Fatboi Sharif, the Garden State Gargoyle of elaborate literature, is joined by upstate New York producer Icky Reels in a night of subterranean, surrealist hip hop in this SMARTBOMB x The Lab collaboration. Fatboi’s recent Bay Area collaborators Mars Kumari (live set), and Squadda B (DJ) open the night.
Underground, experimental, abstract hip hop
Fatboi Sharif (from Rahway, NJ) has a style of his own and time after time with each release continues to create his own genre that intrigues and pushes boundaries equally. With a force of energy his stage performance is trance like how it keeps the crowd on the edge of there seat with each moment.
Icky Reels (aka Ay Fast) is a producer and visual artist crafting warped, futuristic beat music that blends experimental hip-hop, IDM, and ambient noise into something wholly his own. Praised by The Wire as “constantly thrilling and completely compelling,” his debut for Tygr Rawwk, Plips, was named the #1 electronic album of 2021. Known for unpredictable sound design and surreal textures, Icky has collaborated with artists like Beans, Fatboi Sharif, Hemlock Ernst, and ELUCID. Whether on stage or in the studio, he continues to push sonic boundaries with a distinct style that’s both chaotic and deeply melodic.
When Jacques Derrida defined the lingering Marxism of late-Capitalist society as hauntological, mashing together the words haunting and ontology, he couldn’t have imagined what the era might sound like. Mars Kumari captures the grief and grit of loss we all feel now, haunted as we are by what was here and is now missing."
-Roy Christopher
Rap pioneer Squadda B was co-founder of the landmark duo Main Attrakionz and is a current member of Danny Brown's Bruiser Brigade.
