Fabolous' Loso's Way: A Review

It is a bit hard to assail Fabolous for something he does so well - making crossover club and rap records with R&B hooks. But the Brooklyn rapper, gifted with wordplay, has spent a career skirting that ever thinning line between street and pop rapper, resulting in ultimately uneven albums. On his latest album Loso's Way, Fabolous unsubtly borrows Jay-Z's American Gangster (read review) concept for an album that you might hope would be a bit less MTV-friendly than his previous offerings. Unfortunately, despite the album's pretensions to be otherwise, he largely recreates the same sort of hybrid album he has produced throughout his career.

As usual there are too many guests (Jay-Z himself, Lil Wayne, Jeremih, Keri Hilson, The Dream, Ne-Yo, Trey Songz, and at least five more), and not enough personality; it's as if the album is modeled after Jay-Z's Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life (read review) rather than American Gangster. The street tracks, such as The Way (Intro), When the Money Goes Remix, the excellent Lullaby,and Salute provide insight into how compelling he could be without the crossover attempts; although, there is just a bit too much Jay-Z aping in places. But the minute you start to get sucked in, you get shoved out by a crossover track. From the start The Way is immediately followed by a pop-track called My Time featuring Jeremih that sounds like an Akon throwaway. Feel Like I'm Back, a general re-introductory tune is followed by the Keri Hilson club-ready feature Everything, Everyday, Everywhere and the facile Throw It in The Bag featuring The Dream.

The production is solid, if rarely spectacular. The street tracks are just a bit overblown - see the DJ Khalil-produced Imma Do It, the Lil Wayne feature Salute with its overbearing trumpets, or the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League's Feel Like I'm Back - tracks that would work better if the rapper was more aggressive, like a 50 Cent, and not as low-key and non-threatening as he actually is. The rapping is generally top-notch, though often unfortunately simplified to complement the R&B-ish tracks. But Loso's Way tends to get monotonous rather quickly, as the album is not as fully-developed as Jay-Z's own somewhat underdeveloped American Gangster. There is no narrative here to guide the record selection, just general boasting, and save for his songwriting ability, and the production values, Fabolous is as un-compelling as many a mixtape rapper.

The album is a bit more cohesive than previous efforts, but for a now eight-year veteran on his fifth album, one would expect him to be more accomplished as an artist given his considerable talents. Then again, it is possible at this point that this is the limit of his artistic depth and he is both cognizant of that fact and ok with it. Regardless, the album features enough memorable club records, wherein his true fans - those who have eagerly gobbled up his previous albums - likely will not care one whit for depth.