Mistah F.A.B. may be riding a yellow bus to school, but he brought his homework. The Oakland disciple of Mac Dre’s Thizz Entertainment and Hyphy movement is backed with knowledge of grassroots marketing, social awareness, and a history of the rap around him.
After five years of regional building through DIY releases, the 25 year-old strick big in 2006 by becoming one of the newest Bay stars to link with a major – Atlantic Records. Like many artists entering corporate music, his release was pushed to the back of the bus. But as The Yellow Bus Rydah gets its wheels, SMC/Universal stepped in with The Baydestrian, an appetizer album that F.A.B. proclaims has the same energetic devotion as its follow-up entrée.
Mistah F.A.B. talks paperwork and Panther Power with AllHipHop.com. Just days after he reportedly proclaimed “out with the old, in with the new,” in another interview, the rising rap star clarifies his respect for elders, bigging up a few neighborhood acts that held down the Bay in its darkest hours. Though his music gets you dumb, Mistah F.A.B. helps readers and listeners get smart.
AllHipHop.com: Looking at The Baydestrian, how much of this is a set-up for the Atlantic project? When Atlantic signed on, how much did it expedite your process with SMC/Universal?
Mistah F.A.B.: Atlantic has a lot of [artists] over there that a lot of their time and energy is goin’ into. So I basically asked them for the authorization to do an independent project to help both of us out. It’ll help build on my regional buzz, and help capitalize off of the national buzz that I’ve been building. They gave me the authorization, which was a beautiful thing since they didn’t have to do that. So this one was me just wantin’ to show people in the Bay area that look, I’m still workin’ for y’all; I’m not just gonna sit back and wait. Here’s some songs to hold you guys over. But me, I’m the type of dude where I don’t ever want to half-ass do something; I put my heart into this just like I do with all my projects. People are receivin’ it well – great reviews. I definitely want people to focus on this as they anticipate The Yellow Bus Rydah.
AllHipHop.com: In terms of having the Fontana/Universal distribution, this is arguably your biggest release ever. Never before were kids in Cleveland able to run into a store and readily find your material…
Mistah F.A.B.: Definitely. The distribution on this one, through Fontana, gives it nationwide appeal. People will have access to this album that they didn’t with Son of a Pimp. It’s a growing stage for me. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to drop something. There are a lot of artists who’ve never had the privilege of dropping an album. The way my deal is structured, I’m getting money off this. If I sell any, I’m getting plenty. [Laughs]
AllHipHop.com: You said authorization from Atlantic. We’ve seen this before, whether with Saigon’s Warning Shots on Sureshot Records or last month’s Joell Ortiz album on Koch. But do you think there’s a point where if this picked up strongly – and you sold plenty, Atlantic would catch feelings?
Mistah F.A.B.: Nah, I think Atlantic is business-minded. Look at what they’ve done and their success rate. I’m pretty sure that if this album catches on and starts a buzz, I’m pretty sure they’d get involved. The contract is structured to where they still have the rights to several songs on here, so if the songs blow up, they can use them for the Atlantic project. We’re keeping it business, there’s no personal feelings in this. I have a beautiful staff and a great lawyer.
AllHipHop.com: Your grassroots marketing is one of the best today in Hip-Hop. Without relying on labels, you’ve imaged yourself quite well with the bus pictures, the MTV video scandal and other things. How did you create that approach and how do you use it?
Mistah F.A.B.: What’d Jay-Z say? “That marketing plan was me.” [Laughs] Yeah man, I realize that imaging is one of the best tools of marketing. People today want to see something they can identify with. My target market and my target audience, I really approach this for the kids. I want the kids to stay in school, and show kids that there’s nothing wrong with growing up and being yourself. Kids today grow up in front of the TV, thinkin’ that what they see on there is real, as opposed to the reality that most of these cats on TV are fakin’ it. Be yourself, man. It’s alright to have fun, this is what I do. But I also throw jewels on ‘em, and they subliminally learn, then they consciously learn.
It’s like watching The Simpsons. Now that I’m older, I realize that they were attacking some political stuff. If a person who’s really socially conscious watches The Simpsons, they get it, while a kid is just being entertained.
AllHipHop.com: I can relate to that. Years later, I’m still learning things from a lot of MCs. However, we don’t live in a climate that keeps albums anymore. What are you doing to ensure that a kid will still keep your record on his or her shelf in five years to get these jewels?
Mistah F.A.B.: Stayin’ current, man. A lot of artists don’t have that ability. What I mean is…continually giving them something. You have artists like Too $hort, LL Cool J, Jay-Z…the list goes on, of people who continue to reinvent themselves, “Okay, this is what I identify with.” As long as I can keep givin’ people something to identify with when it comes with ear-candy, [I’ll be okay]. I try to attack issues that the listeners are dealing with on a daily basis. Some of them may be demographically bound, some of them are a nationwide thing.
