Together with key collaborator Kurtis Blow and fellow three-member crews Run-D.M.C. and Whodini, Fat Boys took rap to the mainstream. While the Brooklynites looked the part, often rapped about their appetites, achieved their commercial peak by reviving oldies ("Wipeout," "The Twist"), and even starred in a screwball comedy (Disorderlies), the trio were far more than a novelty act. Neither an overnight nor fleeting success, they were behind four albums that went either gold or platinum, namely Fat Boys (1984), The Fat Boys Are Back (1985), Crushin' (1987), and Coming Back Hard Again (1988). Moreover, as early as their first single, Fat Boys covered serious matters with detail and urgency, and the group's Human Beat Box (along with Doug E. Fresh) pioneered beatboxing by replicating with vocal percussion the functionality of a drum machine. The group released their final album in the early '90s.