Germaine Smith, Staff ReporterRAPPERS USUALLY get pulled through the door by known acts who vouch for them. They get introduced as the next big thing, they are affiliated with a camp which pushes them into the limelight and the rest is up to them.
Not so with Fabolous. He got into the business pumping off his own steam. No name, no known management team, no brand names endorsing him. Armed only with a raw reputation for freestyling in high school, he has somewhat proved himself.
"One main challenge for me was just being new and not being affiliated with any other artiste, somebody who was already out there and big already," he stated in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner. "When they introduced me I was introduced by myself. I introduced the world to myself and that was one of the hardest things to do, because people are not really sure of you. You don't have anybody vouching for you or introducing you, so that makes it a little bit harder than just coming in and everybody accepts you because of who you are affiliated with."
THIRD ALBUM
The rapper recently released his third album Real Talk, from which the cut Breathe became a bouncy number everywhere late last year. For the rapper, he did not inhale the scent of crisp dollar bills from the album, but he feels the world is now more aware of his lyrical abilities.
"Real Talk is doing great. I mean, I think it accomplished the point I was trying to get across," Fabolous noted. "It wasn't commercially accepted the way that I wanted it to be, but it still got my approval musically."
The rapper gushes gritty street metaphors in his rhymes, laden with horrid details of street life in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up. Fabolous, however, stated that his personality is actually warmer than what the music might indicate.
"I am really cool, real laid back and easygoing," he noted. "I mean, that comes across in my music sometimes. Other times different things come out. The music is really entertainment for me, so different things come out. I try to make it entertaining for people. I try to make good music, not always to show my personality, but to show different personalities within my music.
"I try to give the people a bit of my personality, so when people listen to the music they will know some of the characteristics of my personality."
DAYS IN BROOKLYN
His early days in his Brooklyn neighbourhood were no picnic, but he managed to skip the pitfalls which hundreds of black males experience daily.
"I grew up in the hood, so I see most things that go on in every other hood," he recalled.
"Violence, you know, sports, just about all the peer pressures that come with growing up in the hood. I just went with it; I wasn't overcome by it, you know.
"Some people fell victim to the streets and some were held by the streets, but I had a good parent who kept me knowing that I could do something else other than running the streets, you know what I'm saying.
"Even though I was in the streets, I kept in mind that I wanted to do something else. I never looked at what I was doing in the street as a long-term thing. It was something to do to pass me by to get where I wanted to be," Fabolous said.
One thing the streets of Brooklyn introduced him to was dancehall music, which as a youngster he found quite entertaining. "My first influence of reggae and dancehall were from the house parties I used to go to. That was the first place I heard it. It was always good music to dance to and I enjoyed dancehall music the most," he said.
Nowadays, Fabolous says, he doesn't listen as much as back then, but he still gives dancehall its props.
"I listen to it occasionally. I am like more hip-hop to the heart, but I definitely give my tips to dancehall and reggae. I actually had Sean Paul on my album. He and I are good friends. He has a spot on my album," Fabolous said. If he were to work with any other dancehall act, he said that it would have to be Beenie Man.
Apart from his appearance on Red Stripe's Reggae Sumfest later this month, his plans include introducing an urban casual wear clothing line to U.S. markets. Added to this, he is scheduled to make a few appearances in the HBO hit series The Sopranos, among other screen appearances.
