What Happened to Fabolous (Most Underrated Rapper of the 2000s?)
2000s had rappers that lasted a
very long time. Ludacris, he had a southern appeal and clever wordplay. Nelly
had that country grammar and melodic appeal. The Dipset crew love to flash
wealth, TI & Jeezy are pioneers in trap, 50 Cent pretty much bullied his
way into the rap game. I say this because there was one rapper who brought a
few of those elements but tend to get overshadow and he was Fabolous. He is a
rapper from New York who rap for the ladies, but at had enough street cred to
earn respect from his peers. But as the years gone by, Fab’s legacy has slowly
started to fade and people forget he had a quiet/yet effective decade run in
the 00s. So without further ado.
What
Happened to Fabolous
John David Jackson was born on November
18, 1977 in Brooklyn. He is of Dominican and African American descent. He grew
up in a single mother household in the rough neighborhood of Bed-Stuy. As a
youth, he gained an interest in the arts, as he loved to draw. He went to High
School Art & Design but his dream for the arts were short lived. He
realized growing up in Bed-Stuy no one became an artist, they either did sports
or deal drugs. But that’s okay as he gained interest in a different form of
art, music, hip-hop in particular. John realized that one positive that came
from his neighborhood was their love for rap music. He would only write
rhymes/rap as a hobby not as a career choice. But that all changed in his
senior year in high school when he recorded a demo and that’s when he started
to take rap seriously.
John started to go by the name
Fabolous Sport after the Ralph Lauren Sports Line, and it’s intentionally
misspelled when he failed to spell the word correctly in a freestyle and it
stuck. Fabolous started to ship his freestyles to the streets. One of those
freestyles landed in the hands of DJ Clue of Hot 97. He invited Fabolous and
another rapper NORE to freestyle on his radio show. Clue was very impressed and
signed Fabolous to his label that he had called Desert Storm Records with
distribution with Elektra. It was also here where he dropped the “Sport” from
his name
But it wouldn’t be till 2001 when
he dropped his debut single “Can’t Deny It” (ft. Nate Dogg). The song
interpolates Tupac’s Ambitiaz Az a Ridah as the song reached #25 on the Hot 100
and #11 on the Rap Charts. On September 11, 2001 (yes and an album came out on
that tragic day alongside many others but that’s another video for another day)
Fabolous released his debut album Ghetto Fabolous. His next single was the
Neptunes produced track “Youngin (Holla Back)” #8 on the Rap Charts. Ghetto
Fabolous went Platinum. Fabolous got opportunities in the soundtrack realm. He
was featured on the Mariah Carey soundtrack for Glitter. He was featured on the
Like Mike Soundtrack on the Bow Wow song “Basketball”. Then on the Barbershop
soundtrack he did the song “Trade It All” and that reached #20 on the Hot 100,
#8 on the Rap Charts.
In 2002, Fabolous would meet Emily
B who was a student in fashion school. Before his album would come out in 2003,
he was arrested for having an unlicensed gun in his car but the charges were
dropped thanks to proof of documentation. In March 2003, Fabolous released his
second album Street Dreams. The first notable single was “Can’t Let You Go” ft.
Lil Mo & Mike Shorey, that song reached #2 on the Rap Charts & it gave
him his first top 10 hit on Billboard Hot 100 going #4 on the Hot 100. His next
single was “Into You”, but there were some controversy involving the feature
guest. The original version featured Ashanti but her label Murder Inc, refused
to let her be on the video because Irv Gotti believe Ashanti was being
oversaturated and overexposed at the time, so she was removed commercially.
Fabolous decides to replace her with Tamia because the song interpolates her
1998 song “So Into You”. The song went #4 on both the Rap & Hot 100 as
Street Dreams went Platinum. But speaking of getting left off the video, he
contributed a verse on Christina Milian’s song “Dip It Low” but was not
featured in the video for unknown reasons.
Fabolous momentum kept going, in
November 2004 he released his third album Real Talk. It was headlined by the
single Breathe. The song used the Supertramp's "Crime of the Century"
sample, thus they took the publishing for the song. Breathe reached #2 on the
Rap Charts and #10 on the Hot 100. He released one more song Baby with Mike
Shorey but it wasn’t successful, but Real Talk still went Gold. In 2006,
Fabolous was shot in the thigh while leaving Justin’s, a restaurant owned by
Sean “Diddy” Combs the man who’s. While his entourage was rushing him to the
hospital, they ran a red light and caught unwanted attention to the police.
After the police stopped them, they found two unlicensed guns in the vehicle
arrested all, including the wounded Fabolous. But they did send Fab to a local
hospital where he recovered from his injuries.
After recovery, he released his
fourth album From Nothin to Somethin in 2007. The leadoff single was “Diamonds”
but it was not successful going #83 on the Hot 100 and missing the Rap Charts.
But his next single “Make Me Better (ft. Ne-Yo)” put him back on the map going
#8 on the Hot 100 and gave him his first #1 on the Rap Charts. Third single was
“Baby Don’t Go” produced by Jermaine Dupri and featuring T-Pain, the song went
to #4 on the Rap Charts & #23 on the Hot 100 as Nothin to Somethin also
went Gold. Fabolous personal life was shaping up when his girlfriend Emily B
gave birth to a son in 2008.
He still kept going in 2009 he
released Loso Way. This album became his first to go #1 on the Billboard 200.
Part of the reason was the song Throw it in the Bag ft. The-Dream. The song
reached #14 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Rap Charts. However other singles
failed to reach success so the album went Gold again. But he did get one collab
credit with Trey Songz on the song Say Ahh that put him back in the top 10 on
the Hot 100.
In 2011,
he got into a beef involving Brandy’s little brother Ray J. Story goes,
Fabolous tweeted something about Floyd Mayweather having a concert in his
living room and the video paned to Ray J singing One Wish on piano. Ray J
didn’t like that and when they came face-to-face at the Palms resort in Las
Vegas, a brawl ensued (moreso Ray J sucker punched Fab and ended up in
handcuffs). The next day, Ray J called in the Breakfast Club boasting about the
encounter. Long story short Ray J apologized to Fab, and according to Ray J it
was one of his biggest regrets. Back to the music, Fab released his fifth album
on Christmas Day 2014 called the Young OG Project under Roc Nation. Despite receiving
favorable reviews, the album underperformed commercially. In 2015, a second son
between he and Emily B was born. In 2017 he teamed up with Jadakiss on the
collaborative album Friday on Elm Street. The album was originally called
Freddy & Jason with legal reasons being the reason why the album title was
changed.
In 2018,
Fabolous was arrested on DV. Story alleges that he and Emily B got into a
serious altercation and it led Fab into punching his wife knocking her two
front teeth out. Then a leaked video surfaced of Fab brandishing scissors and
threatening Emily B and her father. With that, they added two threatening to
kill, and possession of a weapon. Fab’s case went federal and if found guilty
(which he pleaded not), he could face 20 years in jail. But Fab reached a plea
deal to avoid jail time in which he has to take intervention classes and to
stay out of the system for a full year. Fab and Emily remained together long
enough to have a daughter in 2020. But by 2022, Emily revealed that they have
separated. Although Fab’s reputation took a hit from all the allegations, but
all in all Fabolous had an underrated run in hip-hop. Compared to the rappers
of the 00s, felt like his run got overshadowed by others in his lane, but he
held his own.
SOURCES
https://www.hiphopscriptures.com/fabolous
https://blackmusicscholar.com/fabolous/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rapper-fabolous-shot-and-arrested/
https://hiphophero.com/vicious-brawl-between-ray-j-and-fabolous-dont-disrespect-me/
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