Fat Beats, one of the most popular underground hip-hop record stores in New York and California, has officially closed. Shutting their doors for the last time on Saturday, September 4th. Nobody seen it coming. Fat Beats was well known for their frequent DJ battles, off the chain record sales and celebrity pop-ins. With all these positives to their business, many were extremely disappointed when they shut down. But should we be surprised?

Traveling through the streets of New York City, you’ll more likely than not, find yourself surrounded by street hawkers looking to sell you the latest hip-hop hits. Hot CD’s! Got that new Lil’ Wayne! Straight from the Penn! Holla at me!” Sound familiar? Some New Yorkers have made a successful business out of selling bootleg DVDs and CDs, but unfortunately the money those illegal vendors are making lead to huge losses for the artists and legitimate vendors like Fat Beats.

Limewire and other music download sites also gave Fat Beats a run for it’s money. There was a time when buying CDs & records at Fat Beats was the best option to get good music. But as time went on, Fat Beats started to lose their customers & the store got emptier every day.

Illegal downloading of music has become most music listeners favorite past time. With music at every one’s fingertips on sites like Limewire & Bearshare, there is no longer the need to go out to a store or on to iTunes to purchase music. But even though the music is available & people are listening to it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are supporting it. Illegal music downloading sites aren’t coughing up any money to artists or music stores like Fats Beats. Once a song is downloaded on a site, the money you put in, if any, goes to that site. Companies like Fat Beats are losing their faithful customers & resulting in shutting down.

Soon with all the illegal music being downloads, artists will begin to start losing a lot more money as well. Music is becoming easier to be found & leaked nowadays. Albums are being leaked before artists even announce the release date. As a result, some artists are holding back from putting out more music.  Some people think that it will result in artist losing fans and losing their status in the entertainment business. One person stated to me “This is going to result in artists like Diddy, Jay-Z . . .  rapping on 42nd Street to make money eventually.”

Loyal customers to Fat Beats hope that the game changes some time soon. Fat Beats closed down the store with an amazing DJ show, including DJ Premier & A-Trak, and even though the online store for Fat Beats will continue to stay open, customers hope that won’t be the last they hear from Fat Beats.