Ronnie Cash
Phat Kat
Phat Ronnie Cash Kat

The Interview: Phat Kat

The Vital Stats
  • MC
  • Representing: East Side of Detroit
  • Place of Residence: Detroit, Michigan
  • Current Project: The Undeniable

Certain regions of the country have a style, this thing they do and are eventually known for. Detroit seems to have this thing about battling and freestyling. Am I right about that?

Nah, not really. Detroit is just a combative city, cats do that everywhere. I was just in Chicago and it’s the same thing. Detroit is just combative, you know.. Cats just express the aggression through their rhymes. So it comes off to a lot of people as we like to battle, but it’s really just expression, man.

I saw a blurb about you in XXL and you said something about 8 Mile. As far as the movie you said Eminem was fictionalizing some things. What things do you think he exaggerated?

Man, that whole little interview was funny to me because it really just keyed in on little stuff. A lot of that stuff was Hollywood, but I ain’t really trying to get into that. Let’s talk about the album.

I want to get to that, I just wanted to touch on some things. I’m not trying to get you into a verbal beef with so and so.
That interview was so corny to me. If you looked at that whole magazine it was geared towards Eminem. Even if you read the Eye Candy, that’s all they talked about. The whole thing was geared towards Em and that’s why that was a wack ass interview. Cause that was just a little smidgen of the interview that I did with my man.

The first that I heard about you was on a Slum Village mixtape. CD.. but it was an official joint.
You talking about the Dirty District

The Dirty District.. Yeah, that’s it. The songs you did on that stood out to me, that “VIP In.” Are you a part of Slum Village?
That’s my crew, I been rhymin with them cats for almost like eleven years, you know. We just crew, but I’m not in the group.

Phat Kat

Was that the first thing you recorded professionally?
Nah, man.. I’m like one of the founders of Detroit hip-hop, if you didn’t know the history. I was the first guy out of Detroit to have a deal. I was signed to Payday in 1995 under a group called 1st Down. We had a song called “Front Street” and another song called “A Day Wit the Homiez.” That was in 95’, that was before.. you know.

Payday kinda broke down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.. but at that time they had Jay-Z on the label, Showbiz and AG, Group Home.

Was Jeru on there?
Yeah, Jeru the Damaja was on there. UTD, that was the group with Mos Def.

Okay.. So they dropped the ball.
(laughs) See, now let me trip you out though. What’s funny, you talk about the first time you heard me was on The Dirty District, the same guy that was the head of Payday is the same guy that put that Dirty District compilation out.. Patrick Moxey

So what was he trying to do, make up for lost time?
That was funny man, just how stuff comes full circle.

What record or artist made you want to be an MC?
What made me want to be an MC was when I was watching.. It was like late at night at the crib, I was watching a video show that we had called “Soul Beat.” It was the Whodini video, “The Freaks Come Out At Night.” When I saw that video, man.. that was it.

Was it the video or the straight concert footage of the Fresh Fest?
Yes, it was that! That video. And I went to the Fresh Fest.. it was a wrap.

Even with the tight shorts and the bolero hat and all that?
Man, it was a wrap. I was bypassing all the little tutti fruity stuff. I was looking at how they was rocking the crowd. But if you look, man, back in the days that’s how they used to get down with the little funny ass golf shorts and shit. Just the energy that they was giving off, I was like, ‘Wow, man. That shit is big.’

So where did you take that idea. Like when you left that concert, you just went to work on it?
Writing stuff, man. I just was always writing.

When you write do you come off the top, or do you sit with pen and pad?
It’s sporadic, most of the time you jot down little stuff or if I’m in the studio I just write it right on the spot. If the beat’s banging, I’ll write it right there.

What’s up with the name Phat Kat, any science behind that?
That name started back when I was in high school I had this little car and the shit used to break down. I used to take it to this mechanic and this guy used to be like.. it was like clock work. I always had to take my car to this guy, so he knew I was coming back. He’s the one who came up with the name. Like, “How you be always coming up with money, man.”

