Fat Beats to close its remaining Los Angeles and New York locations

For hip-hop heads of legal drinking age, the name Fat Beats inevitably conjures memories of teenage years spent trawling through racks of vinyl, in-store appearances with the latest underground stars (during a period when "underground" didn't require scare quotes) and encyclopedic employees often pulled from the top ranks of the Los Angeles DJ scene.

And now, the iconic hip-hop retailer will close its last two remaining brick-and-mortar locations in New York and Los Angeles -- another apparent casualty to ever-dwindling record sales and interest in vinyl among hip-hop consumers. The closures reflect the final act of contraction for a chain that had previous shuttered its locations in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Tokyo.

“The closing of Fat Beats is just like one of my friends passing away,” DJ Premier said in a prepared statement. “They promoted vinyl at its highest degree for the culture of good music, and that makes it more difficult to say goodbye.”

Underpinning the statement is the reality that while vinyl has seen an upsurge of interest among indie rock fans, hip-hop fans have moved away from the format in recent years. This reality has been compounded by the rise of illegal downloading, free mix tapes and the general difficulty of finding popular rap records on vinyl.

The New York location will close its doors on Sept. 4, with L.A.'s Melrose Boulevard outpost shutting down on Sept. 18. A spate of goodbye celebrations and sales are planned in the interim. Fat Beats' online store, distribution business and Brooklyn-based record label will remain extant.

“This is the start of a new era in Fat Beats,” Fat Beats owner and president Joe Abajian said in a prepared statement. “We’re adapting to meet the needs of our demographic by revamping and improving our existing systems. While our website, which stocks everything available in our retail stores, continues to do very well, we’re still exploring our options for alternate retail locations in the future. We’re proud of our legacy and will continue to reinvent ourselves."

With the closure of one of Los Angeles' last remaining hubs of independent hip-hop, expect a flurry of tributes to pour in over the next 30 days. In the meantime, this reminiscence from local rapper TiRon nicely captures the store' s place in LA hip-hop culture and illustrates why it will be sorely missed.

-- Jeff Weiss

Comments

[Emay]

Unfortunate.

[Shane Chauhan]

I think the closure of the LA and NYC stores is a sad sign but is a reflection of customers shifting to online purchases. Also Fat Beats may have been hit by piracy/filesharing . I think that it must be harder to swallow for the older generation of artists like DJ Premier.

[PR1392]

L.A. and N.Y. are meccas of hip-hop. Seeing these stores close is shocking.

[los angeles dj]

Time marches on!

[CAUM75!]

Fat Beats is a victim of convenience and I'm partly to blame. I 'found' Fat Beats somewhere around 1997 or 1998 and used to regularly trek out there from Jersey to search the latest offerings in vinyl. Fat Beats was my last stop (after A-1, turntableLab, sound library) before catching the PATH back home from 9th St. I haven't been there in two years. Work, family, laziness. It's much easier to order my hip-hop to my front door (thanks UGHH!) than to trek to NYC. But it was always comforting to know that I could 'cause it was there. Now it's not and I can't and that makes me sad....

First G.U.R.U. and now Fat Beats. Damn....

[los angeles dj]

It will be missed!

[Angelina]

Yes it is so sad, but this is how in touch I still am with the scene as I'm just now hearing about it. I used to work at a boutique that housed Fat Beats when they were on Vermont Ave. in LA. But like CAUM 75 I have kids and hardly get out much less make it to the club. At least he's still in business so the music isn't totally unaccessible. Now that would be sad!