Interview by: Priya Ramanujam
For Brooklyn native Fabolous, 2007 proved to be a bangin’ year. His fourth album From Nothin’ to Somethin’ debuted at the top of the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap charts and his single “Make Me Better” featuring Ne-Yo maintained its status as arguably one of the year’s hottest Rap/R&B collabo singles. When we hooked up with Loso this past summer, a day after his record released, there was no telling this would have been the outcome of course. But even before the sales numbers rolled in, as Fabolous explained, the feedback he received through online forums, in-stores and people simply coming up to him in the street made him feel confident in the project’s success. And as for what music critics had to say? F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S couldn’t care less…
YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU’RE NOT TOO BIG ON FOLLOWING THE CRITIQUES OF THE INDUSTRY. WHY IS THAT?
Fabolous: Because those are really all critiques; they make their living off of trying to make a point so much that they worrying about what people are reading into what they think instead of just [stating] their honest opinion. So you don’t really know when you’re getting just a critique answer because they want to sound a certain way for what they do or if they’re really getting their true feeling [out]… So I like to go with the feel of the people. And the critics don’t really dictate the feel of the people, it’s one person, how they feel.
HIP-HOP IS PICKING UP NEW FANS EVERY DAY. IF SOMEONE PICKS UP A FABOLOUS ALBUM WHO’S NEVER LISTENED TO YOU BEFORE, WHAT SHOULD THEY EXPECT?
Fabolous: They should expect some good music. You know that definitely caters to different ears. I feel like the people who listen to it, they all might have a different view of the music. They might hear the music and say oh, ‘I like this favourite song,’ and someone else might hear it and say, ‘I like this song.’ The music is so diverse so they can definitely hear great music all around and from there they can judge what they like.
I WAS LOOKING AT THE ALBUM INSERT AND THE DIFFERENT PICTURES WHICH ARE OBVIOUSLY REFLECTIVE OF THE IDEA OF NOTHING TO SOMETHING. WHY DID YOU PICK THOSE IMAGES TO REPRESENT “NOTHING” AND THOSE IMAGES TO REPRESENT “SOMETHING”?
Fabolous: Because it shows me in those lights. I could have been in any one of those scenarios. I could have been the shoe shine guy; I could have been the guy getting his shoes shined. And maybe it’s nothing to the guy getting his shoe shined but maybe it’s something to the guy who’s shining the shoe. It plays off all those scenarios. You never know what somebody’s nothing or somebody’s something is. Like when I was at the car and the guy was washing my car, maybe that’s something to him to be shining the Armor All on Fabolous’s car or whoever’s car and it’s really nothing to Fabolous.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE “SOMETHING” IN TERMS OF THE SAYING?
Fabolous: Something is just more to me. It’s just not satisfied with whatever you have. It’s just going for more. Not to call anything that anybody does nothing but whatever you have, there’s something more. If you’re a journalist, your something might be having your own magazine and becoming the editor-in-chief of your own magazine.
THE SONG ON YOUR ALBUM “CHANGE UP” I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT. I KNOW THE POINT OF THE SONG IS THAT YOU HAVEN’T CHANGED NO MATTER WHAT SUCCESS YOUR LIFE HAS BROUGHT YOU. BUT THERE IS A PERCEPTION THAT WHEN PEOPLE GET RICH OR FAMOUS OR BOTH, THEY DO CHANGE. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS?
Fabolous: “Change Up” really just to me shows you may have changed your perspective, the way you make money, but you’re still the same person. You still have the same respect as a person, you still have the same dignity, you still have the same credibility and you still have the same integrity as a man or as a woman or whatever, but your lifestyle may have changed. You keep the same mentality of who you are as a person. You don’t let the money change who you are as a person. That’s what I was trying to illustrate in that song. And people’s perception of people really change when people get money, like oh this guy has money now, blah, blah, blah. And they automatically have this perception of you to be this way or that, that’s their “Change Up”. That’s not always the case. That’s their hypothesis of what is really going on, but it’s not.
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