#bootymath

How Awful Records Made Its Mark On Atlanta Hip-Hop

Like almost all legendary rap crews, Awful Records began as a group of friends. Forming in 2010 when Father met Archibald Slim and Stalin Majesty at Georgia State University, the trio soon linked up with fellow Atlanta natives Ethereal, Rich Po Slim, Micah Freeman, and Playboi Carti, who all went to high school together. KeithCharles Spacebar and Dexter Dukarus started going over to Ethereal’s…

     Our general perception of people can distract us from who people really are. In the case of Zack Fox this is the problem. His random deployment of the ultimate social media troll and or art persona, Bootymath, is a therapeutic method of expression. Is he deceptive or a marketing genius? That is a question that doesn’t need to be answered because Zack doesn’t play by your rules.

     His rebelliousness stems from a colorful past highlighted by drunken neighbors and adolescent discourse. One would think that Bootymath and Zack Fox would be one in the same. In actuality, Zack is as introspective and conscious as any other artist only with a wild sense of humor to temper his sometimes obscene mental abstractions. Zack stated, “I was always the class clown,” signifying the authenticity of his humor. He made note to inform me during the interview that he is not Bootymath, Bootymath is apart of him. He is always there lurking in the shadows waiting to roast an unsuspecting person or provide some pretty impressive “OG” wrestling statistics. Who could argue that Rick Flair and the remainder of “OG” wrestling are the pre-historic origins attributing to the modern day rapper braggadocio we all have come to love?

     That is the tip of the iceberg. As conversation progressed, we bobbed and weaved between burritos, beers and black social justice. Zack showed that he is a multifaceted individual who cannot be judged by the likes of mortal man. Therefore people’s opinions about “anything” really does not matter much in the broad spectrum of things. He briefly explained this ideology. Zack stated that he was worried about public perception for a very long time. He had to make a conscious effort to not care about what people thought of him. This rewarded him with the freedom of expression needed to be creative.

     Embracing his differences has brought him trouble as well as success. Such as scuffles with Atlanta’s rap collective Two9. Zack explained the event was the result of Zack defending Ethereal, an Awful Records Recording Artist. Supposedly, Key!, formerly of the collective Two9, decided that day was a good day to pick on a guy in a wheelchair and criticize the group’s embraced “weirdness.” Zack said he was just tired of it and retaliated against Key!. The brawl erupted into a fight between Zack’s small group of present friends and the majority of Two9 and their present fan-base. Although, at the time the event must have been serious we both managed to enjoy a laugh out of the circumstances. The fact that Key! was on one of those annoying hover-boards for about 80 percent of the time also managed to be a humorous detail.