S. Samuel
Brooklyn rapper Fabolous reflected on his career this week and revealed fellow New York hip-hop star 50 Cent offered him an opportunity to join G-Unit during the crew's prime.
According to Loso, he did not want to put his career in anyone else’s hands and acknowledged making a lane all by himself.
“People always asked me why I didn’t join a crew or stuff like that, I don’t know if that would have changed my legacy or if I would even still be here today,” Fab said when asked if there is anything he would have done differently with his rap career. “I remember at one time 50 was offering me different things to come and be a part of G-Unit and I didn’t really do it because I didn’t want to kind of, it was at the time where they were signing Mobb Deep, Ma$e and all of those kind of guys and I just didn’t know if I wanted to be under something. I’ve always kind of had my own lane and everybody just respected me for what I do so that would have been a different turn and probably could have been successful, but successful for how long, you always got to think about it too.” (“The Breakfast Club”)
A couple years ago, fellow Brooklyn rapper Saigon admitted he missed out on an opportunity to join Fif’s Unit.
Saigon’s long slog in the industry, from the mixtape circuit, to Atlantic, to Suburban Noize, began in 2002, soon after 50 Cent signed to Interscope/Aftermath/Shady. Major labels immediately sniffed around for rappers with street credibility and mixtape chops to match. Saigon fit the bill, and even nearly signed with G-Unit. “I wanted to be the conscious arm of G-Unit,” Sai says. A snide text message, however, ruined the relationship with 50 Cent. “It was kind of my fault. I hit [50] four times, and he ain’t text me. I then said something about him feeling himself. He was like, ‘Who the f*ck you think you is, n*gga?’ But it was all in fun to me. I was trying to see if he was ignoring me.” (XXL Mag)
In 2009, Sai hinted at an internal conflict possibly off-seting a Unit deal.
“Sha Money XL introduced me to 50 early in his career,” Saigon revealed in an interview. “We sat down and chopped it up. I was actually G-Unit’ed out at one point. I was running around screaming that sh*t and all that. Like ‘G-Unit n*gga!’ ’cause me and Fif chopped it up…But we had a falling out, we both Cancers — so as far as us being alpha-males, it’s hard to co-exist around that n*gga. A lot of times it’s his way or the highway. We kinda bumped heads, early…He never attempted, I never attempted to fix it. But to see him succeed, I kinda felt like I was succeeding…That n*gga Fif was like us, he’s a goon, he’s in the street, he wasn’t no studio gangsta n*gga. He was a real n*gga, so for him to make it outta that — seeing him make it out of that was kinda like gratification for me in a weird way…Sha Money is my manager now and Sha Money still works with Fif and if Fif ain’t want that to go down, it wouldn’t happened.” (Rap Radar)
Fab is currently working on his long-awaited Loso’s Way 2: Rise To Power album.
“I’m ready to come back. I’ve been off for a couple of years. I’ve still put out a few mixtapes, you know The S.O.U.L. Tape 1 and 2,” Fab told MTV News of how he spent his time since dropping 2009’s Loso’s Way. “But it’s time for me to get back in the game commercially and drop some radio hits. I think everybody knows Fab for those genuine radio smash records and that’s where ‘Ready’ starts right back off, my foundation of what I do.” (MTV)
Check out Fabolous’ interview:
