Street Dreams (Clean) [Clean]

Fabolous | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Clean
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B00007E8MK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (136 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,882 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Fabolous would have us believe he’s serving up Street Dreams, but the Brooklyn rapper’s sophomore effort is more likely to rock the party than shake the boulevards. The F.A.B.O.’s smooth, deadpan flow cruises over benignly commercial beats (courtesy of Clue, Just Blaze, and Kanye West, among others), and the overall effect isn’t hard enough to stand up to "official" street-issue hip-hop (think 50 Cent Is the Future or any M.O.P. release). Sure, Fabolous is not without charm. His straightforward delivery of the never-too-deep subject matter enhances slinky, slangy club joints like the Track Masters-produced "Damn" and the R&B-inflected ballads "Can’t Let You Go" and "Trade It All Part 2." The album also features solid guest appearances by Missy Elliott (the electro-funky "Sickalicious"), Mary J. Blige (a retooling of her classic "What’s the 411" entitled "My Life"), and pop princess Ashanti ("Into You"), but the entire proceedings are stolen by the aforementioned M.O.P., whose verses on "Keepin’ It Gangsta" illustrate what street is really all about. --Rebecca Levine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love It For What It Is, March 4, 2003

By 

Michael Smith (Port Coquitlam, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Street Dreams (Audio CD)

This album is the sophmore effort from Brooklyn rapper Fabolous. The success of his first album, "Ghetto Fabolous", has made this a much anticipated album, and for those who know what to expect from the F-A, B-O, it doesn't dissapoint.

In all honesty, this album is not going to be thought of as a classic like "It Takes A Nation Of Millions..." or "The Chronic", but you shouldn't expect that caliber of album. Fabolous doesn't have the political consciousness of Chuck D, or the pure lyrical skills of Jay-Z, but he still comes to the mic strong. The title of the first album would better suit this album, since being "ghetto fabulous" seems to be the theme. Platinum on his chains, chrome on his wheels, curves on his women, and the emotions that go with these seem to be the common thread through this album.

That said, this is still a very strong album. As mentioned earlier, if you know what to expect, it delivers. The reason it gets only four stars is because fans of Fabolous were left waiting and guessing for almost 4 months as the release date got pushed back over and over. However, it has an undeniable appeal. Crafty lyrics and a delivery with a smoothness that few can match make this a great sounding record. Beats mostly come courtesy of DJ Clue and Duro, and sound great. Respect is due to Fabolous for not hooking up with the Neptunes, getting Pharell Williams to sing a hook and releasing a single that he knows will sell records. Instead, he has released the club pumping "This Is My Party", "Can't Let You Go", and "Damn". These three songs are actually a great gauge on what the record is about. There are the "knod-ya-headers" like "This Is My Party", the slower, ghetto love themed songs like "Can't Let You Go", and the lyric oriented songs like "Damn" all coming together to make an album that appeals to a wide spectrum of hip-hop listeners.

All in all, this is a great album. As long as the listener goes in with the knowledge that this record is not going to shake up the industry, and just enjoys some smooth lyrics laced with some tight beats, they will come out satisfied.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Street Dreams are just Fabolous!, March 4, 2003

By 

"mmcpart123" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Street Dreams (Audio CD)

Fabolous diffenently represented on his 2nd album, preventing a sophmore slump. I just bought this CD this after noon and it has a ton of hot tracks. Unlike this website says it does not have 9 songs, its contains 17 songs plus 3 bonus tracks, all of which are good, and most are just sick. I give Fabolouses lyrics a 4, but when I started to play it in my car the beats just pound, definetly some of the hardest hittin beats I've heard, i just had to give the album a 5 for that unbelivable feature.
The up-tempo flavor he is bringing to the rap game us elevating him to a pop superstar, and in a couple of more years he could be one of the greats of all-time. This album is slightly better than his first album, which to say the least is awesome, this album just had a few more awesome songs and rhythms that will keep you listenin all day. He also has alot of guest apperances on this album from rappers like Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot, Styles, Ashanti, Mary J Blige, Jada Kiss, and MOP.

Some hot tracks on the CD to check out are.

#2. Don't Give a...BR>#3. Damn
#5. Can't Let You Go
#8. Up On Things
#9. Sickalicious
#10. Its My Party
#13. Respect
#15. Never Duplicated
#18. Throw Back
#20. Trade it All Part 2

Every should go get this album, its about the best [$] you can spend. Keep it up FAB!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Dreams' come true on, March 15, 2003

By 

musiqstar87 "Erick" (Huntington WV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Street Dreams (Audio CD)

