Joey Fatts

Joey Vercher, known professionally as Joey Fatts, came to music as a direct rapper and capable producer whose initial work drew support from cousin Vince Staples, A$AP Yams, and Waka Flocka Flame. After setting football aside, the Long Beach native began issuing mixtapes in 2012, opening with the Chipper Jones trilogy that ran from 2012 to 2014 and then issuing Ill Street Blues in 2015 and I'll Call You Tomorrow in 2016. Each tape carried his sharp, street-hardened rhymes, rooted in an upbringing that included stretches of homelessness and gang involvement. Staples appeared on several cuts, among them "Cutthroat" and "Farrakhan," while Danny Brown, Freddie Gibbs, and Lil Yachty supplied additional verses. In the same stretch Vercher also appeared on tracks fronted by A$AP Rocky, including the stark co-production "Jodye," as well as those led by J. Stalin and Staples, and he swapped lines with Rapsody on 9th Wonder's Jamla Is the Squad compilation.