Christian Friedrich Johannes Büttner (; born 1 June 1979), known professionally as TheFatRat, is a German DJ, record producer and musician. His genre is often described as "

glitch-hop Glitch is a genre of Experimental music, experimental electronic music that emerged in the 1990s, which is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitches in audio media and other sonic artifacts. The sounds featured in glitch tracks usually com ...

." His 2016 extended play ''Jackpot'' reached 23 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums and Top Dance/Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling dance music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by Nielsen ...

chart. He peaked at 15 on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart in February 2015.

Music career

Büttner originally aspired to become a classical conductor. He began producing music in 2001 under his real name. He began by making background music for television, radio and advertisements and produced music for DJs. In 2010, Büttner produced the song

Mignon Mignon "Mignon Mignon" is a 2010 song recorded by virtual singing mole René la Taupe. It was the second single from the album ''Les Aventures de René la Taupe'' and was released in July 2010. It became a number-one hit in France. Background and lyric ...

for

René la Taupe René la taupe (English: René the mole, known as Moley the Mole) is a virtual French singing character created in 2009 by Fox Mobile Group studios. The character, which is in fact a groundhog, was made famous through a music for mobile phone and a ...

, which became a number-one single in France. Around that time, he also produced the song "Audubon Ballroom" on

Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, record producer and Music education, music educator. Born and raised in Chicago, he gained mainstream recognition for his gue ...

's album '' Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1'', which charted at #5 on the ''Billboard'' 200. In July 2011, he began making solo music under the pseudonym TheFatRat. The nickname given to him was Ratte, which is German for rat. It came from his short stature as he was 5 feet tall. His career began with the release of his first EP, ''Do Be Do Be Do''. By 2016, Büttner's music was used in over 1.5 million YouTube videos. His single "Unity" was included on the album ''Sounds of Syndication Vol. 1'' curated by

Tom Cassell Thomas George Cassell (born 23 June 1993), known online as Syndicate, is an English YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Regarded as one of the earlier known Internet celebrity, gaming personalities, his videography consists of Let's Play videos on ' ...

, one of the most subscribed streamers on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

. In November 2016, Büttner released his second EP, ''Jackpot'' on the

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

label. The EP reached #23 on the

chart. In December 2016, Büttner started a record label, The Arcadium, in collaboration with

. In June 2017, Büttner released the single "Fly Away" featuring vocalist

Anjulie Anjulie Persaud (born May 21, 1983), known by the mononym Anjulie, is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has released one self-titled album, and has collaborated with Diplo, Zedd, Boombox Cartel, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, TheFa ...

. In July, he performed at the

Electric Forest Festival Electric Forest is a multi-genre music festival produced by Madison House Presents and Insomniac Events, with a focus on electronic music and jam band genres. Originally named Rothbury Festival in 2008, it is held in Rothbury, Michigan at ...

. In October 2017, he released the single "Oblivion" featuring vocalist Lola Blanc. In March 2018, he released the single "MAYDAY". In July 2018, he released "Warrior Songs", a music pack for the video game ''

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve Corporation, Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created Mod (video gaming), mod for Blizzard Entertainment's ''War ...

'', which has been made available in the game as of 13 September 2018, according to Matthew "Cyborgmatt" Bailey, director of operations of

Team Secret Team Secret is an esports team based in Europe formed in 2014, best known for their ''Dota 2'' team. In March 2016, Team Secret picked up an international female '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' team. In April 2016, Team Secret expanded int ...

. In December 2018, he posted a video about how YouTube's content ID system is " broken", as an anonymous user known as Ramjets claimed all the earnings for his song "The Calling" and YouTube refused to settle the dispute. The claim was removed by YouTube later. As an act of gratitude towards the YouTube community standing up for him, he announced that all of his music would be free to use for creative videos on the platform, without fear of him claiming or copyright striking any video. In February 2020, ''

Redbull.com Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

'' made a 10-minute documentary about Büttner and his career titled, ''TheFatRat: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Him''. They released this within their article, "TheFatRat: Meet the EDM DJ who's elevated video game music to high art." On 7 February 2020, Büttner released a

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

music video on YouTube starring himself and Maisy Kay for Büttner's song, "The Storm," which he performed with Kay. The music video was filmed in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, with Surtshellir Cave on the first day, Hekla Mountain on the second day, and

Hjörleifshöfði Hjörleifshöfði () is a -high inselberg in southern Iceland. It consists of palagonite. The mountain is located on the Mýrdalssandur outwash plain about east of Vík í Mýrdal, and was an island in the Atlantic Ocean. Name The name was give ...

on the third and final day. Accompanying the music video is a game for mobile titled ''The Storm - Interactive'', where one can play through the story of the video. On July 9, 2021, Büttner released "Hiding in the Blue", a track he co-produced with RIELL and the first of his second album, "Parallax". The album consists of 10 singles that were released over the course of 10 weeks—between July 9 and September 10—every Friday on his YouTube channel. On September 12, 2024 Büttner announced on his social channels the release of an EP titled "Ray Tracer", released on September 27. The EP contains three singles. As of June 2025, Büttner's YouTube channel has 6.61 million subscribers and over 2.08 billion views.

Discography

Mixtapes

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

Songs Remixed By Fans

Remixes

Mashups

Other Songs

List Of Vocalists

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FatRat 1979 births Living people German record producers Musicians from Göttingen German electronic dance music DJs Monstercat artists Spinnin' Records artists Universal Music Group artists