With his The Young OG Project made available on Christmas Day yesterday, Fabolous recently spoke with Rolling Stone about the project and its holiday release date.
“When you get to a certain age, Christmas is for your kids,” he said. “Other than that, you’re just sitting at home, eating, watching some football. Now this album can become the gift you give yourself.”
Describing his first album in half a decade as a sort of “vanity project,” Fab also explained how the release’s 1990s theme came about.
“It’s kind of like a vanity project,” he said. “I kept getting these beats that were inspired by Nineties records, so I just busted some raps on top of ’em. I felt like I’m a good person to represent that, because I’ve been around since the late Nineties, and I’m still putting out music, 15 years later.”
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“The Nineties, to me, is the golden era of Hip Hop—it’s when I fell in love with it,” he added. “There was everything from gangster rap, to backpack rap, to flashy, flossy rap, to dance rap, to pop rap, to female MC rap. There were so many lanes and styles, and that’s one of the things that helped it flourish…Nobody wanted to sound like anybody else. I remember when Ghostface made the accusation that Biggie’s album cover was reminiscent of Nas’. He was upset about it. And it wasn’t even his album! That was the attitude at that time. Later on, in the 2000s, you started seeing a little bit of the originality slip, where everybody was seeing what was successful and just trying to do that.”
Recalling his own big break, Fab remembered his first appearance on Hot 97 with DJ Clue and the reaction he received from his on-air performance.
“I came back to school the next day, and some girl was telling me, ‘There was this kid on the radio last night, and he was dope, man. He was saying stuff that I had never heard before, and his flow was crazy,'” he said. “I was like, ‘Yo, that was me!’ She was like, ‘Get the fuck out of here. No way.’ I had to say the rap back to her. I always remember that moment.” He smiles. “She was the first person that let me know, ‘You might have something here.'”
For more Fabolous coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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