Let’s jump in the time machine and go back to 2001. The year we saw the release of Ghetto Fabolous and Word of Mouf by Fabolous and Ludacris, respectively. Let’s talk about those two.
“Rumor has it The Blueprint classic couldn’t even be stopped by Bin Laden,” Jay-Z raps in The Blueprint 2’s cut “The Bounce”– in reference to The Blueprint dropping on the same day as the 9/11 attacks. Well, Osama couldn’t stop Fabolous’ Ghetto Fabolous either.
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Released on September 11, 2001 as well, Fab’s debut positioned itself near the top of the charts, peaking at number 4 on The Billboard 200.
It was promoted by singles “Can’t Deny It,” “Young’n,” and “Trade It All.” The former samples 2Pac’s “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” and features Nate Dogg blowing on the hook.
This marks one of the first collaboration from NY and LA artists post infamous East Coast/West Coast beef.
Luda dropped Word of Mouf a few months later. He was coming off the success of his national debut, Back for the First Time. “Area Codes,” the album’s first single, also featuring Nate Dogg, peaked at the number 24 spot on Billboard Hot 100.
“Rollout (My Business),” the album’s second single, was more energetic, which proved to be a club banger. It fared better than first single, peaking at number 17. In addition, being nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance.
Luda would keep the momentum going with his third and fourth singles, “Saturday (Oooh! Ooooh!),” and “Move Bitch” featuring Mystikal and I-20.
Luda tended to take the more comedic approach. Whereas, many of his Atlanta counterparts took the street angle. Nevertheless, his style worked because Word of Mouf atop the Billboard 200 and reached 3x platinum status.
Personally, I dug both albums. But to my own admission, I wasn’t a fan of Fab’s album title. Mystikal released an album by the same name (Ghetto Fabulous — slightly spelled different) in 1998. That lead me to question Fab’s creativity. But Fab immediately cleared up the misunderstanding on the opening track, “Click and Spark”: “F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S.”
And oh yeah, I didn’t need to hear from word of mouth to know that Word of Mouf went hard!
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Fabolous’ ‘Ghetto Fabolous’ or Ludacris’ ‘Word of Mouf’?
[Polls Are Closed!]
Ludacris – Word of Mouf – 95%
Fabolous – Ghetto Fabolous – 5%