Don’t call them a gang & don’t call them a rap group. Don’t call them anything but FANG Life.
To be fair, you really can’t compare them to any gang or rap group. The eight, Greensboro-based brothers each carry their own unique skill set, style and brand – but come together to form an absolute force with FANG. With roots in middle school classrooms and a local skate shop, the crew didn’t come together because of rap, they came together because they were family. Being inseparable friends led them to constant freestyle sessions, ultimately leading to careers in music for most of the crew.
FANG’s J.K. The Reaper and 2Chea The Zombie recently released a new track and video with the instant-classic “Fuck ‘Em All”. J.K. does a great job at expressing his abstract views while allowing the listener to portray the track in whichever way they please. Both 2Chea and J.K. deliver an array of intense emotion on the record, adding depth and wholeness to the already lethal three-minute track. The David Wept-directed visual features most of the FANG Life crew and give us a glance into their daily lives and natural chemistry. Combined with a series of breathtaking shots taken in a stunning empty field, the video treatment is enough in itself to hold your attention for the length of the song.
Gate City‘s best kept secret is no longer a secret. Read below to learn about seven out of the eight artists that make up FANG Life. Austin Geata, the eighth brother, is currently incarcerated but is scheduled to be released in the near future.
J.K. The Reaper
Age: 24
How did you get with FANG?
There’s really no “getting in” FANG. We were all close homies from the beginning since early high school/middle school & even elementary for some members. We always made music together. We recorded at each other’s houses and you couldn’t make a hot song with somebody saying “you got a open verse on that?”, so we always were a team we just never put a name on it (until 2011).
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
No other group is as human as we are & loyal. We don’t give you a facade of where we’re from. We don’t take influence from outsiders. We all have our own separate universes that we’re trying to represent & help each other bring to you. FANG is different because it’s not a “rap” crew. If we didn’t rap, we’d still be mobbing like a biker club or some shit. FANG LIFE is a lifestyle we all pledge for, and have tattooed on us in ink. Branded to take to the grave.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
I was pretty much always the weird one, no lie. All the homies in FANG were more popular than me in high school and always got more bitches and shit. I was more content with staying in the house and recording all day while they were living the lifestyle they introduced me to. Once Preme introduced me to 2chea, that’s when I really jumped off the porch.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
Everything I’ve ever learned was from a FANG brother. Preme taught me how to record and brand my image and sound. Smvvth taught me how to dress & flex on the city. 2chea & Austin showed me the streets & not to give a fuck. BrendenJBeatz taught me how to be social & actually entertain people/make people remember you. Kane taught me how to be strategic and to be incognito when need be; limelight is for hoes. Clint taught me how to treat bitches & move like a god. Zu taught me how to handle my drugs & the true essence of not giving a fuck what anybody thinks. FANGLIFE is me & I am FANGLIFE.
Clint Norway
Age: 23
How did you get with FANG?
Uhh, it was J.K. I was in this collective that wasn’t doing to much for me at the time, I might as well had been a solo artist but he seen that I was this diamond in the rough that had talent; I just needed a team and some polishing. We started kicking it, smoking blacks in front of his garage talking about all the shit we rebel against. Mind you, I met him back in 2009 at Northeast High School. Preme and I use to skip class and go eat lunch with him and he thought I was trying to rob him for his shoes one day, so it was hella weird at first. Like, nah nigga I just really liked your shoes dawg, I never seen supra’s before, haha. But yea, when the idea started of Clint Norway joining Fang, they wasn’t with it at first. It was just JK and Kane, everybody else was like “Nah he’s just not needed right now”, even Preme. But it’s cool though, I get it. I just had to prove myself, and I did just that.
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
We’re different because its this one big melting pot, you know ? It’s all these different ingredients mixed in to make this one sauce for the people. All of our music sounds different, but when drawn out it’s all cohesive with one another. That’s actually why I’ve grown to love and respect this shit so much man, it’s beautiful.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
I’d say what makes me different is that I’ve had the best of both worlds growing up, ya dig? So, when approaching music, it’s kind of easier for me to be diverse and bend my vocals and flows to fit almost any sound. I’ve wrote country songs before man, and just the way I look and carry myself, we all look different but I’m the only white kid you know? It’s cool though, I like it that way.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
The most valuable thing I’ve learned over the years is from JK, truthfully. He didn’t teach me the business exactly, but he showed me that not having it could waste a lot of time. You can drop a million songs, but if the business isn’t there, there’s no peaks being reached. Weirdly, I just caught on to it in 2016 *hints* why I dropped no music. I never thought about the business until I really sat back and observed how things are suppose to move so power moves are always in play.
What was your high school life like before joining FANG?
