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The Color Fred
CD Reviews
Fabolous
From Nothin' to Somethin' | Def Jam
By
DOMINIQUE HENDELMAN
|
July 17, 2007
FABOLOUS, FROM NUTHIN’ TO SOMETHIN’
" alt="photo of 'FABOLOUS, FROM NUTHIN’ TO SOMETHIN’'">
2.0
Stars
Fab’s mixtape cuts are dope and always show off his lyrical prowess, but the full-lengths are never up to snuff. From
Nothin’ to Somethin’
is more of the same. The cheesy cuts for the ladies are limited to three — some improvement on his previous albums — but the disc still embodies what’s wrong with hip-hop today. Fab’s an ill lyricist working in a world where witty wordplay doesn’t move units or translate into heavy radio rotation, so he relies here on formulaic collaborations with T-Pain, Lloyd, Rihanna, and Young Jeezy to boost sales. He’s got some bangers: “Change Up” featuring Akon, “Make Me Better” with Ne-Yo, and “Brooklyn” with Jay-Z and Uncle Murda are solid. The problem is that Fab set the bar high on the old DJ Clue mixtapes: hip-hop heads expect hard-hitting one-liners in every rhyme he spits, and he delivers only half of the time. Maybe he should spend less time spelling out his name and more time remembering why he got into the rap game in the first place.
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