“Street Dreams are made of these, niggas push beamers and 300 E’s, everybody’s looking for something.”  With those sentiments and a flossy big budget video from Hype Williams, Nas  went from Nasty to Esco and helped usher in hip-hop’s pretty boy thug era. Undoubtedly influenced by those words, Fabolous, has taken a cue from Nasir Jones as his Street Dreams are every bit as flossy as a rotund Robin Leach in his prime.

With a certified platinum debut, Ghetto Fabolous, already locked securely under his Mitchell & Ness throwback, F-A-B plays it safe and goes the cookie-cutter route with his sophomore effort.  With his appendages (picture an urban rendition of N-Sync) being pulled in the same commercial direction by both Elektra and Desert Storm (platinum or bust) Fab’s Street Dreams are every bit as scripted and redundant as American Idol.  While Fab posses a likeable cool exterior, his return is not marked by the expected ration of bankable singles or slick wordplay.  Rather, Street Dreams is highlighted by the fact that Fab nightmarishly no longer has the Neptunes (as he said reportedly the beats they suggested for this album were too “sing-songy”), or Timbaland sliding him their combustible (add lyrics and package for mass consumption) production, which results in Fab’s candy-coated forays losing flavor quicker then you can say Bubbalicious.

Lavishing in the luxuries of his own riches, Fab spends the majority of his sophomore effort coasting on autopilot; lacing himself and his mistresses (“Damn” and “Can’t Let You Go” feat. Mike Shorey and Lil’ Mo) with enough ice to procure home visits from Jacob The Jeweler.  And though Fab’s witty repoitoire oft-times overcomes these deficiencies (“with an ass so big you can’t fit it in Hammer pants”) hip hop’s most consistent entities, or those with the longest staying power, seem to always find a way, even if slightly, to reinvent themselves and when Fab leaves the excess behind he’s more moving; “Change You Or Change Me” and the reworking of Mary J. Blige’s “My Life” where Kanye West refreshes the R&B classic by adding a healthy dose of keyboard grooves and automated shakers.  And surely it does not bode well for Fab that Street Dreams most impressive moments “Keepin It Gangsta” feat. Lox & M.O.P.  and “Trading It All Part 2″ feat. P. Diddy and Jagged Edge are remix and Soundtrack efforts that have already been widely circulated (da-da-dayum).   

On “Not Give A Fuck” Fab proclaims “fly enough to do better/but pimp enough to not give a fuck/old enough to know better/but young enough to not give a fuck.”  Herein lays the problem.