Fat Boys — The Fat Boys Are Back

In order to promote their debut album, the Fat Boys have to undertake national tours. The young founder of Def Jam Recordings Russell Simmons contacts promoter Charles Stettler to organize a tour for 1984 similar to that of the previous year that Stettler had managed to get financed by a well-known beverage company. Stettler manages to get this 1984 tour financed by a Swiss watch company: Simmons wants artists from his label to participate, the Fat Boys aren't there and Simmons doesn't want them, because no one knows them, besides being signed to the Sutra Records label.

Stettler manages to create a buzz on the streets and also bring the trio onto television, giving the false news that the Fat Boys would open a Jackson 5 reunion concert the following fall, Simmons gives in and accepts the trio for his artists' tour, among which are Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Whodini, and Newcleus.

Promoted with a television campaign, the tour achieved great success and the Fat Boys returned again the following year. Meanwhile, the watch company Stettler contacted also features the boys in its MTV commercials, the trio is one of the first acts to do TV commercials for a company since Run-DMC. The Fat Boys often become guests on MTV programs, opening a niche for hip-hop artists on TV and helping to increase the popularity of hip-hop among television audiences. The group also begins to participate in the seventh art, taking part in the films "Krush Groove" (1985) and "Disorderlies" (1987).

Shortly after being certified gold by the RIAA, Brooklyn, New York hip-hop group Fat Boys releases its second studio album. Trying to chase the rapid success of the duo composed of Run and DMC, the Fat Boys return with eight tracks full of forced hardcore and rock sounds without good technique and on a production that does not run in the same lane as the most modern artists, maintaining disco and electro influences desired by their producer Kurtis Blow.

Three singles were taken from the album, "Hard Core Reggae", "Don't Be Stupid" and the title track, all of which ended up in the charts, dragging the album close to the top ten among rnb releases and to number 65 on the Billboard 200. In a few months it was certified gold. There's little replay value beyond the title track, it's not a necessary listen for fans of eighties hip-hop. 5/10.