Steeped, among other things, in cinematic references, Prince Fatty had already burst onto the screen with "Survival of the Fattest" (2007), followed by "Supersize" (2010) and then "Prince Fatty meets the Mutant HiFi in Return of the Gringo!" (2011). Three UFOs that could easily have served as a trailer for the "Back to the Future" trilogy, so gracefully (or greasily, as the case may be) did they oscillate between the old - rocksteady, old-school reggae… -, the current - hip-hop, notably - and the new.
Never sated, the creator of the hit Nina's Dance (the one that greatly boosted his rise) serves up another delicious helping with Prince Fatty Versus the Drunken Gambler, a 10-track album once again housed at Mr Bongo Records, an independent label from Brighton - Prince Fatty's home town. The setting of this opus in a Bruce Lee style is once again the fruit of its architect's eclecticism.
In "Prince Fatty Versus the Drunken Gambler", whose sleeve is already a selling point (it features a caricature of Pelanconi, nunchaku in hand, surrounded by his "protégés" Hollie Cook and Horseman), it is all about Kung Fu, hip-hop, revisited classics, fantasy, properly "fat" dub (or Fatty, as you prefer) and talented artists, among them DJ Dennis Alcapone himself.
The result lives up to expectations, and the recipe concocted by Prince Fatty proves delicious once more.
It has to be admitted that the man handles the nunchaku skilfully: his choices of covers simply smack. By dragging Ali Baba out of his cave, by bringing the interplanetary hit And the Beat Goes On back up to date or by setting Got Your Money to a reggae-disco beat (it was a daring bet!), Prince Fatty does not merely honour John Holt, the Techniques and ODB. He gilds the coat of arms of reggae 2.0, with the insolent ease of those who have a true ear and a precise mix.
Surrounded as usual by the formidable Horseman - with his definitively "Shaggy-esque" timbre - and the charming Hollie Cook, Prince Fatty rolls out his Kung Fu in forty minutes, the quality of his production going hand in hand with the quality of the singing of his other guests, be it Dennis Alcapone, George Dekker (the younger brother of Desmond and ex-member of the trio the Pioneers) or Winston Francis.
From Kung Fu Battle Ina Brixton, an intro ridden by Horseman, Prince Fatty has won his bet. Because you will enthusiastically relish what follows, from the cover of "Bei mir bist du schön", a 1930s classic sung notably by the Andrews Sisters (here For Me You Are, with the Cook-Horseman duo at the controls) to Go Find Yourself a Foul, a Techniques song revisited here by Winston Francis (who had already covered it in the past), by way of the saucy Wet Dream by Max Romeo, subtly reworked by the George Dekker-Dennis Alcapone tandem.
The hip-hop sleight of hand is once again mastered by Prince Fatty, who had already made a name for himself in recent years with covers of Snoop Dogg and Daz Dillinger (Gin & Juice), ODB (Shimmy Shimmy Ya) and Cypress Hill (Insane in the Brain). Fatty decidedly loves the world of the zany Ol' Dirty Bastard, since he pays him another posthumous tribute with a Baby, I Got Your Money that the Wu-Tang's free electron would no doubt have approved.
Pull Up
Ali Baba
For Me You Are
And the Beat Goes On
Got Your Money
