MTV Profiles LA Emcee’s Partnership With California Fast Food Staple
For years, California rappers have been singing the praises of Fatburger. Ice Cube, 2Pac & DJ Quik, among others, have made no qualms about their love of ”The Last Great Hamburger Stand” and have sprinkled shoutouts to the burger joint on some of their biggest hits. Even the Notorious B.I.G., an East Coast native, had to give it up to Fatburger on his hit “Going Back To Cali”.
It seems like Hip-Hop’s love affair with the fast food staple will continue into a new generation as the restaurant has tapped West Coast heavyweight Nipsey Hussle to design the uniforms for the franchise’s latest location in the rapper’s native Crenshaw District.
“Fatburger being an iconic brand in L.A., our core values aligned. We had an idea to co-brand the Crenshaw collection from the Marathon Clothing with the Fatburger logo,” Hussle divulged to MTV News at this week’s grand opening of the restaurant on the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson.
The uniform shirts keep a smooth and clean aesthetic: the classic red and yellow Fatburger logo adorns the left chest of a black tee with Nipsey’s Crenshaw logo directly beneath it. A more prominent version of the insignia appears on the back, while Hussle’s Marathon flag graces the shirt’s left sleeve.
“The Fatburger logo, it’s like the Hollywood sign or it’s like something you come to L.A. and you think Los Angeles. We didn’t want to get in the way of that,” Nipsey surmised. “We just wanted to represent our area and also the Crenshaw collection.”
Fatburger is excited about the partnership as well. “It’s usually in the movies when a new neighbor moves in, you bring them a gift welcoming them to the neighborhood. Nipsey offered his time and creativity to collaborating with us for a special Crenshaw Fatburger uniform shirt,” a representative for Fatburger told MTV News in a statement. “He’s a staple and pillar in this community, and the Crenshaw Fatburger family is thrilled to have him be a part of this.”
This is just the latest move in a string of successful endeavors that have positioned Nipsey as not only a lyricist capable of holding his own in the booth, but also as a business man to be reckoned with. Just months ago, Neighboorhood Nip dropped Crenshaw, a mixtape met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, for the hefty asking price of $100. The small pressing, only 1,000 copies, sold out in less than a day.
Nipsey also owns his own Slauson Ave Clothing store in the contiguous vicinity.
“I think that we gave them a great design. Everybody inside is wearing it and it just looks dope,” Nipsey said, summing up the collaboration with Fatburger. “It gives them a little bit of a cool factor.”
