Obese Records

Obese Records is an Australian hip hop record label. It is the largest Australian independent Hip-Hop label,a retail store and a touring ('Zoo Dynamics') and record distribution company.

History

Obese Records started in 1995 as a small record store, called OB's by Ollie Bobbitt, in Prahran specialising in hip hop music. The store changed its name to 'Obese Records' after Bobbitt sold the business to Shazlek One. In mid-2002 the store was bought by Tirren Staaf (a.k.a. Pegz) and transformed into a record label. Pegz, a Melbourne-based artist, used the label to create a distribution network. Pegz also purchased the Zenith Records vinyl pressing plant, one of only two companies that still press vinyl records in Australia.

The first artist released on the label was MC Reason.

'A few labels were doing things with hip-hop, but people really weren’t investing the capital into it. Obese was born out of necessity – there was nobody touching Aussie hip-hop. Maybe the majors didn’t know how to market it, or the independent labels didn’t have any faith?'

In 2003, former Obese artists Hilltop Hoods released their album The Calling, which became the first Australian hip hop album to go gold.

Artists associated with the label were nominated for four 2007 AIR Chart Awards by the Australian Independent Record Label Association (three for Hilltop Hoods and one for Muph & Plutonic).

At the 2007 ARIA Awards, the Hilltop Hoods won Best Urban Release for their album The Hard Road Restrung. The Hilltop Hoods DVD, The City of Light, released by Obese Records in 2007, has also been classified gold.