After the soiree comes the introspection, and so it is with Houston-based rapper Fat Tony who follows up his previous jaunty single “Hood Party” (which co-starred Kool A.D. and Despot) with the nuanced “I Shine.” This time Tony's holding down solo mic duties and he matches producer Tom Cruz's muted and melancholic vibe by using his bar time to muse on the loftier sentiments of equality in the modern world, paranoid-tinged ponderings on the censorship agenda of the thought police, and the pesky perils of being burdened with bad credit. By virtue of his malleable and endearingly slurry flow, Tony also manages to rhyme Katy Perry with the line “I swear it tickles me pink how they can tell somebody who they can marry” as he declares a pro-gay marriage stance. So, all very chirpy stuff.
“I Shine” is culled from Fat Tony's 11-track Smart Ass Black Boy which is set for a June 11 release. In the run-up to that you can keep it in the family by copping Tom Cruz's own punning Top Gun mixtape which also dropped earlier this month.
