he would’ve been paralyzed. They literally had to pull it out the top of his skull and that was it. He was messed up, but he still knows everything. His scar is very small, you couldn’t even tell.
AllHipHop: How does music act as a coping mechanism for you?
Fat Meech: That’s all it is: a coping mechanism. Honestly to be able to tell stories, and heal from telling stories. I’ll tell a story about something I went through, it’ll help me cope with the trauma. That’s the only way to let it out. Telling stories help you cope with trauma.
AllHipHop: What’s a normal day in the life? Walk us through.
Fat Meech: Whew, hustling. That’s my thing. No matter what it is. If it ain’t tied down, I’ma sell it. On the real, that’s my thing.
AllHipHop: What does hustling consist of?
Fat Meech: I’ve been hustling since a long time, at a young age. I started selling weed at a young age. Literally, I was 12, 13 years old.
AllHipHop: You weren’t even smoking then were you?
Fat Meech: I started smoking at 13, so around the same time. I’d have to go to my mom: “let me hold a dub.” She’s like “I’m not trying to give you all this money.” I’m not trying to keep stressing you out, trying to ask for your stuff, so I’ma get my own. I’m not the asking type, I go get it. I’ve been hustling for a long time. Years. Still to this day, hustling.
AllHipHop: How does that translate to the music? Especially being an independent artist.
Fat Meech: Marketing. Oh my god, people like to put music out and think that everybody’s going to listen to them. That’s not how it works now. Literally, you got to put it out and push it to everybody. The same way I do hustling, I do with my music. If I can get this one person, hopefully they’ll tell 3 people. Double back, listen to more stuff. Marketing. I don’t think I’m a better musician than people, I’m better at marketing. How I hit schools and go crazy with the kids, do all the stuff that nobody wants to do, that’s what helps me. Hustling made me prepare for the marketing aspect of music. Getting the word out, that’s it.
AllHipHop: What’s the best encounter you had with a fan?
Fat Meech: One time we’re at a school in San Pedro, right by the water. There was a little kid crying. Some other artists were with me, they’re even like “yeah, they were serious.” We came to the school and one of the parents checked their kid out of school 30 or 40 mins early. We’re like “why you check out the kids early?” They said “we want to get our pictures first.” You checked your kids out just to get pictures with us? This is crazy. Those moments are wow to me, and they’re dead serious. We made sure we got them shirts, took pictures. They checked them out early because they knew how hectic it was going to get. Once the kids came out, it was over with. [claps hands] 200 kids outside.