Fat Tony’s feature on A$AP Rocky’s “Get Lit,” off Rocky’s star-making 2011 mixtape, LIVELOVEASAP, remains the closest Tony has made it to the center of the rap universe. But the man from Houston’s Third Ward has grown into a reliably funny, incisive, trend-dodging alt-rapper, something like a Southern answer to Open Mike Eagle. He excelled in that role on projects like 2013’s Smart Ass Black Boy (highlighted by “Hood Party,” named one of the 50 best Texas rap songs by the Dallas Observer in 2015) and last year’s MacGregor Park. It’s been a fringy, decade-long career that’s also intersected with other genres, whether it’s Tony releasing music on Ghost Ramp (the rock-oriented label of Wavves’ Nathan Williams) or opening for Russian punks Pussy Riot this past March.
There’s also Charge It to the Game, Tony’s duo with Los Angeles producer Kyle Mabson. From the beginning, their music together has come from an experimental place. “I love industrial and hard electronic stuff, but the genre hasn’t had many changes in the last 30 years, just angsty white people over some sequenced synths,” Mabson explained to Noisey. Mabson hit up Tony to try rapping over those outré sounds and in the spring of 2016, they released the clanging, jittery Urban Hall of Fame EP (whose one guest MC was Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring, rapping under his moniker Hemlock Ernst). Now, Tony and Mabson are back with the first Charge It to the Game LP, House with a Pool.
Released on Ghost Ramp and engineered by Jonathan Snipes of the experimental rap group clipping., House with a Pool is a DIY curio on the rap radar. Tony and Mabson relish each other’s company while also gelling stronger than they did on Urban Hall of Fame. And across its 13 songs, Mabson’s production is more varied than it was on the EP, adding elements of synth-funk and trance to the industrial foundation.
Tony is in a supremely assured mode on the album, finding validation in his accomplishments despite (or because of) his commitment to independence, whether that means making money from touring or being able to pick beats without pressure from an A&R. This even results in some shit talk directed at less savvy MCs on “Don’t Wanna Miss”: “You niggas are needy and your manager’s greedy/Your hairline is receding.” On the quirkier side of things, there’s the goofy lead single and goth-girl tribute “Dark Girl” (”You need one in your life!”), but it’s Tony’s general confidence, not conceptual moments, that dominates House with a Pool.
As fun of a presence as Tony can be on his own, House with a Pool’s highlights come when his own animated style meet with Mabson’s production. There’s one of the album’s catchiest songs, “My Way,” where Tony nails an Auto-Tune hook and some of his trickiest flows. Houston’s no-fucks-giving B L A C K I E is one of three guests to show up on the album, bellowing on the aggro “Y.B.N.” The album only underwhelms when that kind of energy is starkly absent, as on parts of “Been a Minute,” “Dive In,” and “Running to the Bag.” But mostly, House with a Pool is the sound of Tony and Mabson clicking and complementing each other, dutifully pushing out the edges of experimental rap.