High school changed my life, dawg. For 14 years I grew up thinking I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t get it. Like, I knew I was hella bummed out and my fro was nappy but I never understood why girls didn’t want me. Then, high school came. The first day of high school this pretty ass upperclassmen was like “Damn boy you fine as hell”; it changed me. Before I knew it, girls was holding umbrellas for me in the rain, comfortable with changing in front of me, doing crazy things to me in the gym showers while they boyfriend was at football practice. It was crazy, but for the most part high school was chill. I was selling little dime bags of mid to the white kids at Eastern High, I got in good with this counselor that just wanted my conversation and company. In return, she did my work. Then, I got finessed out of my education so I left and never built the care to go back.
Premeir Jones
Age: 22
How did you get with FANG?
Jabbie and I been in it from the jump. Everyone in FANG had their own groups and cliques, we all made a name for ourselves on our own and eventually decided to team up. We imagined what could be done if we all came together, and we just did it.
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
Because we’re not a rap group, we’re more like a collective or label. Each of us are stand-alone powerhouses. Like, JK has no need for me. BrendenJBeatz has no need for me. I have no need for JK or BrendenJBeatz, but once we come together, we’re like the Power Rangers. We’re like Megatron or whatever it’s called. Like damn, these niggas is whoppin’ ass! That’s pretty much how FANG is.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
Being that we grew up to totally different lives, we were old enough (by the time we met) to establish who we were personally. We’d been through our own personal events and built our own sounds individually. Like, 2Chea is heavily influenced by trap. JK is influenced by Three-Six Mafia and Kid Cudi. Individually, I can separate myself because I’m a sponge to everyone that’s around me.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
One thing I really picked up from JK was that consistency makes perfect. I saw him drop a mixtape every Friday in the month of Jaunary 2011. It’s crazy, I can really see the level of growth from then, until now. From BrendenJ I’ve picked up some about production, and from Smvvth I picked up a lot about style, swag and how to carry yourself. I’m actually the youngest out of everybody in the team. So, you know like young brother syndrome? I just always pay attention to my big brothers and grasp onto the things I see. That’s pretty much where I stand, because I’m really a sponge to everyone that’s around me.
Who were Niko and Geez and how did they play a part in FANG?
Niko and Geez was the original other two members of FANG with me and JK. They’re important because overtime, they both taught me about family. I can’t really say that because they’re no longer with us, but that alone showed me who my family is. Like, the brothers who stood down with us during the struggle. They (Niko & Geez) showed me that you gotta be strong in order to get to the point where you want to be. Niko was the one who we actually removed from the team, but Geez is his blood cousin so he held onto that family thing and was like “If he gotta go, I gotta go”. That’s just another example of family and how we started to cultivate ourselves as a brotherhood instead of like, a basketball team.
BrendenJBeatz
Age: 24
How did you get with FANG?
We was all brothers and we grew up together, but everyone had individual groups. JK had 595, Preme and Smvvth had a group called KMJ, and me and 2Chea had a group called SBM. We all went to the same school and started hanging out more, and it just made sense. We’d all be working when we’re together, and we had the equipment to record so we was like, might as well make it happen.
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
What makes us different is that any of us could survive on our own, musically. We could all branch off and do whatever we want and still make it. A lot of groups can’t do that because they have a main face that puts everybody on, and then everybody just rides off that persons wave. That can’t happen to us because we all have different sounds.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
I’m the producer and engineer. One thing that I can do is manipulate any sound and create my own sound from it. We ain’t that different from each other besides that.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
Well back when everybody was rapping, I wanted to rap. I started off rapping before I started producing. Everybody used to tell me “I mean, this could be better”. I was like what you mean? So I started to drop songs, and no one would help me push it. I was like what the hell, just help me! One day, Preme just told me “Bruh, this shit is not good man”. So I was like, damn I gotta step my bars up. So I started really trying, and had got my bars up. I went back to Preme and he was like “You ain’t got no flow neither”. So I was like damn, I gotta go work on my flow! But overtime, that helped me build my sound and listen to music from different artists. I was trying to build a sound, so I sat back for a couple years. I literally sat back and just like went HAM with producing. Everybody was liking my beats, so I decided to stick to producing more.
Smvvth
Age: 25
How did you get with FANG?
Well, we all went to high school together on the north side of Greensboro and did music as individuals. We all grew up together and knew each other for a while, but I’m older than most everyone in FANG, so I moved to Atlanta for school (college) once I graduated. While I was down there doing my thing, my brother (Preme) called me and was like “Yo, we putting a group together. Me, JK, everybody”. I was like hell yea, we need to come together.