Phat Kat

So Phat Kat has to do with making money?
Right. He asked me what my name was and when I told him he was like, “Nah, you come back I’m gonna have a name for you.” When I came back he was like, “I got a name. I’m gonna call you Phat Kat.” And the shit just stuck, everybody started calling me that.

What was you doing to have money like that?
I was, you know.. I was a cat of all trades. A little bit of everything, man.

The I see you have another alias, Ronnie Cash.
Oh, Ronnie Cash. What about that guy? Ronnie Cash is a business man. Phat Kat is the MC. Ronnie Cash is the business man, the guy you gonna see when it’s time to get that check cut.

A lot of underground rappers are depicted as backpack rappers, maybe they don’t talk up the street elements of the game or whatever. What I hear from you and Jay Dee is you guys have a little bit of balance going on.
Yeah man, that’s true. Where I grew up at rap wasn’t really cool, it was all about hustling. That’s how you get the girls you had to have money, flossing or whatever, whatever. Rapping wasn’t really cool, people didn’t really take it serious. So I always wrote and kept it to myself, but when I moved on the west side of town, that’s when I was meeting people other than hustling cats. I was meeting cats that respect the industry and respected what I was doing. That’s when I met Jay Dee and Slum Village. So I fed off of that and they fed off of where I was from.

With your new album.. what label are you signed to?
I’m with Barak Records, right now.

How did you approach this album.. what were you looking to do?
What I was looking to do with this album is really come with an album with more than just two singles on there. A lot of people they just try to make an album and have two singles so they can have two videos or whatever. I just wanted to give people they’re money’s worth. A complete album from beginning to end. Not 50 or 60 skits and a thousand guests on the album. I just wanted to make a complete album. Cut to the chase, man.

Are there any guests on the album?
Yeah, I got Slum on the album, Jay Dee’s on the album, MC Breed is on the album..

MC Breed?!? I remember him from way back.
(laughs) Yeah, I brought him back out, man. That song is nice too.

And you have a song with Dwele?
Yeah, I got a joint with Dwele on there. And I got a song called “A Thousand Niggas” with my crew and Obie Trice is featuring on that song too.

So it sounds like it’s pretty stacked.
And on the production it’s these new cats BR Gunna, they produced 90% of the album. Jay Dee did a couple of joints, but these BR Gunna cats did the majority of the album. Like the whole Slum album.

Your situation is nice right now, but have you ever been approached by a major label?
Yeah, I was signed to Virgin Records before I got with Barak. But that shit is just a lot of paperwork and bullshit, when it comes to getting straight to the point of the matter. It’s not like I can just walk right into Virgin and sit down and talk to the owner of Virgin. Doing it the independent way, you got more control. And I still own my masters.. I still own my publishing.

That’s big. Your not gonna get that on a major.
Nah. Your not gonna get that on no major.

So the name of the album is Undeniable. Did you come up with that at the end of the recording session or did you start off with it?
I started off with it from the beginning. The reason why I called it that was because we just wanted to come up with an album with.. like I said, something on there for everybody. Whatever mood your in there’s something on there for you.

Anything else you want to let people know, something I didn’t touch on??
Yeah man, like I said.. that’s the Undeniable&nbsp LP. I got two versions, the Detroit edition is already out. You can get it over the internet or from Barak records.com and it’s like circulating through the midwest. The Undeniable&nbsp worldwide will be out May 25th (edit - the date has been moved to June) and that’s everywhere. That’s gonna have four new joints on it than the Detroit edition.

What is the single gonna be?
It’s probably gonna be “Destiny.” Did you hear the album?

Nah, I haven’t heard it yet.
Well, when you hear it you call me and let me know what you think it should be.

Alright. Looking forward to hearing that.. and good luck on everything.
I appreciate that, man. One.

WHUDAT.com @ April 2004

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