Steve 'Flash' JuonWe’re going to have to get an unfortunate fact out of the way right at the start. Overweight Pooch might be one of the worst rapper names of all time. I get where Shatonya Davis was coming from. She was trying to take something people had used as an insult growing up, flip it on its head, and wear it as a badge of pride. You can respect the chutzpah of her choice but it’s still objectively terrible. Can you picture any kid saying their favorite female rapper is named OVERWEIGHT POOCH? Can you picture a teenager going to a store and asking if they have the new OVERWEIGHT POOCH album? They’d probably immediately shed their skin like a snake and slither out of the store in shame.
Furthermore the insult is just objectively not true. If you see Pooch in the “Ace Is a Spade” you won’t conclude she’s overweight. She might be considered a “plus size model” by modern standards, but she’s very far removed from any consideration of being morbidly obese. The rudest thing you could say about Shatonya is that she’s thick and you could say the exact same thing about Yo-Yo or Rah Digga without it being insulting in any way. Now Davis obviously took the insults to heart or she wouldn’t have chosen the nom de plume she did, and in the lyrics she feels compelled to address it directly: “Cause I’m a big girl, here to take the world/I’m like a precious diamond or a big pink pearl.” Her confident flow is enough to address attacks on her size all by itself.
“I’m not the greatest, but I know I can grate you
Slice you, dice you, and shake and bake you
Put you in the oven, and watch you sizzle
Rub you over and over, so you’ll be tender
Put you in the blender, whoops I spilled you
To the freezer I go, where I can freeze you”
Overweight Pooch is contemporary to any other female rapper of 1991. “Female Preacher” isn’t out of step with Queen Latifah’s “Nature of a Sista'” or Nikki D’s “Daddy’s Little Girl” in any way. The Harlem raised Phoenix transplant has some West coast attitude, even though it would take an earthquake of Arizona Bay proportions to truly be coastal. When you hear “Who’s Pimpin’ Who?” though you can tell right away that her swagger and strut are on point.
“Now here’s a little something that goes out to the men
Who like to stop before they begin
They try to make you and break you and tell you lies
[…]
They say they have the money as if some of us care
But money talks just as long as the air
From my point of view their money doesn’t please me
But I’ll TAKE IT, if you’re out to skeeze me”
Thanks to a sample of Kool & the Gang’s “N.T.” from producer DJ Wax Dawg, the song has all the funk it needs, and a closing verse makes it clear she’s got a man who simps for her and treats her like royalty. Don’t get the notion that Overweight Pooch is all about money though — this is just a power play and she’s showing that she’s the pimp, not the ho. As “Queen of Rap” illustrates she’s in this for multiple reasons. She wants to make funky jams, she wants to be a financial success, and she wants to be respected for her mic skills. “All the girls ’round here they act real bold/but I’ma be like Janet Jackson and take +Control+.” With production by Clark Kent and scratches by Wax Dawg paired with a slew of James Brown samples, this shit slams hard. “Just like Rakim said, you know I ain’t no joke.”
Now there’s a couple of other unfortunate facts we have yet to mention here. The first is that Overweight Pooch was wrong accused of beefing with CeCe Peniston. If you’re asking why here’s the 411 — DJ Wax Dawg was mutual friends with both ladies and asked Peniston to record vocals for several tracks on “Female Preacher” including the house/dance anthem “I Like It.” Peniston was Phoenix born and raised, and besides being a phenomenal singer she was a beauty pageant queen, winning Miss Black Arizona twice. I think you can see where this is going.
While providing vocals on Overweight Pooch’s album may have kick started Peniston on the road to stardom, A&M Records quickly realized her potential and had her record “Finally.” It took no time at all for Peniston’s career to skyrocket and leave Shatonya Davis in the dust, and the press was eager to seize on this fact and claim Pooch was jealous that she “gave her a break” and Peniston didn’t repay that kindness. It’s just not true. There’s no evidence of Pooch ever dissing Peniston, and Peniston even gave her a shout out in the liner notes of her debut album, so as far as I’m concerned it’s not true. You can also hear her vocals on Pooch’s song “Kickin’ Da Blues.”
The final and most bitter pill to swallow is that Davis passed away in 2021. By all accounts she had moved on from her music career to even more success as a mother and a business woman, going back to school and getting a college degree in 2017, then launching a hair braiding business and releasing her own products to go along with it. She and her husband of more than 20 years should have had more time together to enjoy this success, but we never know when our number is going to be called. I hope her three children are proud of all that she accomplished and the fact that she took a negative and turned it into a huge positive for herself. Her music career may have been overlooked and forgotten but “Female Preacher” was a strong album from a strong black woman who didn’t take shit from anybody. You should give it a listen.