Art via Evan Solano
Staley Sharples says that writing is telling yourself you’re worthless and a God at the same time.
Like a far more amicable Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, I once again come face-to-face (or Zoom-to-Zoom) with musician, writer, and cinephile Fatboi Sharif, hip-hop’s ultimate authority on all things horror. The New Jersey-based rapper and I first crossed paths upon the initial 2023 release of his and Roper Williams’ album Planet Unfaithful, where Sharif name-checks Stanley Kubrick’s psychosexual Christmas nightmare Eyes Wide Shut and lesbian werewolf horror cult classic Ginger Snaps.
His newest record with Williams, Goth Girl on the Enterprise, is a mind-melting evolution. “That was something that came together off of one song I made, the title track,” Sharif recalls. “Roper thought the song was crazy, he wanted to do a whole project based off the style and vibe. It came together super quick. It was all home grown. We’ll go to the studio, he’ll show me the production he made, I wrote right there, came up with the concepts and the lyrics, recorded everything, and it all fell together. We probably did it in a month, getting the beats, the recording, and then Roper took it to the next level with the sequencing and putting it together. It’s one of my favorite things me and Roper did.”
Sharif’s influences make up a supernova of experimental electronica, industrial grunge, and spoken-word lyricism for an eight-track spiritual journey unprecedented in modern rap music. “Lust Wounds” is a trip through a haunted jazz club and “Death in June” is permeated with spectral piano stabs straight out of Joseph Bishara’s Insidious score, while “Seance” weaves footwork drum patterns through a dreamcatcher strung with Sharif’s unsettling vocalizations and hallucinogenic verses.
His singular flow conjures the eerie threat of a liminal space, matched by warped beats and cutting truths on the mundanity of everyday evil. An avid book collector, worldbuilding is essential to Sharif as a musician, who often incorporates a written story with his releases. “Setting the mood is as much a part of the music as the lyrics are,” he says. “I always write something whenever I drop a project. I like that because it’s giving the music the story before [you hear] the music. I always like when you get a book, and you read the synopsis at the back, and it’s telling you stuff without telling you stuff. Then you read the book, and you get the same vibes and energies from these particular [sections], so I like to be able to do that with the music too.”
The immersion extends to Sharif’s live shows, too. Theatricality is integral to his performances. Donning a hospital gown or Hannibal Lecter mask, the Garden State Gargoyle crafts his very own hip hop penny dreadful on-stage. During a recent touring stint in Europe, Sharif found himself wandering the lonely midnight streets of Utrecht, channeling old-world vampires of the past. “I definitely didn’t have a good sleep schedule, ever,” he says. “The night we landed in Utrecht, we was on trains like all day, 16 hours. I think I might’ve slept like, maybe two to three hours, and woke up and walked around the rest of the night and just wrote.”
Living by the motto “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” for the past two decades, or so he tells me, Sharif has never found dozing to be a reprieve for his creative fulfillment. His mind is always active, thinking about the next project, but Sharif is focused on staying present as well. As he prepares for a February 2026 run of shows on the West Coast, he ends our conversation with gratitude. “Thanks to everyone for showing love to the movement, getting the movement and the vision, and just stay tuned. Lots more amazing creative things on the horizon.”