For an artist with two platinum and two gold albums to his name, and a technically ten year-long resume as a professional emcee, you would think Brooklyn’s own Fabolous would command more respect in the rap game.

Unfortunately or fortunately, wherever you stand on F-A-B-O, the man born John Jackson tends to be one of the most criticized spitters that enhabit the rotten apple even while remaing one of the city’s most consistently successful. The line on Mr. Loso is that he’s raw on mixtapes [click to listen], but saccharine sweet on his own albums. And while his latest LP, From Nothin’ To Somethin’ [click to read], netted him another gold plaque for his collection, the CDs two female-friendly singles have led many a Fab fan to wonder if the man behind certified hood classics the likes of “Breathe” and “Return Of The Hustle” will ever actually let his “Baby” go in favor of feeding the streets.

The answer to that question will be answered in the fourth quarter of this year when Fabolous unleashes his most daring effort to date, a film-inspired concept album. Fab took time out of his busy tour schedule recently to speak to HipHopDX.com about said album. He also addressed all of the stories that have surfaced over the past year-and-a-half regarding his reportedly celebrity-robbing crew. And on a slightly lighter note, Fab explained why he’s not ashamed of recording more commercial fare (even with former pop princess Britney Spears), shared his thoughts on M.O.P.’s versatility, and maybe most notably in our conversation highlighted how he’s not biting Jay-Z’s movie motivated release, but in fact how Hova might have actually bit him.

HipHopDX: Let’s start by talking about your upcoming album, can you finally reveal to our readers which movie it is that your basing the album’s concept around?
Fabolous: We are not releasing the movie [name] yet because [I haven’t] actually started the whole recording process. All I can state is that we are kinda theming [the album] after a movie that I felt had great…relatable life scenarios.

So what I wanted to do was not take that character and become the character of that movie, but take some of the scenarios that I’m familiar with and I think will be familiar to other people also and make some songs [inspired from them].

DX: I know you had the Loso’s Way mixtape [and so] there’s some rumors out there that the movie’s Carlito’s Way.
F: Yeah, we did that [already] with the tape.

DX: Have you chopped it up with the movie studio [to] make sure you’re…?
F: No, not really. I guess that comes a little later, but we haven’t [yet], no. Because I’m not really going into character. I’m not even sure if I’m even gonna use like excerpts or anything from the movie, I just wanna take some of the scenarios of it [to inspire songs]. And I think people will be able to connect certain scenarios with lyrically how I attach [the songs]. I don’t know… Like, I wasn’t really trying to actually make a soundtrack, ya know what I mean?

DX: Yeah, you know you’re already catching flack for looking like you’re jacking Jay-Z’s American Gangster concept [though].
F: One of the first interviews I did [talking about this album concept] I used that [comparison]. Of course this is one thing media loves to do, they love to make it look some kind of controversial way. What I said about the Jay-Z thing was Jay-Z had just done that with American Gangster. And like you just said, I did [a concept record based off a movie] with Loso’s Way for the mixtape, which was before American Gangster. But nobody [cites that]. Of course that wouldn’t be stated [in the media].

But anyway, what I was saying [is] that what Jay did is kinda he went more into [the] character of his [chosen movie]. I used the Jay reference as saying that I wouldn’t be in as much character as Jay [was]. Jay may have looked at himself in character and said, "I come from maybe the same cloth [as Frank Lucas]." And even certain lines in the songs he referenced himself to Meyer Lansky and Frank Lucas and saying he’s like Frank Lucas - except for the snitching part, and stuff like that. So he refers to himself in the same character. With me, I’m not doing that.

DX: And you said you just started working [on the album], are you planning on doing something similar to what he did in terms of the production, like having producers look at the movie to inspire the sounds?
F: I kinda wanted to do that but the time that movie [is set in] is… I just want them to see what they get from the movie and make that the inspiration for the music, but not relate the music [to the period the movie is set in]. Like how Jay made all the sounds on that album from the sound of that time, or the music is more mellow. The tone of the music is symbolic to the movie. I’m not trying to really do that. I told produces to check the movie out because of what they might get, a scenario they may figure they can give a beat [to]. Continued on page 2 »