Grammy-winning producer and legendary hip-hop promoter bridge generations of music in Richmond
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A legendary hip hop promoter and a Grammy- winning producer are showing how the power of music bridges generations in the River City.
In a sit-down interview, Alexander Mack and Thomas “Fat Thomi” Hairston depicted how Richmond’s hip hop past and future collide.
“Music means to me, freedom of expression, and I think music also, is a snapshot of the times that you're in,” Mack said.
The 32-year-old musician is a multihyphenated rapper, producer and plays instruments like the piano. He started his career in 2017, performed at various college shows and met several artists and producers. In 2019, Mack said a social media message from Virginia rapper “Mad Skillz” started their professional relationship.
“I was in my parents’ basement working on probably working on a song, and I just got back on Instagram,” Mack said. “I saw that he had followed me. I knew who Skillz was, especially if you're from [Richmond].”
This led to an opportunity to produce his 2025 album “Words for Days,” which won Best Spoken Word Poetry album at the 68th annual Grammy Awards.
“I knew that I was working on something that could be really special.,” Mack explained. “None of that music was planned whenever we went in there and I think that that's the most unique thing about this album. Skillz is extremely masterful at knowing who's going to work well in a room together. He handpicked people. He handpicked the musicians and producers to come in and come up with music.”
While Mad Skillz put Richmond on the map with his 1996 debut album, “From Where???,” Thomas "Fat Thomi" Hairston became one of the music industry's biggest promoters.
“I went to the Art Institute of Atlanta and the president of Ichiban Records spoke,” Hairston said. “We talked about a book called 'Hit Man,' which was about record promotion. I got that book, read it, and said, ‘I'm going to be a record promoter.”
Today Hairston teaches hip hop history as an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His turn-of-the-century work led to the success of some of industry’s biggest artists including TLC, Outkast, Notorious B.I.G., A Tribe Called Quest, Usher and Richmond’s own D’Angelo, whose “Brown Sugar” album had a hard time taking off in the River City.
“When Brown Sugar came out, it was getting added everywhere except Richmond,” Hairston said. “The industry is like, ‘Why isn't Aaron Maxwell playing the record?’. [Maxwell] was very religious and he didn't appreciate D'Angelo singing about weed. I asked him if he played ‘Mary Jane’ by Rick James, and he did, and he didn't understand that too was about weed. So, that argument didn’t work for him.”
Through work spanning generations both Hairston and Mack said they've seen how the contributions of black artists shape popular music and where it will go.
“Music is a creation and a vibration that, when done right, reverberates across the world and touches everybody,” Hairston said. “We are music. We are history 1,000%. There is no history without us.”
“It's our responsibility to start pushing the culture forward, but in a positive way, in a way that changes our situations and our communities and our mindsets,” Mack said.
