Name Some Rappers Whose Career Never Took Off Because They Couldn’t Write A Hit To Save Their Life

[Awesome Wells]

Fab was the first person that came to mind, when I saw the thread.

Dude dropped during a time when having super-producers on your album meant pretty much guaranteed success. People were buying albums more than ever back then too. But Fab was never really able to capitalize on the things other MC's were able to, at the time. He's always been pretty limited, as an artist. His albums were always poorly reviewed, and he'd always be mocked for his attempts at metaphors and punchlines. He was able to get dope production, most of time, but even then, the beats would carry him. He's never really done anything that shifted anything in music.

When a certain producer got hot, he would go get tracks from them. When having the poppy Hip Hop tracks became the thing to do, because of dudes like Ja, he started hopping on the same shyt. He kinda followed trends his whole career, and did it with no personality whatsoever. And that's why Clue said, "We didn't really get it done with the albums, we kinda didn't have a real plan". Fab had some cool songs, but he was always kinda just there. He underperformed, which is why he owed Elektra and Atlantic so much money. Def Jam had to buy his debt.

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Fab was the first person that came to mind, when I saw the thread.

Dude dropped during a time when having super-producers on your album meant pretty much guaranteed success. People were buying albums more than ever back then too. But Fab was never really able to capitalize on the things other MC's were able to, at the time. He's always been pretty limited, as an artist. His album were always poorly reviewed, and he'd always be mocked for his attempts at metaphors and punchlines. He was able to get dope production, most of time, but even then, the beats would carry him. He's never really done anything that shifted anything in music.

When a certain producer got hot, he would go get tracks from them. When having the poppy Hip Hop tracks became the thing to do, because of dudes like Ja, he started hopping on the same shyt. He kinda followed trends his whole career, and did it with no personality whatsoever. And that's why Clue said, "We didn't really get it done with the albums, we kinda didn't have a real plan". Fab had some cool songs, but he was always kinda just there. He underperformed, which is why he owed Elektra and Atlantic so much money. Def Jam had to buy his debt.

I’d never argue

 

[Rembrandt]

This thread is literally careers that never took off because the artist couldn't write a hit.

Fabolous meets neither criteria. His career took off and he had a decade of platinum and gold albums and successful singles.

Okay, I can't explain my point any clearer and y'all acting like I'm disrespecting one of my publicly fav rappers.

 

[George's Dilemma]

BCC comes to mind. I'm a long time fan, but I recall them trying to cross over a little bit. I dont think they were capable though.

 

[FreshAIG]

I thought it purely meant hooks they wrote or did themselves. I'm 99% positive fab has zero to no input over those singles with features considering tricky Stewart wrote throw it in the bag



nikka mad at fab but said Vince Staples?

Norf Norf went gold

This dropped 4 days ago


Vince just doesn't sell records period and has never been pushed for the radio, but to act like he has had trouble writing choruses or hits but fab doesn't is hilarious

Vince's career keeps getting bigger and bigger every drop

Did you really just compare fukking Vince Staples to Fabolous as a commercial act? Are you trolling?
Just admit you’re wrong and keep it pushing.

 

[Redwing80]

nikkas in here really said Fab, that's WILD lol.

Anyway:
YBN Almighty Jay
Troy Ave
Ugly God
Vic Mensa
Vince Staples

The thread title clearly says "Careers Who Never Took Off" and nikkas mention fukking Fabolous

That's why these threads never work. Instead of nikkas sticking to the topic they start projecting their personal dislikes for artists

 

[Deltron]

Fab was the first person that came to mind, when I saw the thread.

Dude dropped during a time when having super-producers on your album meant pretty much guaranteed success. People were buying albums more than ever back then too. But Fab was never really able to capitalize on the things other MC's were able to, at the time. He's always been pretty limited, as an artist. His albums were always poorly reviewed, and he'd always be mocked for his attempts at metaphors and punchlines. He was able to get dope production, most of time, but even then, the beats would carry him. He's never really done anything that shifted anything in music.