AllHipHop.com: A lot of your buzz has to do with you being a hand-picked representative of Mac Dre’s legacy. In terms of his label Thizz Entertainment, who’s running that now? And what’s your relationship with his family?
Mistah F.A.B.: Thizz Entertainment is run by the same people it was run by in Dre’s life. On his behalf, his mother runs his share; Wanda’s a beautiful woman. She’s about her money; she’s getting her money. She honestly doesn’t want to tarnish her son’s image, so they’re gonna pull back on a lot of stuff that gets released on Dre. Curt Nelson, who was his right-hand-man, still runs the label; we have a great relationship. We both realize that how I’m moving is how Nelly went: he moved and then brought back the rest of the team. We’re just trying to cultivate everybody to become relevant artists.
AllHipHop.com: I see this with J Dilla and Mac Dre. Both were underappreciated in their lives, but it became commonplace to praise them in their deaths. Some seem sincere, and some don’t. As somebody who was there for those underexposed years, how does it make you feel?
Mistah F.A.B.: Like you said, are people sincere when they’re doing it? The main thing is you have to let a legend be a legend. An icon is an icon. Sometimes it takes a person to leave the podium for people to give them the recognition they truly deserve. Malcolm X was a wonderful leader, but nobody truly recognized his importance until he was assassinated. Then everybody said, “He was the same as Martin [Luther King Jr.]” People rode with him and followed him, but after he died – both sides, the Left and the Right had to give him his due.
AllHipHop.com: I’m glad you bring up Malcolm. Oakland in particular has a rich history of Black Power. You said you want to give these kids something. Do you touch on issues we’ve heard from folks like Paris or The Coup?
Mistah F.A.B.: My issues have no color barrier. What I do want people to know is that I come from a family of Left Wings and Right Wings. What I mean by this is I come from pimps and players, and I also come from [Black] Panthers and political people. Having that involvement and having that upbringing, I’ve realized that sometime my issues do have a Black tone to them, because I come from that pain and struggle that [my ancestors] went through. In today’s society, the segregation lines are no longer visible, but they’re still [there]. I have to address those things.
Being in the Bay area, the demographics are so multi-faceted; it’s a melting pot. We have so many so many nationalities growing and gelling together. So race will definitely not be an issue – especially since when I go to a show and 90% of my fans aren’t Black.
AllHipHop.com: Great point. Crunk and Screw both proved very commercial from White audiences. It could be argued that both movements lost their edge in the wake of that. As many White I know love E-40, The Pack and you, is Hyphy at risk of getting bastardized?
Mistah F.A.B.: No. What I realized…what pretty much everybody realized is that in the Bay area, we grew up with pretty much all races. It’s nothing for us to have a White potna and be like, “That’s my n***a!” In some cases, the other people are more Hyphy than us. I think we embrace our fans to the [fullest]; I don’t think race is an issue here.
AllHipHop.com: In a recent interview, you said “out with the old and in with the new” in reference to DJ Shadow and Del the Funkee Homosapien. I have to be honest and say that really offended me as a lover of Hip-Hop. Real talk, if it wasn’t for DJ Shadow telling me about you years ago, I would’ve never been hipped. Why shouldn’t that support go both ways? Just as some critics claim that E-40 reaped the credit due to Mac Dre for Hyphy, very few people are acknowledging the fact that Richie Rich was rappin’ about the sideshow way back in 1989. “Out with the old and in with the new” can be dangerous. I want your thoughts…
Mistah F.A.B.: It’s crazy because that [answer started] so much controversy, and that [answer] was actually worded wrong. I grew up on the Richie Riches; if you listen to my song “Sideshows,” I say “The sideshow is not like it was with Richie Rich.” That’s on my album. I’m with Too $hort every day. I’m with Tajai, A-Plus, Casual every day! I actually work out of their studio, the Hiero studio. So wow…how could they…it wasn’t worded like that.
What I was saying was the mentality of listeners today is that they don’t do their research. They don’t know where things come from. You can have a song that was hot last year, and someone can sample that song and today’s generation will think it’s new. You can be like, “No, that’s from the Ciara song.”
AllHipHop.com: We saw that with Nas’ “Thief's Theme” and “Hip Hop is Dead”…
Mistah F.A.B.: That’s the same beat [Salaam Remi] did [two years] ago! The same look. What I meant by the quote was that’s today’s music listeners. They don’t care about the who did this and who did that. That’s the minds of the youth. In order to understand the minds of the youth, you have to relate to them. And I relate to them. I understand what they’re talking about, regardless if I agree with it. Because without knowledge of previous things, we won’t understand what to do and what not to do. Learn from our history, it helps better us. Like I said, I deal with the Hiero camp every day, and a lot of cats that laid down the bricks for me to walk here.