Fabolous, one of the newer rappers on the scene, really impressed me on his sophmore album, "Street Dreams". Not that his 2001 debut "Ghetto Fabolous" was horrible, but, aside from tracks like "Right Now & Later On", "Can't Deny It" (w/ Nate Dogg), and "Keepin' It Gangsta", it really wasn't anything special. I've been anticipating something new from Fabolous for so long that i bought EVERYTHING he was featured on from 2001 till the release date of this album (3/04/03). The reason for this was i knew Fabolous had some very good raps in some songs, and that he could do a really good album one day. My 'dream' was to hear some fresh, new, hot songs from Fabolous on a cd where i wouldn't have to skip 1 track. Well, from 2001 till now i bought several titles that featured Fabolous: "Barbershop: The Soundtrack" (because it featured "Trade It All Pt. 2" with P. Diddy & Jagged Edge), "Beninzo Remix Project" (because it featured the "Bootee" Remix that featured Fabolous & G-Dep), i even bought Clipse's "Lord Willin'" album to hear Fabolous on "Comedy Central" (i ended up loving the Clipse album). And when i heard in late 2002 that Fabolous's new album was coming out in January of '03 i looked for anything i could find about it. Well, come around January, the release date went from January to March 4th! I couldn't believe it, but on March 4th i went to my local record store and bought the first copy put out on the shelves! I listened to it in the car on the way home and i loved it. I'll tell you what i thought about here in a second, but here's the track listing (and some of my thoughts about each track) for ya'll who don't have it yet:

1. Intro - The typical DJ Clue intro, similar to the first 10 or 11 seconds of the first song off of "Ghetto Fabolous".

2. Not Give A F*** (10/10) - An excellent Fabolous track. Sounds like something you would've heard on "Ghetto Fabolous", just with a little more polished sound.

3. D*** (10/10) - Yeah baby, this is the party anthem! Fab brings out an unstoppable set of rhymes to a club shakin' Trackmasters beat, what else can you ask for?

4. Call Me (10/10) - This is a layed back track about a girl stalking Fab after a one-night stand. Has an upbeat sound and some really good verses by the F-A-B-0-L-O-U-S!

5. Can't Let You Go (feat/ Lil' Mo & Mike Shorey) (10/10) - The smooth, R&B influenced second single. Has a nice storyline and a good rhythem, also since it features Lil' Mo & new comer Mike Shorey, it makes it even better.

6. Bad B***** (10/10)- Another club rattling song, only this one wasn't meant for the club. Fab's story of two [chicks] with him makes a good lyrical story while the kickin' beat brings more to it.

7. Why Wouldn't I (feat/ Paul Cain) (9.5/10) - The first track that didn't thrill me, but still a good beat and some good raps by Fab & Paul.

8. Up On Things (feat/ Snoop Dogg) (9/10) - Not as good as I expected a Snoop Dogg featured track to be. This song uses the all-too memorable sample that Dr. Dre used on his 1999 hit single "Still D.R.E".

9. Sickalicious (feat/ Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott) (7/10) - I expected way more from this track than it had to offer. Missy only raps the chorus (same thing Ja did on "Ride For This" from "Ghetto Fabolous") while Fab does an OK job on the main rapping.

10. This Is My Party (10/10) - Your right it's your party Fab! So go head and get 'fly if u want to'! This is one of the best party/club songs from a rap artist i've heard in a while (other than 50's "In Da Club"). This club bangin' lead single may have not gone that far on the charts, but is still being played in my cd player daily.

11. Into You (feat/ Ashanti) (10/10) - I can't stop listening to this song. Ashanti does an excellent singing job and Fab's smooth, R&B influenced vocals make it an almost sure radio success.

12. Change You Change Me (10/10) - Didn't love it the first listen, but after 2 or 3 times it became a favorite of mine. One of the only songs where Fab raps completely alone (i'm not counting the backup singers on tracks like "D***" and "Call Me").

13. Respect (9/10) - A pretty good track. Fab gets aggrevated about having to 'kill' someone to get some respect.

14. Forgive Me Father (7/10) - Not really that interesting. Good beat, but the song suffers from senseless lyrics.

15. Never Duplicated (8/10) - Better, but still somewhat senseless lyrics, very good beat, though, courtesy of Kanye West.

16. Wake Up - ? (WHY is this track listed? It's not even there! And even worse, in the booklet it says who produced it [Timbaland] and where it was produced and everything, but IT'S NOT EVEN ON THE ALBUM!)

17. My Life (feat/ Mary J. Blige) (8/10) - Would've been a perfect song except for 2 things. First, the sample of Mary's own song "What's The 411?" (also, to noteably used by J.Lo & LL Cool J on her new single "All I Have") makes the track seem too annoyningly similar to the J.Lo song. Second, it's not Fab's best raps ever.

BONUS TRACKS

18. Throw Back (10/10) - Yes! This is awesome! The beat is non-stop and the lyrics from Fab about his throw backs make it excellent. I love this track! Probably my second favorite behind "Into You" and "Call Me".

19. Keepin' It Gangsta [Remix] (feat/ Jadakiss, Styles, and M.O.P) (10/10) - I liked the original, and a remix with Jada & Stlyles and M.O.P! How can it not be an awesome track.

20. Trade It All Pt. 2 (feat/ P. Diddy and Jagged Edge) (10/10) - The remix of "Trade It All" from the previously mentioned "Barbershop" soundtrack. A great ending to a great album.

I'm gonna keep a look out for any NEW Fabolous songs and keep buying his CD's until he doesn't make them anymore, i love his style and the production behind him, so, why not? Fab, keep keepin' it gangsta!