John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. His first music appearance was with his 2001 release Ghetto Fabolous. He is also known for his hit singles “Can’t Deny It”, “Young’n (Holla Back)”, “Breathe”, “Make Me Better” and “Throw It in the Bag”. Fabolous is also signed to Diddy’s Ciroc Management company.
Fabolous was born John David Jackson on November 18, 1977 of Dominican and African American descent. He grew up in Brevoort Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
While in high school in twelfth grade, Fabolous began to pursue a rap career. He was invited to rap live on DJ Clue’s radio show and on WQHT Hot 97, where he was signed to Desert Storm Records. He was featured on several DJ Clue mixtapes and mixtapes with Roc-A-Fella artists.[citation needed] This earned Fabolous and Desert Storm a distribution deal with Elektra Records.
Fabolous released his debut album, Ghetto Fabolous, on September 11, 2001. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling over 143,000 copies in its first week. The album’s first single, “Can’t Deny It”, was produced by Rick Rock and features a chorus by Nate Dogg interpolating Tupac Shakur’s song “Ambitionz Az a Ridah”. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100, along with two of the subsequent singles. The other charting singles were “Young’n (Holla Back)”, which is produced by The Neptunes and “Trade It All”, which features vocals from Jagged Edge and is produced by DJ Clue and Duro.
Fabolous released his second album Street Dreams on March 4, 2003. Powered by a Just Blaze beat and guest vocals from Lil’ Mo and Mike Shorey, “Can’t Let You Go” reached number one on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Into You” with Tamia also reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Also released on Street Dreams was the lead single club banger “This Is My Party” and “Trade It All Pt. 2” which featured Jagged Edge as it did on the Ghetto Fabolous version, as well as Diddy.
Exactly seven months later, on November 4, 2003, Fabolous dropped his official mixtape, More Street Dreams, Pt. 2: The Mixtape. It was an official release by his record label, Elektra. The album featured remixes and tracks not originally slated on Street Dreams. This album was also an outlet for his three man crew, known as the Triangle Offense, consisting of himself, Paul Cain, and Joe Budden. The album actually features a remix to song Fire, which was originally on Joe Budden’s self-titled debut album.
Fabolous’ third album Real Talk was released on November 5, 2004. It debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with 179,000 copies and had two charting singles, the lowest in his career. The two charting singles are his street anthem “Breathe” and “Baby,” which features Mike Shorey, and shows his more sensitive side that he has shown on many songs in the past. His second single was not promoted until weeks after the album’s release. “Tit 4 Tat” was his third single. Pharrell of The Neptunes produced it and did the hook. Fab feels that the single didn’t hit it as big as it should have due to poor advertising. Making the music video for his fourth single, “Do the Damn Thing” cost Jackson $30,000. The song featured Young Jeezy, who became known to the public through the video.[12] The same year, Fabolous was nominated for a Grammy Award for his collaboration on the “Dip It Low” remix by Christina Milian. In early 2006, Fabolous moved to Def Jam and left Atlantic Records who received Musiq in return.
His fourth studio album, From Nothin’ to Somethin, was released in June 2007. Fabolous took the number one spot on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap Albums charts for the first time in his career and it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 159,000 copies in its first week.[13] The album was certified Gold in July 2007. It is his first album on Def Jam Recordings.
He was featured on the cover of video game Def Jam: Icon.
The first single and video, “Diamonds”, features Young Jeezy who also appeared on the Real Talk track “Do the Damn Thing”. Lil Wayne and Remy Ma are featured on the remix. His second single was “Return of the Hustle” which featured Swizz Beatz, also came out before the album release, to some acclaim, but little airplay. His third single though, “Make Me Better,” which features fellow Def Jam artist Ne-Yo, and is produced by Timbaland, was his biggest hit to date, spending 14 weeks at number one on the Hot Rap Track Billboard Chart. The fourth single was “Baby Don’t Go.” Jermaine Dupri produced it and T-Pain sings the hook. However, in music video version of the song, Jermaine Dupri sings the hook. This song also found success, reaching number four on the Hot Rap Track Chart.2009: Loso’s Way
Fabolous released his fifth studio album, Loso’s Way, in July 2009. The album is based on the 1993 film Carlito’s Way, similar to Jay-Z’s American Gangster. The first official single is “Throw It in the Bag”, featuring The-Dream, and is produced by Christopher “Tricky” Stewart. The second single is “My Time”, featuring Jeremih, and is produced by The Runners and Kevin “KC” Cossom. The third single is “Everything, Everyday, Everywhere”, featuring Keri Hilson, and is produced by Ryan Leslie. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 99,000 copies in its first week. It became Fabolous’ first album to top the chart. In its second week of sales, the album dropped 8 spots from #1 to #9, selling 37,000 copies. A deluxe album was released on the same day as the standard release. The edition features a bonus DVD, (“Loso’s Way” the movie). The movie features Fabolous (and three other of his friends). Fabolous is leaving a restaurant when he is shot. His three friends quickly rush Fabolous to the hospital, but are stopped by the police after running a red light. Fellow rapper Styles P has a role in the movie. DJ Clue, DJ Khaled, Jadakiss, Swizz Beatz, DJ Envy, and Ryan Leslie make cameo appearances. The movie “Loso’s Way” runs for 33:03 minutes. In order to view “Loso’s Way”, the deluxe album “Loso’s Way” must be purchased. In September 2009, Fabolous was ranked number eight on MTV’s Hottest MC in the Game list.[17] In an interview on December 10, 2009 with MTV, he announced that he would be releasing part two to his mixtape series with DJ Drama entitled: “There is No Competition – Part 2: The Funeral Service.” Fabolous announced that it would be released on Christmas Day as a gift to his fans. He then pushed back the release date multiple times via Twitter before he and DJ Drama finally released the mixtape online on March 4, 2010. Fabolous said he plans to put out a third and final part to the series sometime in the future.
