Fat Ray is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. He is also a member of Danny Brown’s Detroit hip-hop collective Bruiser Brigade. In 2021, he released his label debut album Santa Barbara via Bruiser Brigade Records.
The rapper co-founded his independent label Brilliant Boy with in-house producer Rich Rick.
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Fat Ray is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. He is also a member of Danny Brown’s Detroit hip-hop collective Bruiser Brigade. In 2021, he released his label debut album Santa Barbara via Bruiser Brigade Records.
The rapper co-founded his independent label Brilliant Boy with in-house producer Rich Rick.
Fat Ray is a product of the fast and unforgiving streets of the Motor City and a direct descendant of the musical lineage that defines the city. Ray grew up on music, absorbing Smokey Robinson and the Temptations as a child while his folks played spades in the basement.
"I was in the right place at the right time," says Ray. "I was susceptible to the music."
That's not to say that he was born an MC. Fat Ray's passion for making music grew out of the struggles he had as a child.
"A lot of times when you're the fat kid, you're insecure and you don't speak up for yourself or tell people how you really feel. I used to play the dozens, and I was always witty with it. Whatever was in the room, I was creative and I could assimilate it and make it apply to anybody. I started putting sentences together and writing poetry, and I just grew from there. But I was still insecure. I called my uncle and told him I wanted to do music, and he got me started. I did my first little show in grade school and all the kids loved it...from that point on I was an MC."
Infused with the spirit of legendary Motown artists, Fat Ray put pen to paper and began to craft verses that reflected his love for Detroit as well as his unique musical outlook. He developed a strong following at a young age through collaborations with J Dilla, Trick Trick, Phat Kat, BR Gunna, and the one and only Dramatics. In between recording sessions, he found time to go on BET's 106 and Park and bring home the championship on Freestyle Fridays.
Fat Ray released a joint album, The Set Up with Black Mill in 2008 where the Detroit rapper uses a melodic tone similar to The Re-Up Gang‘s Sandman, as he drives verses that use pavement-hard imagery of shake-downs, the collection runs, and alley-way stomping.
Fat Ra released the video for “Leather Knuckles”, a single from his project Perseus, which he later released in September 2018 after the release of the album "The Lunch Room" by the rapper in the same year. The video teams ray up with regular collaborators Auxiliary Cinema for the visual to the Antman Wonder (Phryme 2) produced track. The video is nostalgic 80’s television with an old radio broadcast describing an alien landing in between verses. It opens with an aerial shot that descends into a zoomed focus of Ray on a busy strip in Downtown Detroit that suddenly morphs into a bare jazz club where Fat Ray opens with bars about “mimosas and a blunt of loud” before launching into a stream of consciousness about his fly lifestyle of choice vices and better women as he floats through the city. Fat Ray is quite the alien ambassador.
Fat Ray takes his time when crafting a song. While other MCs write derivative, repetitive verses that we've all heard before, Ray puts blood, sweat, and tears into each verse. If it's not right, you won't hear it. That's why he's not in a hurry. He knows it takes time to create a masterpiece.
"The race is not given to the swift or to the strong, but to the one that endureth to the end. The turtle wins the race."
