No one in Atlanta is hotter than Fatt Smaxk right now. Just ask Playboi Carti – not only did he hop on a remix of “Smaxk or Die” last week, but the pair have another, brand new song ready to release. For the famously reclusive and reticent-to-drop superstar, there’s no higher form of praise (even his signees find it hard to coax a verse out of their boss). It’s a testament to Smaxk’s tightly coiled flow, which seems to take soulful cues from NoCap and Rylo Rodriguez, that not even the OPIUM labelhead can outshine him on his own song.
When I call him five days after the remix drops, Smaxk is riding around Atlanta feeling, “wonderful, great, Smaxk-arific.” The Carti remix practically fell in his lap – the bigger artist had DM’d Smaxk’s older brother and cut a verse on his own while Smaxk was on a trip to New York. Smaxk doesn’t have too many stories to tall about hanging with Carti, though he does tell me the video shoot was like a “Batman movie.” And while Smaxk has been celebrating the remix, lately every weekend is like that – success feels good, especially when you’re getting love in your hometown.
While listeners in the know might be acquainted with Fatt Smaxk (fka HardNard) via his fall single “Butta B,” the Atlanta rapper hasn’t done any press before. The FADER caught up with Fatt Smaxk for an exclusive interview to chat about Smaxk Season 2, growing as a rapper, and building his sound.
Talk to me a little bit about growing up in Atlanta. What neighborhood are you from?
I’m really from Thomasville. I was born and raised a little bit in Kirkwood, but really I’m a Thomasville baby. It’s a project called Thomasville Heights that grew me into the person I am today. Just running around there and in the streets of Atlanta. You know, I’m really from Atlanta – I know every part, every street around this motherfucker. [And] most folks don’t get love from their city, so it feels good to get the love from my own city.
What music were you listening to when you were growing up?
In the house, that’s where my old school samples come from. My dad used to play all the old school, Marvin Gaye, the Gladys Knights. And then my auntie, she used to play Monica, shit like that, so them samples always stuck with me, like, oh I could rap on that. It brought back that vibe when I used to ride in the car, listen to old songs. Back then you didn’t like it, but now as you get older you be like, damn, bring back memories and shit.
But the new, upcoming when I was like 13 though, I would listen to a lot of Rich Kidz, a lot of Travis Porter, a lot of goddamn, Waka Flocka. Basically Atlanta music.
How did you start rapping and what were your first songs like?
My first song… to be honest, I used to rap with my cousin, right? So my first song was on some BandLab shit. I thought I was Gucci Mane when I was young, so I used to just be talking about shit I never even knew about, like trapping, gotdamn, shooting shit, all that shit when I was 12, 13. Really I did not understand the music until I got like 16, 17. So my first song was really trash, but when I understood the music, I got better and better.
What did you start to understand better about the music?
How you can catch the beat, which melody to turn on, how to just turn it on and off, how to just ride and walk the beat. Like, a lot of motherfuckers don’t know how ot walk the beat. A lot of motherfuckers be offbeat, cuz I used to be offbeat a lot, y’know what I’m saying? I had to find my position in the beat, and that’s kind of hard for a lot of rappers to do.
Moral of the story, you gotta understand music, but you gotta find the beat man. And it was kind of hard for me to find a beat, to find any beat [that worked for me]. Now I can rap on any beat, cuz it’s like a mind thing really.
In the fall, “Butta B” started blowing up. When did you first know “Butta B” was not just a successful song, but going to be really big for you?
I dropped my tape [Smaxk Season 2] around October 11 if I’m not mistaken. And I knew around October 20. I was getting a lot of feedback, but it was feedback from people I don’t know. People who I knew in the city were like, “Bro that song is so hard,” but it was people who I know for sure wasn’t never listening to me, who ain’t never ever in life listened to not a song of mine. So I’m like how the hell did it get here?
A lot of folks were leaking “Butta B” first, that’s why I dropped it. Then it got to the country towns, then it got to South Carolina first. Then it got to, I think Alabama? Then it was over with.
How are you choosing your producers or finding your beats?
I was starting off on YouTube, but then I follow them on Instagram and build a relationship. I’m really just fucking with all the young producers bro, the ones who really young trying to come up. I just felt like I was on the comeup, so it fit perfectly. I don’t got a problem with no producer if you can find my vibe. Every producer is a good producer, so I don’t be trying to belittle nobody man. I fuck with everybody, I be wanting to work with everybody because I know how that shit is. We all want everybody to listen to our music, so I fuck with all producers, I swear to God.
You work with a variety of producers, you can rap over a lot of different beats. When you’re listening through a pack, what catches your attention in the studio?
Samples, honestly. I was raised by my dad and he used to play a lot of old school songs, so it's just like, my daddy's son. I love old samples, especially the Isley Brothers, that [sings] I always come back to you. I made four songs out of that one sample.
One of my favorite samples on the project was on “Sent From.” This British rapper Jawnino had used it recently, but I liked how you guys flipped it.
Hell yeah. How I made that song, we had a house in downtown Atlanta, and we had the studio man pull up. He was playing beats and I was like, ‘man, hell no I don’t wanna rap on these beats. Let me go to YouTube.’
So I went to YouTube and you know how I told you earlier, my auntie used to listen to Monica and Keyshia Cole, so I remembered that “Sent From Heaven” song from my auntie [...] It took me honestly two house to make the song, cause I was kinda stuck, but when it came out, I was like, ‘Oh this song’s hard.’
How long does it usually take you to make a song?
It be depending on my mood. It might take me 10 minutes, it might take me 2 hours – but it'll never take me 4 or 5 hours, no shit like that.
But some songs – like with “Butta B,” it took me three studio sessions to make that one song, because it was like I was rapping in a burst. That whole song was a powerful song to me, to the point when I’m like, [sings] she been on my line, I’m like, ‘Baby can I breathe?’, that first eight, I had stopped like, damn, my energy going down. I erased some bars cuz my energy wasn’t the same So I’m like, ‘I’ma come back tomorrow.’ And when I went back my energy was better, and I’m like, I wanna smoke a zip and then I’m like, last n***a that tried me had to park that bitch on Broad, and my energy went back down.
So I’m like, I’m gonna come back one more time, and I came back and I finished that shit.
That’s the first song of mine I listened to at least 400 times before it dropped. I ain’t never listened to my music that much.
Are you punching in or freestyling? Do you write ever?
Nah I punch in. I don’t write, hell no. I mean, I wrote in jail, but I feel like it’s so time-consuming just writing.
I might write a hook. That’s the only thing I might do cause I feel like naturally, God gon walk me through it man, like he always do with everything else. I mean, I know it be God, because I be walking in the studio don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna say. Don’t know how it’s gonna come out, don’t know what to talk about. Just going in that motherfucker and it just be words coming out, honestly.
You had a “First Day Out” song on the first Smaxk Season tape. Can I ask what you were inside for?
[pauses] Moral of the story with my past – I beat the case, I can talk about it. They locked us up for trafficking drugs; they said that we were, I guess, trafficking drugs. So moral of the story, I had got locked up and a lot of people who I love was acting like I was gonna be gone forever.
I ain't never seen nobody mad that you came home, cause I got a bond, but it was like $130,000-sumn. So I spent damn near all my money to get out of jail and I was like, damn, like folk mad I came home, what the fuck? So that’s why I made that song, cause I was going through a phase in my life.
That’s when I really started back rapping, to be honest though. When I got back out of jail, I was like, ‘fuck that, I’m finna bust some rhymes.’
