Brooklyn-born rapper Fabolous took over the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap Albums charts for the first time in his career. His brand new fourth album ‘From Nothing to Something’ debuted at the top with first week sales of 158,640 copies, making it the #2 overall Soundscan seller on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week.
‘From Nothing To Something’ builds on the Top 5 Rap-R&B-pop crossover success of the first Def Jam single by Fabolous, “Make Me Better,” featuring Ne-Yo (and produced by Timbaland). This slow “sexy burner” (showcasing Ne-Yo over a pulsating beat and swooning strings) officially impacted at Urban and Rhythmic formats one month ago, following-up the street and club smash “Diamonds” featuring Young Jeezy.
Fabolous and Ne-Yo have been tapped to perform their smash “Make Me Better” at the BET Awards ’07 on Tuesday, June 26th.
In addition to guest appearances from fellow Def Jam artist Ne-Yo, Jeezy, Rihanna, and Lloyd, plus Swizz Beats and West African hip-hopper Akon, the album also boasts an A-list of producers, including Timbaland, Jermaine Dupri, Just Blaze, Polow Da Don, Jazze Pha, Steve Morales.
Starting in 2001, Bed-Stuy’s Fabolous (John Jackson) was featured on a number of singles and album tracks, most notably Lil’ Mo’s Top 10 crossover hit “Superwoman.” Fab’s singles chart debut happened that summer with his career-defining “Can’t Deny It,” featuring Nate Dogg, on Desert Storm (via Elektra’s East-West division). It was followed by the second solid pop/R&B/rap crossover “Young’n (Holla Back),” both from the nearly self-titled debut album Ghetto Fabolous (one of history’s fateful albums to be released Sept. 11, 2001), which reached #2 R&B and #4 pop, and was certified RIAA platinum.
In early-2002, the Barbershop movie soundtrack album spun off a new Top 20 hit by Fabolous, “Trade It All” (featuring P. Diddy and Jagged Edge). The track was later added as a bonus track on ‘Street Dreams,’ Fab’s second Desert Storm album, released March 2003. The platinum album also contained the massive Top 5 hits “Can’t Let You Go” (featuring Lil’ Mo and Desert Storm’s Mike Shorey) and “Into You” (featuring Tamia). The subsequent mixtape released in November, More Street Dreams Pt. 2, climbed to Top 10 R&B and Top 30 pop.
‘From Nothing to Something’ marks the first new album by Fabolous in more than two and a half years, since the release of his third album, ‘Real Talk,’ in November 2004. The album rose to #2 on the R&B and rap charts and #6 on the pop side on the strength of its breakout first single, “Breathe,” which crossed from #2 rap and #4 R&B to Top 10 pop.
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