The much hyped Fabolous and Jadakiss album is here. A last minute name change from the anticipated Freddy Vs. Jason to Friday On Elm Street. As an avid hip-hop fan that has appreciated both artist’s solo works for half of my life, I was ecstatic to jump into this project.
Fabolous and Jadakiss – Friday On Elm Street
What I Like
The Bars – What one would expect from this project is lyrical power. Jada and Fab are top tier lyricist that fall into many top 10 list when it comes to these bars. Jada has long been in the conversation for Top 5 Dead or Alive and I think Fabolous holds the crown for “best pop lyricist.” Literally, this dude can rip a mixtape track without a hook and murder a radio friendly R&B smash. On FOES both artists play real well off one another lyrically. While Jada has released more ‘group projects’ both artist seem right at home trading bars on “Theme Music.”
Growth – Jay-Z is credited as a hip-hop artist maturing with class yet many artists from my youth have matured their message over time. Jadakiss and Fabolous are no different. While the weapon talk still lands on numerous records, I hear more topics focused on investments and bettering our communities on this project. Fab even touches on this on Soul Food where he states, “I’m too old to kid you, I gotta adult you.”
Beats – This was something I was worried about. While a radio or club hit is missing, the production on Friday On Elm Street does a great job moving from soulful to grimey to the trap. “Ice Pick” featuring Styles P holds a classic D Block sound and still fits next to the French Montana assisted “All About it.” Swizz Beats is one of the highlights of this album as well. We’ve heard plenty of Kiss over Swizz back when the L.O.X. was signed to Ruff Ryders but hearing Fab in the mix on updated Swizz Beats? That’s fire!
What I Don’t Like
Future – As a decent sized Future fan, noticing the two records with him on the slim track list peaked my interest. Playing those records are a different story. I’m not sure why they chose to do a remix to the worst song on the project featuring what sounds like a throw away Future verse. We get it that he can say “I’ma win the grammy” 10x in a row and keep some sort of appeal, but he does not need to tell the real to stand up over…and over…and over.
Lack Of “Hits” – While I will personally be playing “Soul Food” twice daily for the next month, the rest of the world doesn’t share my same love for soulful hip-hop. A big drawback on this project is the lack of commercial depth. This will ultimately hurt the potential reach for FOES.
Last 20 Seconds Of Nightmares Ain’t Bad – Whatever pitch effect they used on the outro bridge for the Fabolous solo record is horrendous. What seemed like my second favorite song on the album upon first listen quickly made me cringe with the unnecessary demon voice played under the final bridge. I get that the engineer wanted to bring the sound from something spacious (dream) to dark (nightmares) but this just didn’t work sonically.
The Verdict
The album is dope and hip-hop is alive. As an “old head” I sometimes find myself about to utter the words “hip-hop is dead.” And then I hear records like Friday On Elm Street. Hip-Hop is very much alive and I truly hope more spitters like Fabolous and Jadakiss can connect like this. While the expected lack of quality hooks and overall slight let down of the potential behind a project like this, I think it’s still the best thing out this week and will be in heavy rotation all month.
Friday On Elm Street is yet another offering that falls into the closest thing to Mixtapes we’ve seen in the streaming age. Due to tighter legal restrictions, we are now getting albums with original production available for free stream, what a time to be alive (pun intended). The force to go “legit” with projects like these has resulted in unique production rather than the ability to overuse samples and instrumentals but lowered the budget for depth within a project.
