Check This Music Out: Showbiz & AG, “Fat Pockets;” Dope Styles

Showbiz, a King of Sampling Style

Wow. When Showbiz & AG dropped “Fat Pockets” in 1992, I hadn’t yet owned an Akai S950! I was still a teenager, I couldn’t get into The Fever (Bronx club) yet. Even still, I used to roll up to the Bronx, at least once EVERY week, just hoping to bump into Show, Fat Joe, AG, anybody form DITC (or even Forest projects and the surrounding area). I used to get my hair cut at this barbershop called Six Corners, on 163rd and Prospect. Indeed, I used to take this looongg ass ride on the 2 train. A lot of times, I rolled up there alone, dolow, without anybody. I didn’t know it at the time, but the relationships that I made then would prove EXTREMELY pivotal to me later on.

So it was within this context that I first heard “Fat Pockets.” The biggest reason I liked this joint—at the time—was because Showbiz was the personification of what I wanted to do: He rhymed AND made beats! I was always a rhymer first, and I looked up to Showbiz because he demonstrated that you could be dope in both art forms. A couple of years after first hearing “Fat Pockets,” I went back and really studied it.

Of particular interest to me was the way in which Showbiz used to isolate the phrases he sampled with drums that seemed to break out. Showbiz’s sampling style was among the first that featured a usage of more off-beat, elongated, and unexpected phrases and sections of source material (recordings).

For educational purposes…

Showbiz & AG – “Fat Pockets”

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The BeatTips Manual by Sa’id.
“The most trusted source for information on beatmaking and hip hop/rap music education.”