Fabolous’ Def Jam debut, tentatively titled From the Bottom to the Top, has been pushed back until February 2007, according to the Brooklyn, N.Y., rapper.
Due to conflicts with the original October release date, Fabolous said the album was pushed back to December and is now slated to hit stores next year, featuring production by Just Blaze, Jazze Pha, and Kanye West, among others.
While Fabolous remained tightlipped about the cameos on the album, he revealed that many of the tracks were crafted by up-and-coming producers.
“We got a lot of new producers, because it’s not really about names,” the rapper told AllHipHop.com. “Some of joints on the album that are dope are by guys you may not have heard of, or heard them on a smaller scale. I took joints from everybody.”
Fabolous also took advantage of new technology, by auditioning producers using popular Internet sites to find new and untapped talent.
“I set up a MySpace page and put a Gmail [Google mail] account where anyone could send beats and I checked them out,” he said. “Of course it got to be too much to handle, but at first I got to listen to a lot of the beats on there. It was definitely helpful, even if I didn’t get to use them on the album. I will, for future mixtape stuff as long as they are cool with that.”
Fabolous’ most recent effort, Real Talk, spawned the single “Breathe,” his highest-charting single to date as a solo artist, but failed to match his previous successes, selling only 500,000 units.
His platinum-selling 2001 debut Ghetto Fabolous generated the hit singles “You Can’t Deny It,” featuring Nate Dogg, and “Young’n,” while 2003’s Street Dreams has also sold over a million copies.
Slow sales of Real Talk and a rift in his relationship with Atlantic prompted Fabolous to leave the label last spring and sign a deal with Def Jam, which is headed by fellow Brooklyn MC Jay-Z.
“There are no hard feelings. Our business relationship over there [at Atlantic] went sour,” Fabolous said. “I moved on and it’s time to do some new deals.”
Fabolous plans to precede his Def Jam release with the second installment of his mixtape Loso’s Way, which will arrive in December.
“I wanted to do it during December when people are home from work and school,” Fabolous said. “Give them [fans] a chance to zone out, to get them hype for the February release.”
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