Fat Joe licks shoes. Mistah F.A.B. just lets ‘em stack to the ceiling to create a leaning tower of sneakers. When you’re on your Grind, there’s rarely any time to stop and enjoy the finer things in life. Yet, there’s many rivers to cross; many miles to trek to get to your mountaintop, and I’ll be damned if you don’t need plenty of kicks to get there. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I had an interesting conversation that sort of “revolved” around T-Pain being a has-been and serving no relevance what so ever. In some respect, the Teddy Pain train has lost a chunk of it’s steam with Auto-Tune being “dead” and all, yet the idea of his relative career being six feet under was a bit of stretch. On any given Sunday, you can still catch the Nappy Boy helming a hook that will penetrate the Billboard charts and most of the material he really puts his heart into Read the rest of this entry »

Photo By UPI

The above picture was taken at a gas station in my hometown of Washington, DC. As I contemplated how long it would take to commute to downtown DC on a skateboard, I shuddered at the thought of prices rising even higher during the approaching summer. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s nice to see Fabby Davis Jr. keeping up the mantra of consistency he’s carried his whole career with the aptly-titled The Grind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste Pt. 2 mixtape. It was also kind of nice to see the tape’s cover, as the detailed design made me feel little better about still having posters of my idolized artists hanging around my house. Read the rest of this entry »

Nick from HardKnock, April Bombai, Devi Dev and I were starving after all the crap ended on Friday night in Austin. Tired but filled with too much child-like energy, we wandered the street before agreeing that another night of pizza would be the choice again. We walked to one of the eighty pizza joints located on 6th Street and, while we were about to place our orders, then glanced out to notice Fabby Davis, Jr. walking our way with a few pals. Read the rest of this entry »

“I’m not some lame that just hopped inside the game, Heard some Auto-Tune wanted to be Wayne.”

Anybody who has ever taken the road less traveled should be able to relate to F.A.B.’s soulful “Quest.” The three minutes spent quickly chronicle his struggles and the closed doors met with matching persistence and talent. Read the rest of this entry »

Mik’s The Dark Room releases next Tuesday but for this Tuesday, he’s letting loose one hell of a warning shot with “Runnin’ My City,” a monstrous track full of emcees who all happen to be ten toes down in their respective towns. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s wants and needs, and priorities and privileges. Everybody wants to be a rapper and have their video featured on OnSMASH, yet few can muster up a message to accompany the visuals. What the culture needs is more artists — like Mistah F.A.B. — who are conscious enough to know that all the bling in the world won’t land you on Billboard automatically. Why not take some time out and give your community, for better or worse, the privilege to share some of the limelight? Read the rest of this entry »

I try not to get too excited about any musical events or traveling period. All of the pre-planning and coordinating involved usually does well enough at distracted me from the anticipation anyways. However, I fell head over heels in love with A3C rather quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

Officially two-thirds of the way through, Bad Azz continues to bathe in the love of his family – both blood and experience bonded. Time is a rarity in these clips. Because of this, each person attempts to keep a smile on their face and sleep to a minimum with the impending pull of the law marching closer and closer. Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s one thing F.A.B. does well, it’s freestyle and I harped on that in the last mention of him. We’re speaking of actual, off the cuff freestyles in the old-fashioned sense of the word. Read the rest of this entry »

Symbolically, The Last Call could be perceived as listeners’ last shot to board the bandwagon before buddy makes his move toward popularity and acclaim. Tre’s covering everyone’s bar tab here so it’s free to enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

Forgive me, rap godfathers, for I have sinned. I snoozed a few years ago when F.A.B. first started making a little noise across the board, figuring he was just another hyphy trend that would soon pass. Others around me listened, speaking highly of his music. I didn’t deter them but didn’t feel the need to join them either. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine yourself and an equally educated Hip-Hop head on the blacktop, picking out a three-man, Westcoast posse cut with every notable Golden State MC from the past five years standing directly in front of the two of you. You’ve got a limited budget, so any one of the eight-figure hitters like Cube and Doc Dre need not be contemplated. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bay Area has been on the map for years and now it just got a little more balanced. As in Balance, the rappin’ Raider who’s ten toes deep in the rap game. For his next act of gratitude and grustle, he’s offering up We All In, a ten track disc for you to bleed the block with free of charge. Mixed by DJ’s Ill Will & Rockstar and appearances by Jay Rock, Mistah Fab, Fashawn and plenty more, watch how Balance and the West do it in Twenty Ten. Read the rest of this entry »