It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, there’s not a cloud in the sky, kids run up and down the block and the women, well, they’re always a plus. But when the music business is the career of your choice, all of this goes frequently overlooked. Okay, maybe not the women. Especially the one that keeps walking back and forth in front of the pizzeria.
“It’s amazing what people will do for attention,” says up and coming rapper F.A.B., smiling and shaking his head.
Wait, who? Fab, DJ Clue’s boy, holla back young n’? Not quite, but we’ll get to that later. He’ll tell you himself, “F.A.B. is just this music sh*t, I’m Stanley.” So before you meet Mistah F.A.B. you’ll be formally introduced to Stanley.
Born in the economically deprived, drug-ravaged ghetto that is Oakland, California, Stanley shouldn’t have stood a chance. Every single chip that could be possibly stacked against him was. These experiences crossed over from Stanley into F.A.B. and manifested themselves in the song “Worries,” from his debut album Nig-Latin.
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“That song is my favorite song on my album because it lets the world know me and for the record, it’s all real talk.” The conversation shifts from what was an upbeat, joking manner into serious internal reflection. The smile is no longer there. “You can hear me crying. I was crying when I did that song. My dad died of AIDS, my mom used to be a drug addict, my brother has been in jail for ten years. It’s the worries and reality of asking, ‘what’s gon’ happen to me?’ It’s real. I come from that home that everybody tries to talk about.”
You’ve heard it before, maybe in a novel, a couple of times in songs and maybe on the news, but this is no rap record for Stanley, this is real life. The damage has been done. Surprisingly, the emotional scars that are his reality only motivate and fuel the fire that is F.A.B.
“I don’t really reflect on that. If you hear that song and then you listen to the rest of the album, you wouldn’t think it’s the same dude because I don’t wanna spoil nobody with my agony.”
There was music playing overhead, but the sudden dose of what has made Stanley the man he is today has filtered out all the noise.
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They say music has the power to cure all and in Stanley’s case that statement rings true. His discovery of poetry in the third grade soon blossomed into a love of rhyming. But it wasn’t until high school that F.A.B. was born.
“Back in the day, me and my potnas, we used to be the lil’ click,” reminisces F.A.B. All the popular dudes at school were called “Fab Boys” but back then it stood for f*ck a b*tch. That was just like the lil’ thang and when I got older, I was like, ‘lemme stick some seriousness behind this’ and changed it to Faeva Afta Bread. And M.I.S.T.A.H. is an acronym for Money Is Something To Always Have.”
Say it. It’s cool. What about Fabolous?
“The initial reaction was like, ‘What!?’,” says F.A.B. of the first time he came across New York’s latest sensation. “Everybody called me like, ‘you heard dude on Lil Mo’s sh*t?’ I didn’t know what they were talking about. They was like, ‘the dude on the “Superwoman” song, he look just like you, his whole image.’ Cuz that used to be us, with all the jerseys and sh*t. That’s why I’m just hella relaxed now. It was just shocking like, ‘damn, somebody was on the same train of thought.’ Same age group, same generation and everything.”
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“Do you see any problems arising from the likeness in names?” I ask.
“Honestly I don’t,” F.A.B. answers with a devilish smirk. “F.A.B. is an acronym. Faeva Afta Bread is my name, people just say FAB ‘cuz it’s easier. But you never know, some type of friction may get started. But hey, I’m ready, ya know?”
Same name or not, one listen to Mistah F.A.B.’s debut, Nig-Latin, will silence any and all critics as well as surprise some who go into it with any preconceived notions of Bay Area rap. In fact, most listeners can’t pinpoint his home stylistically. It was this diversity along with pure skill that placed F.A.B. third place in the The Source’s Unsigned Hype contest, taking him from Bayfair Mall in San Leandro, CA to New York City in March of 2001.
“I’m a battle rapper,” explains F.A.B. “In high school, I had a backpack full of nothing but raps…(And as far as my style), all my life I’ve never cared what people say, so I’ve always been willing to touch the boundaries of being different. My style is how I am personally.”
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Rap is constantly changing. It’s no secret that the artist might get the fame but there’s no telling for how long, which is why F.A.B. has his eyes set on much higher things.
“Straight Hits (record label) shows me the business side. I don’t wanna be rappin’ for the rest of my life. Some of my favorite rappers never had their own stuff. I wanna learn the business side and be an executive and build a franchise from the ground up.”
They say all that is and will be great is born out of struggle. Struggle is something F.A.B. knows well.
“Coming from Oakland, you already have a number of things against you. As soon as you say Oakland, it sparks a lot of negative conversation. I want people to know that I’ve never sold drugs, and although my situation was one of the hardest to come from, I’m not gon’ blame that. I’ve never let that be an excuse. I’ve always strived to do what I’ve wanted to do and this music sh*t is my dream and I’m not gon’ stop until I can’t dream no more.”
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He continues, “My mama done worked twenty-eight years of her life to stay in the same place next to a woman that ain’t worked a day in her life. I can’t do that. I was born to make something happen. I really believe I was a gift to my mom. My dad, when he was in the penitentiary, wrote me a letter. He said, ‘I got my last dollar on you. You gon’ make it in the family, you the chosen one.'”
