“I’m a son of a gun, who wanna meet the parents?” – Fabolous .

A good friend of mine posted this quote up on Facebook, and after reading it, my interest was immediately sparked to download Fabolous’ There Is No Competition Volume 2. After a quick listen, I came to the conclusion that Fabolous is definitely a talented brother with an unlimited arsenal of clever “ha” inducing punch lines; some are even worth a rewind or two. I especially like the “suspect as R. Kelly with girl scout cookies” line. Now that’s some funny shit, you got to admit. Now before all the hip hop elitist jump down my throat for praising Fabolous’ lyrical ability let me make it clear that I don’t expect Fabolous to talk about anything other than how dope and better than me he is on his mixtapes. Perhaps in my youth, when I used to harass the bootleg man to let me know when the latest DJ Clue mixtape was coming out, I may have believed Fabolous to be top 5 dead or alive. Now at the age of 21, however, I only want Fabolous to talk shit and be really good at it. With that expectation, Fabolous definitely delivers the goods on this mixtape.

Even with all this in mind, I couldn’t help but ask myself why Fabolous felt the need to put out a free mixtape of pure lyrical exercise. He’s a successful rap star with what seems to be a permanent place in the hip-hop community, so the mixtape is quite unnecessary at this point. The whole idea of the free mixtape is being used as a tool for unsigned artists to gain a buzz so they can make a name for themselves in the hip hop world. With four songs in constant rotation on every mainstream radio station, Fabolous doesn’t seem like the artist that needs to be putting out a free mixtape. The question continued to bug me, and it wasn’t until I began to analyze the name of the mixtape as well as the structure of it that I began to see the underlying subtext of the mixtape.

There really is no competition. Seriously, turn on the radio and let it play for about 15 minutes and you’ll see that most, if not all, hip hop songs on the radio feature uninspired cliché and mediocre lyricism, beats, and structure. Radio rap music has become nothing but a cash cow, and a form of propaganda to further stimulate American’s already overly materialistic attitudes. Radio music today seems to only have one message: spend your money, and enjoy your life doing it. If you’re wondering why the radio only portrays one single message, you need not look further than 1996 to find your answer. The seeds of this ugly fruit were planted in ‘96 when former president Bill Clinton passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, allowing any and anyone to own the radio. In the beginning, before this act, the radio was supposed to be an outlet for ideas, where the people could be informed and educated about the world they lived in. With the passing of the Telecommunications Act, this dream was shattered as it allowed for big corporations to buy radio stations in bulk. Clear Channel, for example, owned 43 stations before the act. They now own more than 1200 stations. 1200 stations, all portraying the same exact message. But is there more to it than this? Is Clear Channel the only entity to blame for your sucky radio stations? Perhaps not. Perhaps technology and conditioning has something to with the message itself.

Everything is becoming simplified. Things are becoming smaller, and easier to use. Most journalists and editors will tell you that most Americans will only read the headline to an article, so I’ll be sure to put Fabolous’ name in big bold letters in the title of this article. As we rejoice and praise our society for its’ technological advances, we fail to see the bigger, scarier picture. In order for technological advances to be made a group of people have to become smarter and more intelligent to develop these ideas in order to make things like our beloved ipod work, or our twitter accounts work at high connection speeds. Unfortunately these technological advances allow for those average Americans to think less as things become easier to do. As people are allowed to think less their brains become less developed. The brain is a muscle that needs to be given its proper exercise in order to reach its full capacity. So here we have a group of people advancing technology becoming extremely intelligent, and then we have a group of people who are using these technologies becoming increasingly dumb, which in the end creates a huge gap of intelligence between the two groups, which allows for the manipulation of the less advanced group by those who are more intelligent. But that’s a whole ‘nother story, lets get back to Fabolous as this has everything to do with him.

With our society becoming more and more simplified, and our radio stations being monopolized by big corporations who see music as more of a profitable market than a form of art, where exactly does the thought provoking emcee fit in this equation? The answer is he doesn’t. There is absolutely no competition on the radio, and Fabolous knows this. Fabolous has become the modern day LL Cool J churning out mediocre girl track after mediocre girl track and ranking in the doe for it. Clear Channel likes this guy because he’s good for their sponsors. He tells people to “throw it in the bag” and “it aint trickin if you got it”, which is exactly what big business wants you to believe.

If Fabolous were to try to stand up to the system the corporations that own the radio would most likely blacklist him. If you’re thinking that Fabolous is big enough to stand up against the machine then you’re mistaken. One look in to history will show us that corporations don’t give a damn how big of a star you are. In 2003 Clear Channel blacklisted The Dixie Chicks for their anti-Bush remarks. George W. Bush just so happened to be the candidate that Clear Channel was sponsoring at the time. If an artist is brave enough to rage against the machine, they can face either permanent blacklisting or a tremendous loss in revenue. When recording artist Sheryl Crowe refused to change one of her lyrics criticizing Wal-Mart, she lost 10% of her sales as the market-giant refused to stock her album in their stores.

So why make a mixtape title, There Is No Competition, when Fabolous is obviously already a big business favorite? My best guess is that Loso genuinely has an ego and reputation he feels he needs to defend. Loso’s mixtape definitely reminds me of the hungry emcee that I had listened to in my discman back in 8th grade. The mixtape, with further analysis is an extremely potent parody of the industry today. Fabolous has strategically picked the features on this mixtape to show us that there is no competition. The mediocre artists featured on this mixtape are like a representation of the mediocre rappers on today’s radio stations. When compared to Fabolous on the same songs, you begin to see how foolish it would be for Fabolous to be lyrical and witty on tracks with artist who are obviously beneath his caliber. Fabolous feels a need to show us that he didn’t lose it, but rather he doesn’t need it. I understand Fabolous’ situation and why he has decided to dumb down his lyrics. Would I do the same? Probably not. But do I understand why it may have been necessary? Absolutely.