It’s the F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S. Yes, ladies and gentleman, rapper Fabolous recently released a new mixtape titled “Summer Shootout 2: The Level Up” (SS2) on September 2nd.  This is the follow up to last summer’s mixtape “Summer Shootout,” in which he showed his witty wordplay, strong lyricism , and great song samples. Fab decided to start SS2, with a song called “To The Sky,” and he told us to level up. In other words, get your money up, become a better you, and keep positives vibes around.
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Next song was, “Goyard Bag” ft. Lil Uzi Vert and we got to see what both artists bring that make them unique. But after that Fab and Wale ask to have “Faith in Me”. They sampled singer Faith Evans, 2001 hit “I Love You”. Then he chose to remix Rihanna’s “Sex With Me,” along with Trey Songz. He truly showed his word play in this song, by using Rihanna’s name. He said “Walking round here like you Rihanna/Girl that a*s is RiRi-tarded/She get finish then we Ri-started/Make that movie, I RiRi-cord it/ Imma level up for the RiRi-mix/Threw the alley-oop and RiRi caught it like.” You can’t say that he’s a genius for those puns and making it sound so well.
Let’s just say after you have sex with the Young OG, you might become a “4A.M. Flex,” for him and with Tory Lanez’s singing and the soothing melody, you probably won’t regret it. Later on in the mixtape, Fabolous paid homage to the singer “Ashanti”. On this track, he sampled and slowed her hit song “Aww (Rock Wit U)”. The Brooklyn native goes to rap “My new ish is foolish like Ashanti/You miss me? Aww baby like Ashanti/I told shorty, “You know the rule” like Ashanti.” He then says “You should just do R&B like Ashanti/Shorty got me mesmerized like Ashanti/Chinky eyes, thick thighs like Ashanti/Bout to let mami manage this like Ashanti.” For those who weren’t huge Ashanti or Murder Inc., fans in the early 2000’s like myself, here are some quick facts:
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Ashanti had another hit called “Foolish.” She sampled “Stay With Me,” by Mark DeBarge and Notorious B.I.G’s “One More Chance.”
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“You know the rule,” refers to rapper and label mate, Ja Rule (they had hits together such as “Mesmerized”).
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“Bout to let mami manage…” Her mother was her manager at the beginning of her career.
Following “Ashanti,” Fabolous remixed DJ Drama’s “Wishing.” It was a short snippet but you still liked what he said. After that he wanted us to “Check on Me” since he decided to remix A-boogie with the Hoodie’s “My Sh*t.” Finally, he closes the mixtape with two songs called “Ah Man,” and “For the Family.”
HotNewHipHop.com, rated this mixtape as “VERY HOTTTT”. Personally, I love this mixtape because Fab is giving us a little bit of everything to keep us in the groove. I also believe, he kind of takes the listeners on a little journey, which is most artist should do. Lastly, this will be my favorite driving playlist on the road trips. Be sure to download the mixtape and take it for a spin.