so my next guest is our first musician
on the show i'm excited to talk to him
not only is he one of the most
creative rappers out there pretty
successful online
he's got a show called thrift hall
please welcome
houston's native son fat tony yee
man that just feels cool to say what's
up it's just nice to have some
cool name on hey man somebody had to do
it you had to have a fat on
here sooner or later
so for people that are not familiar with
you and they don't know your stuff
i'm interested in how musicians start
out because i think for comedians you're
usually talking to friends and then they
tell you that hey you should do this but
how
how did you start what was the moment
that made you want to pursue music
well i decided to start at probably the
worst time possible to link up with my
friends it was the summer time
in high school my sophomore year of high
school i decided you know what
i'm gonna put on a punk show i found
this band from new jersey called the
ergs
i emailed them and i said hey i'll see
you all on tour
but y'all aren't playing houston let me
book your houston show
they said yes i had no idea what the
i was doing i had never been to a
concert
i had gotten one flyer in my life from a
kid before
but i figured it's like the movies you
go to kinko's you make a flyer xerox it
i found my student directory i mailed
the flyer out to like a hundred kids
five kids show mail like actually
physical mail sticking stamps
out of them too licking the out of
every one of them
whole envelopes soaking wet five kids
came to the show but
that was really my start and from there
i kept putting on shows and started
making music and just kind of like
diving right into it that's so cool
because
it's not like you just there's there's
two types of hustle where you're just
bothering people to get on their show
and then it sounds like what you did is
you made your own thing you're like
here's a venue which a lot of people
don't want to do that heavy lifting they
think it's just going to happen
yeah honestly i didn't know better
because i didn't know anybody else
putting on shows
i'm a teenager and i was really into
uh like 80s punk music and i was really
into this band minor threat
and i saw them and i was like yo these
kids are about
my age and they're putting on shows
they're putting out their own records
you know what i mean i'm like why can't
i do that
for me and my friends whether we're a
punk band or not so i just kind of
thought that that's what you do in music
until later but it worked out because i
learned all these different roles
before i met the people who could
actually do them
yeah it also helps not getting
over in the future because like no i
know what it costs i know how much drink
tickets are going out and
what the door cut is true no true you
just have more agency over your career
i remember i got like three hundred
dollars at a show and i was
losing my mind inside i was like yo
let's go to wendy's let's let's
let's do it all 300
is the most amount of no money oh
certainly but performing just getting
that first thing where like you're not
paying to perform it it's the
it's the most amount of money you'll
ever have of like wow you get a
check 16. right i'm 16 years old with
300
i'm a baller what is the wendy's
order you go in
with three me me i was the type of guy
back then
who i'd buy everybody like me and
my whole crew i'm buying everybody's
food my personal go-to
just the fries and a frosty dip that
in that's all you need you
don't even need to look at
the chicken nuggets and burgers it's
garbage square burgers get out of here
frosty getting frosty bottle service at
wendy's
corner booth 300.
yeah that money goes quick but that was
the first
the first money is pretty like the
incentive to like okay keep going this
can work out
now is that something you carry over to
this day is to start
really carving out your own lane and
making your own opportunities even as
you get more success
do you still feel that that urge today
definitely because i think that like
you know i feel like in any creative
business
people want to work with their friends
right so no matter
who your agents are your label is
whatever it really is about the person
to person
i get more popping by just talking
to people
befriending people you know and and not
just artists but anybody that could work
in
music or in show business and a lot of
times
some of my best work happens like that
like with thrift haul that was just a
friend
who i was introduced to through another
friend and we just hit it off
you know it wasn't like me going around
shopping or
looking for an opportunity it just kind
of happened naturally
and those are the best ones that is a
cool show we should talk about
so thriftall you would have and correct
me if i'm wrong
you'd bring on musicians like billy
eilish was on one
actors rosario dawson and they basically
it's like a competitive thrift store
show where you gotta
come up with basically the freshest
outfit you know something that's fun
like i wanted it to be
once once we got the show right which is
hard enough to get something
out there even a web series right once
we got it going
it was just like let me just holler at
people i know
and people i kind of know and just see
what happens like
billy eilish total whim i was at my
friend's studio
cuckoo and billy eilish happened to be
there i was talking to cuco's manager
asking about having him on the program
and she was like yo
uh let me text him oh he just texts back
yo he's down to do it but can billy
eilish come too
i'm like yeah absolutely of course
but that's how many of the bookings went
on that show it was like hitting up a
person them wanting to bring their
friend on because
because the concept is so loose and it's
and it's the kind of show where you can
just
lean back and have fun and in a way
