For people of my generation, the name “Fat Tony” immediately conjures an image of the tired-eye mafioso voiced by Joe Mantegna on The Simpsons. And although rapper Anthony Obi is something of a character himself, his passion and dedication to his craft is no joke. Raised in the historic Third Ward, Obi received the Houston Press Music Award for ‘Best Underground Hip Hop’ consecutively from 2008 to 2010, and made his studio debut as Fat Tony with the 2010 LP RABDARGAB. Fat Tony’s rapid-fire lyrical style, experimental ambitions, and disregard for genre restraints have earned Obi collaborations with the likes of Das Racist, A$AP Rocky, and fellow, legendary Houstonian Bun B.

Fat Tony’s latest full-length Exotica showed off a level of maturity that’s distinctly mid-thirties, priming Obi for his own 4:44 in the next decade. But the two biggest pieces of recent news from Fat Tony is his appearance on the latest episode of Song Confessional and an opening spot this Friday at Empire Control Room for Oblivion Access Festival, headlined by Danny Brown. So get your tickets while they last, and even if you’d prefer to stay home this weekend, check out the spasmodic rock and hypnotic flow of Song Confessional‘s “Sugar Daddy”!