After five years of regional building through DIY releases, the 25 year-old strick big in 2006 by becoming one of the newest Bay stars to link with a major – Atlantic Records. Like many artists entering corporate music, his release was pushed to the back of the bus. But as The Yellow Bus Rydah gets its wheels, SMC/Universal stepped in with The Baydestrian, an appetizer album that F.A.B. proclaims has the same energetic devotion as its follow-up entrée.
Mistah F.A.B. talks paperwork and Panther Power with AllHipHop.com. Just days after he reportedly proclaimed “out with the old, in with the new,” in another interview, the rising rap star clarifies his respect for elders, bigging up a few neighborhood acts that held down the Bay in its darkest hours. Though his music gets you dumb, Mistah F.A.B. helps readers and listeners get smart.
AllHipHop.com: Looking at The Baydestrian, how much of this is a set-up for the Atlantic project? When Atlantic signed on, how much did it expedite your process with SMC/Universal?
Mistah F.A.B.: Atlantic has a lot of [artists] over there that a lot of their time and energy is goin’ into. So I basically asked them for the authorization to do an independent project to help both of us out. It’ll help build on my regional buzz, and help capitalize off of the national buzz that I’ve been building. They gave me the authorization, which was a beautiful thing since they didn’t have to do that. So this one was me just wantin’ to show people in the Bay area that look, I’m still workin’ for y’all; I’m not just gonna sit back and wait. Here’s some songs to hold you guys over. But me, I’m the type of dude where I don’t ever want to half-ass do something; I put my heart into this just like I do with all my projects. People are receivin’ it well – great reviews. I definitely want people to focus on this as they anticipate The Yellow Bus Rydah.
AllHipHop.com: In terms of having the Fontana/Universal distribution, this is arguably your biggest release ever. Never before were kids in Cleveland able to run into a store and readily find your material…
Mistah F.A.B.: Definitely. The distribution on this one, through Fontana, gives it nationwide appeal. People will have access to this album that they didn’t with Son of a Pimp. It’s a growing stage for me. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to drop something. There are a lot of artists who’ve never had the privilege of dropping an album. The way my deal is structured, I’m getting money off this. If I sell any, I’m getting plenty. [Laughs]
AllHipHop.com: You said authorization from Atlantic. We’ve seen this before, whether with Saigon’s Warning Shots on Sureshot Records or last month’s Joell Ortiz album on Koch. But do you think there’s a point where if this picked up strongly – and you sold plenty, Atlantic would catch feelings?
Mistah F.A.B.: Nah, I think Atlantic is business-minded. Look at what they’ve done and their success rate. I’m pretty sure that if this album catches on and starts a buzz, I’m pretty sure they’d get involved. The contract is structured to where they still have the rights to several songs on here, so if the songs blow up, they can use them for the Atlantic project. We’re keeping it business, there’s no personal feelings in this. I have a beautiful staff and a great lawyer.
AllHipHop.com: Your grassroots marketing is one of the best today in Hip-Hop. Without relying on labels, you’ve imaged yourself quite well with the bus pictures, the MTV video scandal and other things. How did you create that approach and how do you use it?
Mistah F.A.B.: What’d Jay-Z say? “That marketing plan was me.” [Laughs] Yeah man, I realize that imaging is one of the best tools of marketing. People today want to see something they can identify with. My target market and my target audience, I really approach this for the kids. I want the kids to stay in school, and show kids that there’s nothing wrong with growing up and being yourself. Kids today grow up in front of the TV, thinkin’ that what they see on there is real, as opposed to the reality that most of these cats on TV are fakin’ it. Be yourself, man. It’s alright to have fun, this is what I do. But I also throw jewels on ‘em, and they subliminally learn, then they consciously learn.
It’s like watching The Simpsons. Now that I’m older, I realize that they were attacking some political stuff. If a person who’s really socially conscious watches The Simpsons, they get it, while a kid is just being entertained.
AllHipHop.com: I can relate to that. Years later, I’m still learning things from a lot of MCs. However, we don’t live in a climate that keeps albums anymore. What are you doing to ensure that a kid will still keep your record on his or her shelf in five years to get these jewels?
Mistah F.A.B.: Stayin’ current, man. A lot of artists don’t have that ability. What I mean is…continually giving them something. You have artists like Too $hort, LL Cool J, Jay-Z…the list goes on, of people who continue to reinvent themselves, “Okay, this is what I identify with.” As long as I can keep givin’ people something to identify with when it comes with ear-candy, [I’ll be okay]. I try to attack issues that the listeners are dealing with on a daily basis. Some of them may be demographically bound, some of them are a nationwide thing.
