By Craig Mathieson
WINTER JAM
IN THE case of Fatman Scoop, necessity has proved to be the brother of invention.
In 2003 the New York rapper, raised as Isaac Freeman, had been working for a decade, recording rhymes, playing shows and contributing to mix-tapes without breaking through commercially. When his younger brother needed more than $50,000 to pay for the first year of his university degree, Fatman Scoop realised something had to change. Being well regarded by your peers didn't pay tuition fees.
The solution proved to be simple. "I just decided I was going to yell," he recalls.
Fatman Scoop stopped rapping and started shouting, using the booming voice that had long generated crowd participation at gigs to ignite a club track produced by veteran associates the Crooklyn Clan. The result was the boisterous Be Faithful , a hit single worldwide. He turned crowd motivation into a new type of vocal and paid for his brother's four-year tertiary degree (the younger Freeman now runs the promotional department at hip-hop label Def Jam).
The big man with the even bigger voice hasn't stopped working since. He travels to gigs and club appearances on 46 out of 52 weekends a year, he says, and when he takes Metro's call he's driving home from the airport on a Sunday night after a seven-hour flight from Switzerland.
"My thing is that it's work when you don't like doing it. When you love doing it, it's not work. I love doing this so it's easy," Fatman Scoop says. "The hard part is riding on the plane for all that time 'cause that makes my ass sore."
His next stop - after an especially long flight - is the Sydney Entertainment Centre for Winter Jam, the urban music package tour that sees Fatman Scoop co-headlining with R&B prodigy Omarion, while Australian acts Phinesse, Panjo 5 and DJ Nino Brown support. Sydney is one of the less exotic destinations he's visited in recent years, having appeared everywhere from Scandinavia to China.
"I have been blessed to be in a place where my voice and what I say translates easily to everybody. People in other countries tell me my songs teach them basic English," he says.
"I'm not an English teacher but people pick up words from my songs. A lot of people hear my songs and the vibe is universal." (He also speaks fluent New Yorker - at one point he politely excuses himself from the interview, winds down his car window and unleashes his voice on two cabbies whose argument has the street blocked).
Some observers feel hip-hop is at an artistic crossroads. When a figure as dominant as Jay-Z puts out a single titled Death Of Auto-Tune , which condemns the favoured production techniques for laying down vocal hooks on tracks and making them pitch-perfect, something must be building that requires resolution.
"Music today could be better," Fatman Scoop concedes. "Personally, I feel there's nothing wrong with Auto-Tune but only T-Pain should use it. I like it but don't make it the whole focus of your album. If the people want to say death to Auto-Tune, they won't buy the records. But that's Jay-Z - he'll say what he wants to say."
Nowadays, Fatman Scoop leads a busy life. As well as his own records and club dates, he co-hosts a cable talk show with his wife, Shanda, and works as a promoter and radio DJ. He also guests on remixes, adding his distinctive tones to records by the likes of Timbaland, Rihanna and Missy Elliott.
"When someone asks me to do a remix I put my best into it," he says. "I do the best possible job. Doesn't matter if it's a Russian artist or Timbaland, I don't phone it in. That's my code."
July 4 , Sydney Entertainment Centre , Darling Harbour, 136 100, $91.40.
© 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald
