Chris Gristle: Boom Bap for Grown Folks, and a First EP Called 'Still Life'
Some artists chase the moment. Chris Gristle is building for the long haul. The Greensboro, North Carolina rapper, formerly known as Imthefatboy, makes what his Instagram bio calls "rap music & events for those who didn't quit their dreams at 30," and on December 4 he releases Still Life, his first EP under the Chris Gristle name.
Lifelong, by his own account
His bio, the same one on his GristleLand site and in his VoyageRaleigh interview, tells the origin story plainly. He fell for hip hop at ten years old, the summer he saw the video for "Hypnotize" by the Notorious B.I.G. At twelve he was skipping class to study the music business in the school library. At fourteen he was making beats on a PlayStation, and by sixteen he was on stage. He has been studying the business independently ever since.
The rebrand is recent and deliberate. Earlier this year he retired the CDs he released as Imthefatboy, It Could All Be So Simple, The Cook Up, and Phantasy Star, writing that he was clearing out space for Chris Gristle and the projects coming under that name. Still Life is the first of them.
What it sounds like
His own description is the honest one: a return to the core foundations of 1980s to 2000s working class hip hop. Gritty raps and age appropriate subject matter, growing older, surviving homelessness, escaping drug dealer days, being a single father, over soulful, hard-hitting production. His event page calls it Southern boom bap, for grown folks still figuring out life. And he is funny about the craft underneath it. As he put it to VoyageRaleigh: "Someone said 'rappers try to be so tough but really they're just word nerds.' And by George I think we've been found out. I love the vocabulary of it all, the wit and sharpness. The literary exercises."
More than records
Gristle is also a builder. Under the GristleLand banner he has run online livestream concerts since 2020 and, since 2024, the Jam Online Concert straight out of his own apartment, an ongoing project he blogs about under the banner of turning a moment into a movement. He is on a self-set quest to guest on 100 podcasts this year, and his events are pitched the same way his music is: a live hip hop experience for grown folks.
Watch
Start with his own introduction:
Then the visualizer for "Days of Future's Past," the track fronting his music page:
Start here
- "Days of Future's Past" — the current calling card, linked from the top of his music page.
- "Who TF is Chris Gristle?" — the intro video above, his whole pitch in one performance.
- Still Life — the first EP under this name, landing December 4.
See him
- Sat, Nov 7 — The Guitar Shop Off Elm Street, Greensboro, NC, 2:00 to 4:00 pm: "A Live Hip Hop Experience for Grown Folks"
- Fri, Dec 4 — GristleLand Presents: Still Life, the EP release show at etc.gso artist community collective, Greensboro, NC, 8:00 pm to midnight, with livestream tickets if you cannot make it in person
Where to follow
- Website: gristleland.com
- Instagram: @chrisgristletv
- Threads: @chrisgristletv
- SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/chrisgristletv
Sources & links
- https://gristleland.com/music
- https://www.gristleland.com/event-details/gristleland-presents-still-life
- https://www.gristleland.com/post/chrisgristle
- https://voyageraleigh.com/interview/conversations-with-chris-gristle/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt6QbWIjWw0
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN5xqQWtvoA
- https://soundcloud.com/chrisgristletv
- https://www.instagram.com/chrisgristletv
- https://www.threads.com/@chrisgristletv