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
We all have different styles. When we come together, we’re FANG. Like, Jabbie is the reaper; he got the reaper thing going on. Me, I’m the bat; I got the bat thing going on. Kane is 007, 2Chea is the Zombie. Everybody has their own theme to go along with their names, which sets us apart from other rap “groups”. Like, we don’t sound the same at all. If you listen to a JK tape, it don’t sound nothing like a Smvvth tape or a Preme tape or a Clint tape.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
I’m a jiggy nigga. I’m like, the most fashion forward of the group. I provide a wave to FANG when it comes to style. That’s what makes me different.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
The most valuable thing I’ve learned is that we need to stick together. We used to live all together on a street called Fuller Street, all of us together in one damn apartment; on some fuckin’ Organized Noise-type shit. We was really in that shit together, like every day, waking up and going through it. I value the brotherhood that we have in the group because this is really a family. It ain’t on no friendship shit, like we ain’t meet each other two, three years ago. We really grew up together and we really trying to do this shit together. I value our brotherhood more than anything else.
What is the FANG presence like in North Carolina?
Being that we in Greensboro, there’s not really nobody here that put the city on the map. When we came together and really started going heavy in the streets with FANG, the police knew who we were because they thought we was a gang, like the bloods and crips. It ain’t like that, we just call ourselves FANG Gang because when we’re together, we mob deep. There was nobody from the city going as hard as us, like our logo was all over the city. We was even selling FANG merch out of my pops’ store in Greensboro and when we used to drop that, it was haywire. Everybody was wearing FANG. Random people was like, spray painting the FANG logo on buildings so police kept thinking we was a gang. They really thought we was out here on some vandalising shit, but we was really just pushing this music. Our city is so small that once something pop, they put a microscope on you.
007Kane
Age: 25
How did you get with FANG?
Crazy ass story. First off I’m from the west side of Gate City, and just about everyone else in FANG was raised on the north side. My homie Keith (who’s from the north) moved to the west during high school and he was hella tight with Jabbie. He use to come over to Keith’s crib to work on music, and at the time I had just started rapping so one night the whole team was just chilling, smoking tree and shit, and we started to freestyle. I killed it and everybody in FANG was like “We need to put him in”. So, they did and I’ve been rocking with the family ever since. We’re brothers for Life.
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
FANG is different from any other rap crew because we’re all from the same small city with big dreams. We weren’t put together by an manger or anybody. We built this from the ground up as young ass kids running around. Its not even a crew, its like a brotherhood more than anything honestly.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
I bring that chill vibe, but I can also bring that lyrical raw straight to point flow. Everybody carries a different trait in the crew but when we all come together its like the megazord or voltron.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
Never give up no matter what and keep pushing to be great. That’s something we tell each other on the regular. We know what we’re put here for and soon the world will know our story.
Can you tell us about the West Side house parties?
The westside parties used to be lit as fuck. It was always girls, brews, and tree. What more can you ask for? I remember this one time we had to jump outta a apartment window on the 2nd floor to get away from cops after they raided the party. Haha, fun times I swear to you.
2Chea The Zombie
Age: 23
How did you get with FANG?
I’ve been rocking wit Jabbie and Preme since we was freshmen in high school, before fang was created. We all had our own groups or whatever going hard. But, we was all from the same school so we was just like “Why don’t we just come together?”. That’s when FANG was born.
Why is FANG Life different from other rap cliques?
Because we ain’t no boy band. Every artist in FANG is different. Our music sounds totally different. You would think we all got our own genre, haha.
What makes you different than your peers in FANG?
I’m the street in the group. I’m the one who does the dirty work. I was the one when shit pop off, I’m pulling out the pistol and bussin’. The trap rapper of the group.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from someone in FANG?
Well, I really learned how to really create music from watching my peers work.
Can you tell us about your brother Austin and explain the significance of Fuller Street?
Austin Geata? Yeah, that’s my blood brother. My lil brother. He was really the soldier, the real street nigga, the original OG. He wasn’t really rapping at first, he was just a gangster who was nice as fuck on a skateboard. Austin used to always went out, did his thing, and brought it back to the fam. Overall he was a good person, just was somebody you wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. But I miss my brother man. He’s been locked up for like 3 years now and scheduled to get out in 2022. Can’t wait. But we out here doing for him so when he come home he good and don’t have to get back in the streets.
I can say Fuller Street really brought us together emotionally. We really learned about each other because we was all down at that point. Niggas was really struggling, for real. Like, six niggas living in some lil shack, but niggas was working though. I miss Fuller to be real though because everybody was rocking with each other. Plus, that’s when Austin was out. As soon as we lost that spot, that’s when my brother had got locked up.