When a certain producer got hot, he would go get tracks from them. When having the poppy Hip Hop tracks became the thing to do, because of dudes like Ja, he started hopping on the same shyt. He kinda followed trends his whole career, and did it with no personality whatsoever. And that's why Clue said, "We didn't really get it done with the albums, we kinda didn't have a real plan". Fab had some cool songs, but he was always kinda just there. He underperformed, which is why he owed Elektra and Atlantic so much money. Def Jam had to buy his debt.

but he does have hits and has had a pretty successful career.

maybe he underachieved, but you can't deny it (sorry, had to) that he didn't have a career nor hits.

 

[FreshAIG]

The thread title clearly says "Careers Who Never Took Off" and nikkas mention fukking Fabolous

That's why these threads never work. Instead of nikkas sticking to the topic they start projecting their personal dislikes for artists

Exactly

 

[Mastamimd]

Fabolous had a Verzuz bruh, abd even though he lost you don't get invited to that platform without success

Matter of fact he was actually in demand to be on there, not this shyt that some of these artists are doing low-key begging to be invited.

 

[Awesome Wells]

but he does have hits and has had a pretty successful career.

maybe he underachieved, but you can't deny it (sorry, had to) that he didn't have a career nor hits.

"Cant deny it". LOL!!

You're right, I think it depends on how you look at "success" though. There are underground artists like KA, who are not widely known, but he's aiming for a certain segment of listeners and selling out his inventory every release. That's success for him. He's doing what he aimed to do. Using Fab as an example, Clue is saying that they didn't meet expectations even though they tried to mad times. My point was that, he had all the resources at the best time possible, and still wasn't able to do what he and the label expected and wanted. During his Verzuz with Jada, he was being clowned on Twitter for playing shyt that people didn't even know. Every song Kiss played was a banger that people loved at some point. That's the tale of two different kinds of careers.

I think success is about what you aim to do and what the expectation is. Scarface said one time, "I don’t care about selling a million on one or two albums and then everybody forgets about me. I have the same 400,000-500,000 people coming out for me every album, so I'm good with them." That's success. But if you're shooting for superstar level shyt, and people know you more for your mixtapes, then you fell short. That's what Clue was saying about Fab. And it's true. He didnt see the success of his peers at the time. And they were working with a lot less than he was.

 

[Rembrandt]

Did you really just compare fukking Vince Staples to Fabolous as a commercial act? Are you trolling?
Just admit you’re wrong and keep it pushing.

No? Where did I do that?

Nevermind, I just saw where you're from lol. I get it, my bad man

 

[Deltron]

@Awesome Wells yeah I see what you're saying, same thing @Rembrandt alluded to as well, but if I go strictly off the thread title/premise, I don't see how Fab fits that...since his career did take off and he did have hits.

 

[JustCKing]

The Memphis Bleek mentions made me remember something. Memphis Bleek was the first artist to have a Rihanna feature. She wasn't Rihanna as we know her now because it was before she even dropped an album, but it's still crazy to think about.

And to think about it, a couple of Roc artists fit this thread. Amil was another artist. Even crazier is she did hooks on Jay Z songs that were hits, but when it came to her own songs, it wasn't the same. She even had a single with Destiny's Child and still didn't take off.

 

[NZA]

wale

 

[Awesome Wells]

@Awesome Wells yeah I see what you're saying, same thing @Rembrandt alluded to as well, but if I go strictly off the thread title/premise, I don't see how Fab fits that...since his career did take off and he did have hits.

Yeah, I see what you mean.

I think it's all based on perspective. I saw people saying State Property didn't take off or Cory Gunz, etc. But I'm pretty sure those dudes would tell you that they did take off and were successful. LOL! I kinda look at it more with how dudes were positioned and whether or not they met those expectations.

You don’t want to be a Top 5 draft pick in the NBA draft, go to a huge market and have 2-3 decent seasons and then start going unmentioned, lol. You want to get a few chips under your belt and be one of the greats. To me, in music, that would be undisputed classic albums and a run where you were killing shyt nonstop. I think a lot of the dudes mentioned in this thread haven't had that.