Back in the mid-nineties, DJ Jab (aka Joseph Abajian) opened Fat Beats, New York City's first Hip-Hop specialist music store in the Lower East Side. The shop rapidly became a nexus for the city's burgeoning underground rap community, evolving from cipher spot and culture matrix into an influential label and distributor in a matter of months.

A list of artists releasing LPs on Fat Beats over the past three decades reads like a Mount Rushmore of indie rap, including Atmosphere, Black Milk, ILL BILL, Organized Konfusion, Talib Kweli, Madlib and Kool Keith to name only a few. Now headquartered on the west coast, Fat Beats remains a crucial part of NYC Hip-Hop history. In celebration of Fat Beats' 30th Anniversary, Lincoln Center guest curator and the voice and personality of Spotify’s AI DJ, Xavier “X” Jernigan, introduces the premiere of the new Fat Beats documentary film, accompanied by an opening set from a Fat Beats DJ and followed by a talk back panel, from the names that made the scene come to life.