that's kind of different than like
a normal interview or even playing a
real game show like the stakes were
low we were just there being
silly
you're you're shopping for clothes that
people have probably died in
yes it couldn't be lower we actually
filmed it in a goodwill
while people were shopping so it was
like
the goodwill crowd is not like a macy's
crowd they almost don't
give a if anything they're just
like get out of the way
it's a little more hostile because
there's not another item out there so
people go through racks so fast in the
goodwill
no one cared that we were no seriously
nobody gave a about us people would
like yell at us customers would be like
can you get out the way
we're like thinking like oh they're
gonna bug out our talent
nobody cared we're in l.a nobody gives a
would you feel do you think the show
could come back now
in a post pandemic you think people
would be sketched out
now and you know what a world where
people are like
i don't know about these clothes why are
why are these clothes free
we're gonna really have to sanitize it
for the
future episodes you know what i mean
we're going to have to do a totally
different approach
this shirt you're wearing this this is a
thrift find yes
this is definitely a thrift find 1996
toriyama shirt recovering christian yeah
and get a
good look at this bad boy
it's great but
unfortunately this is one of those
expensive ass vintage t-shirts this this
this ain't no goodwill fine you know
what i mean
but is this the favorite vintage item
definitely hands down because it's just
like
it's the kind of shirt that has never
gotten old for me
walking around with recovering christian
biggest day
get some good looks spark some good
conversations you know what i mean
you cut through all the right
away there's no uh the weather's weird
today
i want to know you what happened you're
advertising your recovery
this is my favorite thrift find i got
two in preparation for this
uh a terrible shirt okay that is very
awful
we have a polka dot shirt and then
probably this something i wear all the
time
it's like a motocross jacket and
favorite thrift find because on it it's
got a real story because it's
barb so it's a woman's jacket because
that's my frame
and it is not the mama
wow so she that is ill whoever
barb was
really wanted to get it out there that
she was not the mama
it's like some billie jean man it
ain't her it ain't her
it ain't her kid don't leave the
responsibilities on her this
is what you can't find at asos
vendetta in a jacket now i think about
it there's a lot of moms out there
taking some they don't need
yeah and i and i and i think we need to
franchise
not the mama into a uh brand i'm on my
business moses you and i need to do
this
okay okay i like this her mom's are
tired of playing the mom
roles mm-hmm you know i can be more like
a dad where they leave at six in the
morning don't come back till 8 42 at
night and you're not allowed to ask
questions where they were
that's the kind of father i've always
wanted to be that's the kind of father i
plan to be
and i hope i inspire my wife to become
one of those not the mamas
these uh desert shows you've been doing
are pretty cool you're performing in the
desert because
it's the only option essentially it's
only safe
i don't wonder why i just wake up and i
wipe the crust from my
eye she just wake up hope to get the kid
no one's there you know and when i first
did it i was thinking yo are people or
like neighbors
houses some somewhere around here going
to be tripping nobody gave a
it's just me the nearest house is like
miles and miles
away yeah so you just go
there and you set up like you're there's
no permission needed or permits you just
find a spot exactly it's all wireless we
got in-ears
you know it's very little
and we just make it work no one cares
just find an empty spot i mean i feel
like the worst thing i got to worry
about is like somebody running up on us
maybe trying to rob us with us you
know what i mean
i think it's joshua tree so it's like
where white people
go to feel spiritual so you might get
some dudes that look like
me on shrooms very confused
and think that you are an illustration
wearing big hats you can't forget the
big hats oh
the giant giant hat that fills in
all the gaps you don't have in your
personality
ask me about my hat because everything
else in my life has been pretty easy
i think that's all you got to worry
about is people coming down from
ayahuasca
coming out of their airbnb dripping you
know what i
might be right there with them we were
very tempted to
take mushrooms doing this because we're
in the desert and typically that's what
we're going to do if we're out there
anyway
you know what i mean yeah the first time
i went to joshua
tree i was like i don't get this at
all and then
with for eric andre's birthday where
mushrooms now we're talking
yeah and i was like oh i get it i get it
it's not a drug free place
you know even the locals yeah joshua
tree's not beautiful
because i think the message i'm trying
to put out for this show to get us
demonetized
this is great talking to you i can't
believe we're already out of time you
got to come back
because there's so much to talk about
and if if you're down you should do a
song on the show sometime
we'll find a way to set it up i would
love to come sing that would be great
we'll do it we got
here as you can see we have
keyboards and we got boots baby
that's right i'm a texan boots
okay man this is great so where
people can check you out i think across
social media it's fat tony rap
get on spotify listen to the new fat
tony album exotica
check out the gamma man mariachi remix
because it's lush and beautiful and hit
me up on instagram and i'm
everywhere
fat tony everyone this is great man i'll
talk to you soon
love ya bye
you