Street Dreams

Follow-up to his platinum & beyond 2001 debut, 'Ghetto Fabolous'. 'Street Dreams' is a mostly up-tempo party album laced with Fab's hood lingo. Guests include Ashanti, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, & more. Desert Storm/Elektra. 2003.

Fabolous would have us believe he’s serving up Street Dreams, but the Brooklyn rapper’s sophomore effort is more likely to rock the party than shake the boulevards. The F.A.B.O.’s smooth, deadpan flow cruises over benignly commercial beats (courtesy of Clue, Just Blaze, and Kanye West, among others), and the overall effect isn’t hard enough to stand up to "official" street-issue hip-hop (think 50 Cent Is the Future or any M.O.P. release). Sure, Fabolous is not without charm. His straightforward delivery of the never-too-deep subject matter enhances slinky, slangy club joints like the Track Masters-produced "Damn" and the R&B-inflected ballads "Can’t Let You Go" and "Trade It All Part 2." The album also features solid guest appearances by Missy Elliott (the electro-funky "Sickalicious"), Mary J. Blige (a retooling of her classic "What’s the 411" entitled "My Life"), and pop princess Ashanti ("Into You"), but the entire proceedings are stolen by the aforementioned M.O.P., whose verses on "Keepin’ It Gangsta" illustrate what street is really all about. --Rebecca Levine