2010: There Is No Competition 2: The Grieving Music EP & Loso’s Way 2
Fabolous released There Is No Competition 2: The Grieving Music EP on August 29, 2010 to help promote the release of Loso’s Way 2: Rise to Power, scheduled to be released on September 13, 2011. On Christmas Day 2011, Fabolous released the third mixtape in his series; There Is No Competition: Death Comes In 3’s.[18] Fabolous will release his sixth album, Loso’s Way 2: Rise to Power, in 2012.
Clothing line
Fabolous stated in 2004 that he wanted to release his own clothing line in the coming years. Without publicizing detail, he went into a search for designers and manufacturers for his line to accomplish the task. After finding qualified staffing, Fabolous announced the name for his line is Rich Yung Society Clothing, which has clothes in selected stores worldwide and are currently working on relaunching their website richyungsociety.com
Controversy
Soulja Boy
On December 28, 2010, Fabolous after a radio interview commented on the claim that Soulja Boy does cocaine, saying “pretty boy swag but never coke my nose though”, a reference to Soulja Boy’s song “Pretty Boy Swag” and a video of video model and popular groupie Kat Stacks video taping Soulja Boy in a hotel room with cocaine. Soulja Boy went on a tiradeon Twitter in response, saying “I ignore dis foo like 5x before this. fuck that. If you send some niggaz to spray me @myfabolouslife at least I die a real nigga fuck you boy.” 50 Cent also took to Twitter to say, “leave him the f*** alone before somebody get hurt.” Soulja Boy and Fabolous ended their beef on a radio interview.
On September 17, 2011, Fabolous posted tweets joking R&B singer Ray J after seeing him performing “One Wish” on the piano in professional boxer Floyd Mayweather’s Las Vegas living room. Fabolous tweeted, “Nigga Ray J doin a concert in his living room. Lmaooo” & “Nah but Floyd saying we havin a concert in my living room & the camera cuts Ray J singing “One Wish” on the piano had me in tears!” Later that night, the two would both be at The Palms club in Las Vegas, along with Mayweather & rapper 50 Cent. At one point in the night, Ray J was said to have talked about the tweets jokingly, telling Fabolous “You got me with that one, man.” However, later on in the night, Ray J confronted Fabolous as he was about to perform and, after a few words were exchanged, threw a punch. An altercation ensued, which resulted in Ray J being escorted out in handcuffs.[24] On Monday, September 21, a rather heated Ray J called in to Power 105.1: The Breakfast Club to talk about the altercation. He boasted about punching Fabolous, saying: “All I’m saying is if you got Fab number, tell that nigga to send a picture of his face right now…I swear to God he runnin from me right now. When I seen him, I was with Floyd and 50 and he tried to say, ‘Don’t touch me.’ And I touched that n-a. Straight up.” He also threatened the rapper by saying, “I’ll smack the shit outta that bitch ass nigga. I’ll get some of my big homies that like nigga ass and they’ll go rape that nigga. Bend it over and stick it in that nigga booty. I don’t give a fuck. I let him borrow my lamborghini, i let him drop my top he can have that shit i got 3 new rolls royces outside. i’m tired of being humble with niggas, i am tired of being humble and I am tired of being low key, i am about to pull my motherfucking whips out i’m going to show yall what my crib looks like and I am going to roll with my niggas and smack niggas”
A few days later, Fab called in to the same radio station to give his side of the story. Fabolous said that Ray J was drunk that night and that he warned him to clean himself up after he was “on that Whitney.” He responded to Ray J’s rant by saying “This nigga high, coked up or on pills. His rant is hilarious to me–I’m taking it serious on a side of where he thinks I’m a nigga that he could do that to.”
In an interview with XXL, Fabolous unraveled that he has been in a long-term relationship with stylist Emily Bustamante, who recently appeared in VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop, that began in 2003. He and his girlfriend had a son in February 2008 named Johan Jackson.
In January and March 2003, Fabolous was arrested for possessing an unlicensed gun in his car. His bodyguard later showed proof of ownership for the gun. Fabolous put his career on hiatus for much of 2005 and he was shot in his right leg, on the morning of October 17, 2006 in Manhattan after exiting Justin’s, a restaurant owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs.[5] Fabolous was treated at a local hospital, he was released eight days later.