AllHipHop.com: A lot of your buzz has to do with you being a hand-picked representative of Mac Dre’s legacy. In terms of his label Thizz Entertainment, who’s running that now? And what’s your relationship with his family?
Mistah F.A.B.: Thizz Entertainment is run by the same people it was run by in Dre’s life. On his behalf, his mother runs his share; Wanda’s a beautiful woman. She’s about her money; she’s getting her money. She honestly doesn’t want to tarnish her son’s image, so they’re gonna pull back on a lot of stuff that gets released on Dre. Curt Nelson, who was his right-hand-man, still runs the label; we have a great relationship. We both realize that how I’m moving is how Nelly went: he moved and then brought back the rest of the team. We’re just trying to cultivate everybody to become relevant artists.
AllHipHop.com: I see this with J Dilla and Mac Dre. Both were underappreciated in their lives, but it became commonplace to praise them in their deaths. Some seem sincere, and some don’t. As somebody who was there for those underexposed years, how does it make you feel?
Mistah F.A.B.: Like you said, are people sincere when they’re doing it? The main thing is you have to let a legend be a legend. An icon is an icon. Sometimes it takes a person to leave the podium for people to give them the recognition they truly deserve. Malcolm X was a wonderful leader, but nobody truly recognized his importance until he was assassinated. Then everybody said, “He was the same as Martin [Luther King Jr.]” People rode with him and followed him, but after he died – both sides, the Left and the Right had to give him his due.
AllHipHop.com: I’m glad you bring up Malcolm. Oakland in particular has a rich history of Black Power. You said you want to give these kids something. Do you touch on issues we’ve heard from folks like Paris or The Coup?
Mistah F.A.B.: My issues have no color barrier. What I do want people to know is that I come from a family of Left Wings and Right Wings. What I mean by this is I come from pimps and players, and I also come from [Black] Panthers and political people. Having that involvement and having that upbringing, I’ve realized that sometime my issues do have a Black tone to them, because I come from that pain and struggle that [my ancestors] went through. In today’s society, the segregation lines are no longer visible, but they’re still [there]. I have to address those things.
Being in the Bay area, the demographics are so multi-faceted; it’s a melting pot. We have so many so many nationalities growing and gelling together. So race will definitely not be an issue – especially since when I go to a show and 90% of my fans aren’t Black.
AllHipHop.com: Great point. Crunk and Screw both proved very commercial from White audiences. It could be argued that both movements lost their edge in the wake of that. As many White I know love E-40, The Pack and you, is Hyphy at risk of getting bastardized?
Mistah F.A.B.: No. What I realized…what pretty much everybody realized is that in the Bay area, we grew up with pretty much all races. It’s nothing for us to have a White potna and be like, “That’s my n***a!” In some cases, the other people are more Hyphy than us. I think we embrace our fans to the [fullest]; I don’t think race is an issue here.
AllHipHop.com: In a recent interview, you said “out with the old and in with the new” in reference to DJ Shadow and Del the Funkee Homosapien. I have to be honest and say that really offended me as a lover of Hip-Hop. Real talk, if it wasn’t for DJ Shadow telling me about you years ago, I would’ve never been hipped. Why shouldn’t that support go both ways? Just as some critics claim that E-40 reaped the credit due to Mac Dre for Hyphy, very few people are acknowledging the fact that Richie Rich was rappin’ about the sideshow way back in 1989. “Out with the old and in with the new” can be dangerous. I want your thoughts…
Mistah F.A.B.: It’s crazy because that [answer started] so much controversy, and that [answer] was actually worded wrong. I grew up on the Richie Riches; if you listen to my song “Sideshows,” I say “The sideshow is not like it was with Richie Rich.” That’s on my album. I’m with Too $hort every day. I’m with Tajai, A-Plus, Casual every day! I actually work out of their studio, the Hiero studio. So wow…how could they…it wasn’t worded like that.
What I was saying was the mentality of listeners today is that they don’t do their research. They don’t know where things come from. You can have a song that was hot last year, and someone can sample that song and today’s generation will think it’s new. You can be like, “No, that’s from the Ciara song.”
AllHipHop.com: We saw that with Nas’ “Thief's Theme” and “Hip Hop is Dead”…
Mistah F.A.B.: That’s the same beat [Salaam Remi] did [two years] ago! The same look. What I meant by the quote was that’s today’s music listeners. They don’t care about the who did this and who did that. That’s the minds of the youth. In order to understand the minds of the youth, you have to relate to them. And I relate to them. I understand what they’re talking about, regardless if I agree with it. Because without knowledge of previous things, we won’t understand what to do and what not to do. Learn from our history, it helps better us. Like I said, I deal with the Hiero camp every day, and a lot of cats that laid down the bricks for me to walk here.