DJ Fatboy, of Portland, was in Japan last week for a couple shows with Kreayshawn.
The digital promotional company Eyes & Ears made a video game promoting Kreayshawn’s arrival. One show had six thousand people in attendance, and the other, fifteen thousand.
For those of you unaware of anything happening outside of your city, Kreayshawn is a small-white-female rapper who was nominated for best new artist at last year’s MTV Video Music awards. She has been on the cover of Complex, i-D, and CULTURE magazines, and has over 33 million YouTube views for her “Gucci, Gucci” video.
Paper Magazine put her on their 2012 list of most beautiful people.
Right now, she has two people from Portland on her team: DJ Fatboy and tour manager Terrance “Cool Nutz” Scott.
“When we did the pre-Grammy show, people were like, ‘You are from Portand? What are you doing here?'” Fatboy said.
DJ Fatboy’s real name is Jewells Pena. He got his first set of turntables as a Christmas present from his Grandma when he was 12–along with Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP and Xzibit’s album Restless.
“I just sat there for like eight hours, and just had my grandma bring me food and what not,” he told me backstage at the Thrasher Presents event at SXSW in Austin last month.
His job with Kreayshawn came through Scott, who is also his manager. Fatboy has been on Cool Nutz’ team for the last four years, and has also been the tour DJ for E-40 and Illmaculate.
“Fatboy is one of the hardest working people I know, and that’s why he has all of these opportunities becoming available for him,” Scott told me in a conversation last year–in the pre-Kreayshawn DJ era. “A lot of people don’t have an understanding of unity or what a movement is and how that can benefit everybody that’s involved…Fatboy’s never been like, ‘Fuck you Cool Nutz, I’m not going to pass flyers out.’ He’s always been down to work.”
Shortly after having this conversation with Scott, I saw Fatboy outside of the Roseland schooling someone younger on the art of handing out flyers. I remember thinking that I was watching someone move up the corporate ladder into a middle management position–if the position exists in independent hip hop.
Scott has also worked as tour manager for artists such as TechN9ne and E-40. In Austin at the Thrasher Presents event, Mistah Fab took a break from his performance to recognize him in the crowd, “If it wasn’t for this man right here, a lot of niggas would be stuck at home and not out on the road touring.”
Portland doesn’t understand how well connected and respected Scott is outside of the region.
Fatboy was given a test run as Kreayshawn’s DJ before a show in Canada–they ended up needing a DJ at the last moment due to passport issues.
“I spent some time studying their live performances online to get a feel for how they work transitions and run their set…We clicked right away,” he said. “It’s crazy how supportive they’ve been in welcoming me into their group.”
Fatboy now has a “big brother” sort of relationship with Kreayshawn and fellow White Girl Mob member V Nasty–never trying to steal their shine, but always available for support.
Walking the streets of Austin and drinking vodka out of a water bottle with V Nasty, Fatboy kept a watchful eye and was ready to snap photos for approaching fans.
As the night was winding down, I told them about a party I heard about and asked them if they wanted to catch a cab. V Nasty looked interested, but Fatboy shook his head in the background suggesting it was a bad idea.
“Fuck you Fatboy,” she said with a laugh and playful middle finger.
V Nasty received a lot of criticism after people started watching the YouTube video of her wylin’ out in Oakland, but the negative attention seems to have passed and she received nothing but love from the people approaching her in Austin.
“We were out with Kreayshawn last night, but it took us like two hours to walk a block because everyone was mobbing her asking for photos and autographs,” Fatboy told me.
Kreayshawn is small in the same way you think of a Chihuahua as being small. The microphone looks comically large in her hands; and while standing in the back of the crowd of about 500 gathered for her 3pm set at the Thrasher Events Stage, it was hard to see her after the crowd’s hands lifted in response to the beat for Gucci Gucci dropping.
But she owns it, has an impressive live set, and is able to provide a living for herself and those close to her.
Fatboy’s connection to Kreayshawn is helping him earn.
“Every time she retweets me, I get a lot of love from her fans,” he said.
The love from her fans has helped him secure additional work as a DJ.
Right now, Fatboy is working on his first mixtape.
No release date is available yet, but he’s taking a quality over quantity approach with it.
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