Fabolous is the people’s champ.
On July 30, Complex published its list of the 35 best dressed New York rappers of all time. Fabolous was originally ranked number 19. The people didn’t agree. Within days, the Complex community had re-ranked Fab all the way up to the number one spot.
“I honor that more than being number one on the original list, man,” Fabolous told Complex. “I actually love that. The people put me on their shoulders.”
In the aftermath of the list's publication and Fab’s massive surge to its top spot, we spoke to the Brooklyn rap veteran about his thoughts on the list, his definition of fly, his signature style moments, and his personal list of best dressed New York rappers of all time.
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We recently did our list of the best dressed New York rappers of all time. We had you at number 19. What’s your reaction to your initial ranking on the list
Not to discredit y'all rankings or anything like that, whether I stayed at 19 or not, I wouldn't have felt any way. Content pieces are to engage with the audience. So, I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be 19, but it wasn't something that I really held a lot of weight to either. People were sending it to me. My personal opinion, I don't think I'm 19, but I didn't have any feelings about Complex's opinion. Everybody has opinions on this. I didn't look at it for any kind of validation.
Our readers thought that we got it very wrong because they ended up re-ranking you as the number one overall best dressed New York rapper of all time. So what is your reaction to that?
I think that was cool because I think that comes from a place of people sharing their opinion. They were able to say, "Oh no, I think he should be here." But I want to say, what you think is fly or what you think is fresh, is all subjective. Different people have different tastes. I do think that the people being able to voice their opinion speaks a lot of volumes instead of a room of 10 people at Complex that could be just relating it to their style. When you open it up to the public, it gives it a little more foundation.
You mentioned how everyone has their own thoughts on what it means to get fly. What does that mean to you?
Getting fly, to me, it's not just putting on clothes. I think it's a representation of yourself. I feel like when I step out, before I was even a rap artist, I was a kid in the hood who would look at the styles going on around me. It was a little different from now where artists help dictate what some of the fashion trends and styles are. When I started, it was the other way around. The streets dictated a lot of what the cool style was, or the cool brands were. The artists wore that because they saw it too. LL Cool J’s style came from him hanging around the drug dealers uptown. And he would take that and bring it to the rap game and represent that style. It was a style that came from the streets. It didn't come from LL. Not to say LL didn't add his flavor or add his own touch to it, but that style came from the streets. A lot of guys were getting styles and brands on the street level.
To me, getting fly, it’s a representation of where you are from. If you look from across the room, you see what somebody's wearing. You see how they are wearing it. You can see their swag. The hood took something as little as leaving your shoestrings untied and made that a style. That means you are fresh. You add on a little swag to something as simple as tying your shoestrings.
Your swag can switch too. I think that's one part of my style. My shit switches up a lot. There’s no aesthetics where you could just look at it and say, "This is a Fab aesthetic," except for the jersey era. But every day I could switch up. I’ve worn things with different themes or even some outfits a lot of people don't understand. So, a lot of times the fits might even have a little story behind them that people don't know. Whatever I was wearing, it represented me that day or that time or when you saw me.
You mentioned the throwbacks from the 2000s. A lot of people look back fondly on that era of your style and give you a lot of credit for that. Do you think you're hip-hop's biggest trendsetter when it comes to the throwbacks back in the 2000s?
Yeah, I think so, especially for the jersey with the hat and the sneakers that match. At the time, it wasn't even like I was doing it for fashion. It was really just where I came from. When we went and got sneakers, we went and got a fitted hat at the same time and we would try to match it with our shirts. It came from that whole culture of that. And then the aesthetic at the time was jerseys. Was I the first person to wear jerseys? No. But I created that aesthetic with it so that when you looked at a jersey, you were like, “That's Fab style."
It wasn't like I invented the jersey. And that goes with a lot of things. I always talked with Jim Jones about the rockstar, Chrome Hearts aesthetic that he brought to the game. At the time, I wore Chrome Hearts T-shirts and hoodies. Even in the J.Lo video, I was wearing Chrome Hearts, and that’s 2005. I wore that stuff, but it wasn't my aesthetic. I wasn't wearing Chrome Hearts everyday. I didn't add the bike chain and the jeans. Jim made it an aesthetic. And that was the look that he was able to pioneer and bring to the game because he liked the style of it from wherever he got it from. So again, was he the first person to wear Chrome? Probably not, but he definitely set the tone.
You've experimented with a lot of trends and aesthetics over the course of your career. What are some of your favorite outfits?
That's so hard, bro. I literally throw fits like a toddler.
There's been suits that I've liked. There's been tracksuits. There's been so many different looks. But I will say I do enjoy trying new shit. I think sometimes people will say “that's some Fab shit” or “that's something that only Fab could wear.” I think that comes from me being able to try shit and be able to wear it confidently, whether people accept it as a hit or a miss. When I think of my favorites, I just think of moments where I wore certain looks confidently, whether it was something that I was always wearing or something that I was just trying out. It is hard though, bro. I've been doing this for a very long time. I think there were some very popular fits, like the “Trade It All” video.
Is it crazy for you to still see people reference that outfit to this day?
That's one of those moments. Was it the best fit? No, but it was a staple within the culture and within the style of jerseys. It’s like when Cam’ron wore the pink fur. Different artists have those moments. The “Trade It All” Kobe jersey look, every Halloween somebody is pulling that off. It's cool to have those moments. I didn't know that would be that. I was just trying to do something cool.
You're very experimental with your style. Looking back, is there anything where you’re like, "Man, I don't know if I should have tried that one."
There's plenty of things. I just try shit. I'm having fun with it. There's a mood. Sometimes I want to wear all black for a month just because that's the feeling I’m on. With a lot of hits comes a lot of misses. You have to swing the bat to hit a home run. You're not going to hit a home run every single time. But sometimes the hit is just you being able to put it on, walk with confidence, and represent yourself well. I think that's where you can win even with a miss.
Not including yourself, who are your personal best dressed New York rappers of all time?
I think Jim Jones has always been unapologetically himself when it comes to his style.
There's a few guys that set trends that people don’t always give the “fly” title to. I would say Big Daddy Kane, Jay-Z, and Biggie. I put them in a collective because they represented style to me from a Brooklyn standpoint of where we were from and what we wore in our neighborhoods. They all elevated it. Biggie was bringing the Coogis. Jay-Z had the Versace shirts. Kane was wearing the silks and Ballys. That’s what we looked up to in Brooklyn, those street hustler aesthetics. That's where my style comes from.
And Hov's trendsetting alone, for him to be able to say, "Hey, we wearing button-ups now." People thought it was fresh at the time. There were people really going to the club with button-ups on and a fitted, NBA Draft swag. Hov has set many trends, from clothes to cars.
Other top street hustler styles were Nas, Mobb Deep, and even A Tribe Called Quest. Tribe’s was a little less street oriented, but it was still a street hood aesthetic. Nas might be in army fatigue suits, Timbs, and a skully with the brim. Q-Tip might be in a leather jacket with some jeans and Timbs. Phife had a snapback and Starter jacket. It represented what we were seeing in the streets, that whole '90s workwear aesthetic. Fat Joe had it a lot in that time as well.
And honorable mention to Grand Puba for that Tommy Hilfiger, Polo aesthetic. That was a style that we were wearing in high school. There's even pictures of me in Polo and Tommy pretty much everyday. So when Grand Puba came out and represented that aesthetic, that was going on in the streets. That department store swag of Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Polo, that's what I grew up on. That was a top New York aesthetic for me as well.
