Big Stat - Bigger, Better

Don’t let anyone fool you, there’s no such thing as a big break. The ladder to success, however, is a very real thing, and few hip-hop artists in Connecticut have climbed higher on that ladder than Enfield’s Big Stat.

Local fans are already familiar with his story from his years with Hushh, which were a major part of his now 13 year career. People around the country are learning about him now because of the major tours he’s being featured on, most recently wrapping up two weeks on the road with Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan and Sheek Louch of The Lox. The people involved with the tour would have loved to have seen him travel with them even longer.

“They wanted to keep me going,” Big Stat says, “Sheek’s tour manager was mad when he found out I wasn’t doing the rest of the dates, but it wasn’t in the tour’s budget to keep me going, so I couldn’t do it.”

The reality for Big Stat is even when he’s on the road, he still has other responsibilities. “Some of these tour dates,” he explains, “I’ve been coming back and working in-between. I got a mortgage to pay.” His work ethic comes, in part, from having do to a lot for himself since his mother was murdered when he was 12. When Big Stat was 14 he got his first job, working on a tobacco farm. The money he earned at that job went to buy a used car, turntables and recording equipment.

Big Stat’s cars have always played just as major a part in his career as his recording equipment. Case in point, Big Stat’s relationship with Ghostface. It didn’t exactly happen overnight. The two met in 2004, backstage at Hot97’s Summer Jam event in New Jersey. Kurtis Blow actually made the introduction. Fast forward to this year and Big Stat logged some serious miles to further things, going to both the New York and Washington, DC, Rock The Bells shows, driving back to CT in-between. “We kinda locked it in down there (in DC)” he says.

This wasn’t a random happening, though. “I’ve always kept in touch,” Big Stat explains, “that’s how I got invited to these shows. I didn’t go there with intentions of doing this. I love going to Rock The Bells anyway. The opportunity to be backstage and be chillin with Lauryn Hill, or Nas, or whoever is back there, and Wu-Tang always lets me go on the stage with them while they’re rockin, so to be on the stage and watch a sea of fans and just envision that being myself in a couple years, or however much time it is, it’s inspiring.”

The tour with Ghostface and Sheek wasn’t Big Stat’s first proverbial rodeo, he’s hit the road with Method Man and Redman in the past. “It was cool with Red and Meth before,” he says, “but now I’ve grown a lot and I have an understanding of how to do this and after every show I would have fans lined up for autographs and buying merch and all that stuff. It kinda solidified that I’m going in the right direction.”

Big Stat also says he learned a lot from being on the road with Ghostface and Sheek, and made some powerful connections with fans. “I did the show in New Hampshire with them and this kid came up to me, he’d had surgery and he wasn’t able to walk anymore and he was saying our music helped him. The doctors told him he’d never be able to walk and he said that hip-hop music inspired him to just keep fighting. It was really dope to hear his story.”

The final night of Big Stat’s time on the tour turned out to be one of his most memorable. It was Friday, October 22nd, and he found himself at BB King’s in NYC with Ghostface, Raekwon, and a host of other legendary artists. “I remember copping (Ghostface’s) Ironman album, (Rae’s) Only Built 4 Cuban Linx album, when I was 12 years old. I was like an obsessed (Wu-Tang) fan. To be rockin a show with them in a sold out BB King’s in Times Square... it’s amazing.”

Up next for Big Stat is a December tour of California with Method Man and Redman, and a music video for his next single, “No Problems.”

With all the time he’s spent on tours that feature Def Jam artists there might even be a chance Def Jam has their eye on the Enfield emcee right now. At the moment all Big Stat will say about any potential deal is “I’ve been talking to some people there,” but he adds “who knows, I might stay independent and have the right people behind me to make it work, but if the right situation comes along I might run with it.”

Story originally ran in the FairfieldWeekly.