Flex Mathews

Flex Mathews — born Dathan Harbor, and known to his own record sleeves as The Handsome Grandson — is a Washington, D.C. rapper whose career now runs past two decades. He was born in Augsburg, Germany, the son of a preacher, and raised between Kansas, Sioux Falls, Maryland and D.C. in a gospel-music household. He formed a teenage crew called The Federation, arrived in Washington in 2002, and by 2005 had been named to URB magazine's "100 artists to watch," toured the East Coast on the Clash of the Titans Tour, and opened for Immortal Technique and Lupe Fiasco. The album took longer than the reputation. *Hi, I'm Flex Mathews* — his first full-length — did not arrive until September 2017, produced largely by The Unown with recording work from Kev Brown. The Vinyl District called it "part elegy, part magical realism, and part tale of survival in Washington, DC," opening its review with Ralph Ellison. He told DCist that "making an album was never part my game plan, and for a long time I would let people beat me up with the fact that I didn't have an album." Eight months later came *Dreams & Vibrations* with Damu the Fudgemunk on Redefinition Records, pairing verses written across thirteen years with beats from the previous five. In parallel he became a recurring voice on Fort Knox Recordings, featuring on Fort Knox Five's "Reach" and "Swinging On A Rhyme" and on a Palletz remix of See-I's "Rudeboy Razor." His most recent release, "Spill The Honey" with Kosha Dillz, arrived in May 2026.