FatRat Da Czar is a recording artist and producer, entrepreneur, and hip-hop activist based out of Columbia, South Carolina.

ARTIST

As a cornerstone of South Carolina hip-hop, FatRat began his career in the late ‘90s as a member of the Columbia-based rap group, Streetside. By 2012, he was an established solo act, releasing his acclaimed Da Cold War album trilogy under the name FatRat Da Czar. With a total of eight studio albums, FatRat Da Czar is widely recognized as South Carolina’s godfather of hip-hop and has opened for national acts to include Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, and Lauryn Hill.

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ENTREPRENEUR

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FatRat Da Czar partnered with mentor and audio engineer, Jay Matheson, to develop the concept of a new vocal production and mixing space for up and coming artists in Columbia, SC. The Boom Room, which is the hip-hop focused enclave of Matheson’s long-running Jam Room Recording Studio, opened its doors in the fall of 2011. As the chief engineer for The Boom Room, Czar has engineered sessions for national artists to include KRS-One, Gucci Mane, Trina, Kevin Gates, and more.

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In 2014, FatRat Da Czar founded Czar Records along with longtime friend and business partner LJ Chisolm. Pulling from the Boom Room talent pool, Czar assembled the hip-hop collective, New Success Culture, releasing two full-length LPs (New Success and More Success). In the fall of 2015, Czar Records took an innovative chance on the genre-blending “folk-hop” collaboration, ColorBlind. On the one-year anniversary of the Emanuel 9 shootings in Charleston, ColorBlind released “Love,” which was nominated for an Emmy in 2017.

In 2017, Czar ventured into the realm of fashion, creating SODA Clothing Company, which offers high quality streetwear. SODA (which stands for “Sometimes Our Dreams Align”) was inspired by the city of Columbia.

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ACTIVIST

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In 2011, in response to a rap-music ban at a local venue, Czar, along with LJ Chisolm, Sherard “Shekeese” Duvall, and Kingsley “Kingpin” Waring, co-founded the nonprofit Love, Peace & Hip-Hop to ensure proper representation of hip-hop culture. In 2013, Love, Peace & Hip-Hop established World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day, a nationally-recognized (Family Circle, July 2018) music festival celebrating the origins of hip-hop to include the four pillars: deejaying, b-boying, graffiti, and emceeing. This free annual festival has delivered artists such as KRS-One, SugarHill Gang, Kid N Play, MC Lyte, and Big Daddy Kane to crowds of 18,000+ on Columbia’s Main Street.