Fatman Scoop

Isaac Freeman III performed under the stage name Fatman Scoop and earned recognition chiefly through the chart-topping track “Be Faithful.” The moniker originated when he portrayed an ice cream vendor in the Fugees’ video for “Killing Me Softly.” His delivery was characteristically loud, repetitive, and boisterous, echoing the classic role of a hip-hop hype man. Although his earliest solo credit arrived on Timbaland & Magoo’s 2001 cut “Drop,” widespread attention came only in 2003 when “Be Faithful” dominated club play and reached number one on the U.K. singles chart. The song appeared on his album Party Breaks, Vol. 1, alongside the 2004 follow-ups “It Takes Scoop” featuring DJ Kool and “In the Club,” neither of which matched the earlier success. Two further singles surfaced in 2006—“Dance” with Lum and “U Sexy Girl”—yet greater commercial impact resulted from guest spots on Mariah Carey’s “It’s Like That” and Missy Elliott’s Grammy Award-winning “Lose Control.” Subsequent solo releases “Talk to Me” in 2007 and “New Year’s Anthem” in 2009 failed to register on the charts, while featured turns on Bob Sinclar’s “Rock the Boat” (2012), LL Cool J’s “We Came to Party” (2013), and Skrillex’s “Recess” (2014) proved more resonant. Concurrent with recording, Freeman hosted a show on New York’s WQHT and co-created the podcast Man and Wife TV with his wife, Shanda Freeman, offering candid conversations about their marriage. A short stint on British reality television occurred in 2015, after which he appeared on additional singles: Hardwell and W&W’s “Don’t Stop the Madness” (2015), Charlotte Devaney’s “Bass Dunk” with Lady Leshurr (2016), Skrillex and Jauz’s “SQUAD OUT” (2016), and MAKJ and Michael Sparks’ “Space Jam” (2017). He maintained a schedule of live performances, briefly pivoted to other projects amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and later resumed stage appearances before dying during a concert in Connecticut on August 30, 2024.