By shelz.

Fabolous has been a Hip-Hop debate lightning rod for years.  He’s successful, but he never quite reached the Promised Land and folks have blamed that on everything from too much background drama to a simple lack of talent.  He soldiers on, engaging his fans through social media better than most and dropping music consistently enough to remain on the relevancy short list.

The most recent addition to his long line of releases is The SOUL Tape which finds Fab developing his introspective side and smoothing it out, all over retro soul samples.  There’s no Lex Luger on here, so t-shirts should be replaced with smoking jackets and fans of the snare drum should prepare for heartbreak. However, ditching trendy sounds for an old school tried and true foundation doesn’t automatically assure anyone a win.

There’s little original production on the tape which isn’t a totally bad thing, as most of the recycled beats lay a proper foundation for Fab’s concept.  “Pain” borrows from Tupac’s song of the same name, which sampled the guitar and twinkling key intro of Earl Klugh’s “Living Inside Your Love.” The go hard or go home theme sits well in between the optimistically ascending flickers of synth, yet the song, like many that follow, is unremarkable. Kanye West’s 70’s soul special “Devil In A Blue Dress” is borrowed for “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.” It’s a great track, but Fab’s story of posers, fake ballers and back stabbers is cliche and Paul Cain does little to remedy that.

Holly St. James’ vocals from “That’s Not Love” are chipmunked and looped over dramatic strings, piano and simmering percussion for Fab’s song of the same name. It would be one of the more interesting songs on the tape if it wasn’t a retread of Lil Wayne’s “No Love” that’s just extended to hold four verses. Wayne leads off and immediately pulls you in with his original 16, but the rest is pedestrian. The blueprint of J. Cole’s “In The Morning” is followed to the tee with copious amounts of lady pandering and muted sexual innuendo. “Pay Back Music” rips the track from Rick Ross’ “Maybach Music” and Fab and Freck Billionaire play big bank take little bank with the haters. The haters lose. Fab, Vado and Lloyd Banks tackling Az and Nas’ “Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide” was ambitious and the final product, “Mo Brooklyn, Mo Harlem, Mo Southside” gets a thumbs up, but that’s thanks to Banks and his dynamism.

Everything isn’t completely derivative.  “Really Tho” is an original, but hollow concoction from Teddy Da Don.  There’s a steady stream of strings looped and then covered with some tedious percussion and horns buried so deep they add little to the mix. The stu-stu-stu-stu-studder step of the chorus should not have happened and his homage to Rick Ross’ flow is crystal clear. “Yall Don’t Really Hear Me Though” with Red Café is probably Fab’s best performance on the tape.  The horns and strings that comprise the intro get the loop treatment from Cardiak and the track is much better than what is presented on “Really Tho,” but the chorus is terrible.

The rest is satisfactory. “Reisling & Rolling Papers” finds Fab touting his animal magnetism, reworking Hip-Hop as hockey and questioning other rappers skill sets over Game’s “Like Father Like Son.” Wiz Khalifa’s “Phone Numbers” lays the foundation for Fab’s song of the same name.  He plays with a few flows on this song, some with more success than others. The tape closes with a remix of “You Be Killin Em.”  The original is better.

The bottom line?  Outside of the track for “Really Tho,” there’s nothing bad on this tape.  There are a couple of bangers, but they are outweighed by the songs that are merely adequate.  The champion recycled production pales because what was already there was better than what Fab replaced it with and the original production just isn’t as good.  But its free Fab and there’s no incessant DJ howling.  All of that added together makes it worth the space on your hard drive.

Out of 5

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