Fat Money – Part 2: Bag From Hell

Fat Money – Part 2: Bag From Hell, Aww Man, & 2004 (Official Video)

“Fat Money is a lyrical rapper, his intricate wordplay focuses more on telling stories and illustrating situations than it does on highlighting their own intelligence.” – Pitchfork

“Fat Money is a native of Harvey, Illinois, a South Side suburb of Chicago. He has been recording for years, crafting delicately artistic tales about his distant, impoverished city. – Noisy

“What sets Money apart has been highlighted in every volume: his emotionally charged, colorful stories of street life, conveyed in a burst of words that slices through the instrumentals like a muscle car speeding through a tunnel through a mountain.” Chicago Reader

Reinvention is the main theme of Fat Money. The Chicago-born rapper known as Fat Money has been putting out emotionally complex, narratively rich, and razor-sharp street rap since the mid-2010s. The six volumes of his yearly Cinco De Money series and each mixtape took listeners to his hometown of Harvey, Illinois, at 147th St. and Sibley Blvd., the war-torn block where physical scars appear long before psychological traumas do. He’s free, working with SALXCO management, and signed to EMPIRE after years of steadfast independence and prison terms. He’s making the most emotionally charged and technically diverse music of his career. The transition to Fat Money—as everyone in his neighborhood refers to him—signifies Money’s development on all fronts—personally, professionally, and artistically.

“Everyone in the city is aware of me,” declares Fat Money. “They’re waiting for me to advance it, for me to make the next move,” they say.

The following step is Money Got Wings. Money Got Wings, a collaboration with Cardo—the GRAMMY-winning producer of Drake and Wiz Khalifa hits—is a return to form as well as a creative shift. With Cardo’s powerful yet melodic trap production as a backing, Fat Money combines auto-tuned croons with a variety of furious flows. Rejecting mumbled hooks from posing Internet goons, he balances the present’s diamond-studded flexes against the agony he still feels from discovering bullets in his Tonka trucks as a youngster. Money traces a path from the kilograms his father concealed in his bedroom to the tattoos honoring his fallen siblings, which help him make sense of the “organized chaos” of his life.

“You go through crap all day, every day, where I’m from. People you love are killing people you love, and people you love are dying. It’s organized chaos that they could put all of that into one project.

Tiwan Raybon, the creator of About Fat Money, was born in the Southside of Chicago, where the destruction of government housing resulted in the displacement and unrest of several Black inhabitants. Soon after, Money’s family relocated to Harvey, a Chicago suburb where decades of governmental neglect resulted in a decaying, abandoned hamlet of homes. Money had exceptional grades and won spelling bees, but his rebellious spirit stemmed from his father’s drug business and the breakup of his parents. As a result, Money dropped out of high school. Money fell into the street life rather early, yet his desire to become a rapper aligned with his numerous hustles. Following his time as a rapper in the duo Fire Squad with his cousin, he recorded his debut album Free Money in 2011, which was made available while he was serving his first jail term.

The following few years were a haze of jail time, block activities, and intermittent recording. While under house confinement, Money released the first volume of Cinco De Money in 2015; Pitchfork praised the album for “the crisp accuracy and strong conviction of [his] rapping and the tight

discomfort of his bars.” Cinco De Money made it onto Rolling Stone’s list of the “40 Best Rap Albums of 2015,” and since then, he has released a new album virtually every May 5th to appease his expanding fan base.

During Money’s last year of prison in 2018, there was no Cinco De Money project; instead, he read, found comfort in The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, and made plans for his future. Money hasn’t stopped since his debut; between 2019 and 2021, he will release three volumes of Cinco De Money. With the support of EMPIRE and his management group, Money has everything he needs to take Money Got Wings to the next level. Though arduous, he recognizes that his journey was essential.

“The lengthy route is not problematic. People will have access to a vast catalog when things really take off.