By 1987, the Fat Boys had already experienced an impressive measure of success and notoriety, helping to develop and shape hip-hop’s early years on wax. Their first two albums, 1984’s self-titled debut and 1985’s
The Fat Boys Are Back, were produced by rap legend Kurtis Blow and were certified Gold on the back of hits like “Can You Feel It?,” “Jail House Rap,” and “The Fat Boys Are Back.” Often sharing the stage with pioneering contemporaries like Run-D.M.C. and Whodini, the trio was a major part of hip-hop’s early mass-marketed concerts and tours, most notably “Fresh Festival ’84” and 1985’s “Fresh Fest II.” Robinson, Wimbley and Morales appeared in two 1985 films,
Backstory:
Tin Pan Apple debuted in 1982 with a lot of noise. Charlie Stettler and Lynda West, then-owners of a New York roller disco, put together a six-minute gag cassette of street noise for homesick city dwellers. The recording was among the highest-selling Christmas stocking-stuffers, selling more than 250,000 at stores like Bloomingdale’s and Bendel’s. They next produced the Tin Pan Apple Rap & Breakdance Contest at Radio City Music Hall, the first major corporate sponsored (Coca Cola and WBLS) hip hop event. Three chubby Brooklyn teenagers calling themselves the Disco 3 were the rap winners. Stettler/West signed them and renamed them the Fat Boys and the rest is history.