Fabolous

Background

Fabolous was born John David Jackson and is of Dominican and African-American descent. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. Jackson attended High School of Art & Design and City-As-School High School in Manhattan, and eventually Boys and Girls High School in Bed-Stuy. While in his senior year of high school, Jackson began to pursue a career in hip-hop music. In the early years of his career, he rapped under the name Fabolous Sport, about Ralph Lauren’s Polo Sport line, however, this was later shortened to simply Fabolous. The misspelling was unintentional.

Jackson originally intended to be simply called Fabulous but incorrectly spelled it during a freestyle and it got stuck. He was invited to rap live on American record producer and music executive D.J. Clue’s radio show, then on New York City radio station Hot 97. Fabolous and N.O.R.E. rapped over the instrumental to ‘The Lox’s Money, Power & Respect,’ and D.J. Clue subsequently signed Fabolous to his record label, Desert Storm Records. Fabolous was then featured on several D.J. Clue mixtapes, as well as mixtapes with Roc-A-Fella artists. This earned Fabolous and Desert Storm a distribution deal with Elektra Records.

In 2004, Jackson signed to Atlantic Records, after leaving Elektra, where he released “Real Talk,” his first and only album under Atlantic. In 2006, Jackson was let out of his contract with Atlantic and officially signed with Def Jam Recordings. Also in 2006, Jackson founded his own record label, Street Family Records. In 2007, he released “From Nothin’ to Somethin’,” under Def Jam. In 2009, he released his fifth album, “Loso’s Way.” Throughout the years Jackson has amassed several self-released mixtapes, including several installments of his highly acclaimed “There Is No Competition” series and “The S.O.U.L.” Tape series, respectively. He released his sixth album, “The Young O.G. Project,” in 2014.