Fat Jesu$ press photo.
Audio By Carbonatix
Multidisciplinary visionary Fat Jesu$ initiated the conversation with New Times, discussing the upcoming closure of Gramps — specifically, the fragmentation of resources and how survival cares not for either dreaming or timing but only for material goods like infrastructure, funding, and, more urgently, a meal. Means by which are already waning and further limiting the most vital resource of all: knowledge and networks.
“The people who came up from music and created these pillars, those people are disconnected,” he says, tongue mounting in passion as he gets to the punchline. “We got 30 different Latin major labels down here, bruh. Who’s putting on for the new wave, new faces of hip-hop down here?”
Known for his online wrath, Fat Jesu$, mostly known as 8ball, is in a pleasant mood today. His tone is weary, tinged with grace but eagerness filtering his oration over the phone. The preparation for the Fat Jesu$ and Friends Showcase, at Gala Palm Beach, has been years in the making, one he knows he would not be capable of if it weren’t for his ability to do what he must, with what he has. “It’s my first showcase ever,” stuttering over his words a bit as realization strikes. “It’s my first show outside of Miami. I popped my cherry,” he says, laughing at the thought.
Jesu$ acknowledged that this event wouldn’t be possible without Coach, Ice Berg’s father. “Even though I haven’t started yet, I know I couldn’t have done it without Coach for real, because he’s the only one who understands and has allowed me to do what I do.”
Quiet as kept, few figures are as deeply embedded in Miami’s modern underground scene as Jesu$. He prefers muteness — blending into the background, letting only those in the know catch his outline at the edges. But that instinct clashes with the times, where a musician’s survival often depends on speaking up.
You can tell it’s still new to him, having to speak your truth to obtain power. Now he’ll name-drop rappers so much that it would make the Game blush. With luster, he’ll bring up how, back in 2016, his compilation tape, Fat Jesus Vol. 1, landed him an exclusive license and a free promo with MyMixtapes, offering an exclusive license and free promotion. How he featured XXXTentacion, Ski Mask The Slump God, Kodak Black, MajorNine, and others, long before their SoundCloud era began. He’s on the cover of Denzel Curry’s breakout project, Imperial, on the far right.
Unlike many of his peers who moved up north to make a living, Jesu$ can’t ever see himself leaving the city. For better, this was his responsibility.
There’s something to be said about the transformative power of love, its conflation with quarrel, and the compromises we’re willing to bear to make those things that can’t love us inherently, love us a little more. Swelling with pride, Fat Jesu$ will tell you that he’s just one man taking on the roles of persons, out of both obligation and desire. A man who loves Miami so much, in one past interview, said that he’ll “live and die in Miami.” A man who loves Miami so much, he’ll lash out at institutions for not wielding the mantle, risking ostracization for the betterment of his community.
Ownership is a calling he wishes the people of Miami would buy into more. “That’s one thing we’re lacking down here, there’s no independence. Everybody you think could do something, work for somebody. I tell people I’m an A&R and they’ll ask ‘for who?’” The energy tightens in his voice: “So I could go in certain rooms and say ‘I’m Fat Jesus,’ and people know who I am. But I want more than that. I’m trying to bring my whole motherfucking culture with me.”
The Showcase is the second stage of a five-part event series designed to cultivate emerging hip-hop talent in Miami and provide a platform for them to accelerate their development. Still, they lack the means to get the right eyes on them. It’s ambitious, rooted in slight cynicism, but it is sound logic. If label executives are bringing in talent from regions such as Milwaukee, Memphis, Atlanta, and developing them here, why not muster up the artist he believes in and take flight up north? It’s natural to still be stuck.
“This is solely for Miami. “He tells the New Times. “This [event] is for you, for the community. I’m trying to connect us with the world, doing the best I can with what I have. I can’t complain.”
Fat Jesu$ & Friends Showcase. 8 p.m. Saturday, October 18, at Gala Palm Beach, 1490 S. Military Trail #13, West Palm Beach; 561-758-2104. Tickets cost $20 via eventbrite.com