Phat Kat is the elder statesman of Detroit Hip Hop . A Motor City pioneer who laid the foundations for Hip Hop in what has become one of the most innovative and respected locales for rhyme slingers and beatsmiths.
Phat Kat is the elder statesman of Detroit Hip Hop . A Motor City pioneer who laid the foundations for Hip Hop in what has become one of the most innovative and respected locales for rhyme slingers and beatsmiths. Years before anybody had even heard the name J Dilla (let alone committed to memory every kick and snare that he laid out on the MPC pads) him and Phat Kat were a group known as 1st Down.
“When we were in the studio recording it was always a lot of smokes and jokes”, Kat states fondly. “Dilla was a very funny guy.” Thanks to a chance meeting with Guru & Premo while Gangstarr were on tour in 1995, the two got signed to Payday Records and dropped the forgotten 12 “A Day Wit The Homies” becoming the first local Detroit acts to land a major label deal. That’s how deep Phat Kat’s roots are in this game.
But hold up we’re skipping ahead here. How did the kid known as Ronnie Watts get it into Hip Hop originally?
“It was 2am and it was the early 80’s, I was watching the video show Soul Beat and I seen the Whodini Freaks Come Out At Night video”, Phat Kat states reflecting on what inspired him to begin emceeing in the first place. Following that pivotal moment he went on a steady diet of “RUN DMC, Whodini, Rakim, KRS ONE, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap and the Fat Boys”, and Phat Kat was born. “After that I knew that my calling was Hip Hop . There is no other feeling like being on stage rocking and people reciting your words back to you.”
A fellow Detroit MC he has worked with for years is former Slum Village member, Elzhi. “Elzhi is like my younger brother I never had, so it’s like working with family”, he states when asked about why they decided to come together as a group under the moniker Cold Steel. “We just finished our Cold Steel European tour. To the fans – the full length LP is coming 2011.”
Having dealt with a lot of label and industry bullshit over the years (getting lost in the Payday shuffle, Barak not pushing his debut The Undeniable and Look Records folding) he is now working for himself by establishing his own label Money Truck and calling a spade a spade when it comes to the shady dealings in the industry. Recently he called into a Detroit radio show to verbally berate Slum Village member T3 on air about fucking over the Slum Village legacy. He told T3 "Elzhi ain’t fucking with you, don’t do that to the fans, keep it real", going on to ask T3 to be honest about the fact Slum Village was finished. It is something he is not repentant about. “Barak Records and T3 was the cancer to Slum Village and its spread throughout the crew”, he spits emphatically. “That’s the bottom line.”
And how can you argue that point when the man is bringing his career full circle by planning on working with Dilla’s son Illa J under the moniker 2nd Down. “Yeah Illa J and myself talked about 2nd down but we haven’t started recording yet. Illa J call me! Let’s knock it out!”
Phat Kat [US] and Guilty Simpson [US] will be performing as part of the Sounds of Detroit tour at The HiFi on Friday January 21.
