Fat Tony

The night was December 4th and I had been trying to link with Fat Tony, a Houston hip hop artist, to work on a photo project that would eventually be shelved. I got in touch via email and, long story short, he was down to be followed by me and my camera.

This particular night he was going to DJ at two different venues in the city after he finished his shift at Cactus Music. The first gig was at a super chill spot called MKT BAR connected to Phoenicia Specialty Foods in downtown Houston. It was just around happy hour so people were sipping beer, tasting appetizers and chatting with friends. The turn-up here was not real. But the relaxed environment did allow me to get in a few quick portraits.

The next gig was on the quiet, unassuming campus of Rice University where an underground dive called Willy's was scarcely populated with a few studious students. I thought to myself, "Self, is Fat Tony really gonna do a rowdy DJ set at this place?" The answer was yes. First of all, beers were like $2 or less and you could get a whole bottle of champagne (which Tony got a few) for $9. This was probably the cheapest place to get a beer in Houston outside of your own living room. The studious students stuck around a lot longer than I expected but soon, the books disappeared into bags and the turn-up became real. Fat Tony partied with all of his homeys, old and new, and kept it going until the very end when an undergrad/manager of Willy's told him he had to shut it down. Shut it down he did. Shout out to the homey Tony for bringing me along for the ride. More to come...