Fabolous

I still blame ringtones for everything that’s wrong with Hip-Hop today.

Hell, if the garbageman misses my street, I’d attribute his lack of focus to the polyphonic ringing of Flo-Rida’s “Low” in his ear drums. But the race to get the latest, greatest, single out for Web to spend that 99¢ has arguably been the pancreatic cancer for the concept of the album.

Even Fabolous had to take notice.

So according to MTV, Fab’s decided to swallow his pride and follow in Jigga’s hard bottoms and give us an album that’s been directly inspired by a film. Now we all can come up with a million and one wisecracks on why this isn’t the best nor most original idea, but let’s look at the positives here:

– Fab’s previous albums are nothing more than a collection of singles with the hot-at-the-moment artists/producers. Like every rapper, he definitely should go out and try to grab that one album that illuminates their résumé (i.e. Jay’s The Blueprint, Nas’ Illmatic, 50′s Get Rich…etc)

– Album sales are still plummeting. The album is gonna do what it’s gonna do numbers wise regardless. Which is better?: A near gold-selling lukewarm album, or a near gold-selling critically acclaimed album? This is not a trick question.

– Let’s be real. These 4th quarter traffic jams are getting a little tiresome in Hip-Hop. Like kids are really rushing to that Christmas tree and ripping the packages off CD’s. (More like exchanging MP3′s). Competition does raise awareness, but all we’re getting is a bloated market for a month of two that gives the impression that some albums are old when their fairly new. (Made anyone???). So the industry needs its big name blood to step up to the plate in the other three seasons of the year. ‘Cause last time I checked, holidays don’t exceed over a weekend or so.

– Truth be told, Fabolous may be a B-level artist, but if he brings his A-game with this one, there should be few complaints. With Jay and Kanye touring, Common doing movies, Lil’ Jon on Planet G-Dep, and G-Unit suffering from a case of B.I.T.S. (that’s the Bullshitting in the Studio syndrome), somebody has to add some moisture to this drought. And Fab was tight-lipped about the movie he’s reenacting but he says it “isn’t too old, and it’s classic.”

I’m guessing The Departed.

What ever it is, make sure it ain’t wack Loso. The warm-up was pretty good.

Mixtape Monday: Fabolous Follows Jay-Z’s Blueprint [MTV]

DJ Drama & Fabolous – There Is No Competition (Gangsta Grillz Special Edition)