Some years ago, I had the honor of curating a rap battle for Allhiphop.com’s annual week long celebration. We wanted to make the battle the biggest around by adding some real notable names to the mix. There were four emcees that topped the list who were not scared to hop in and stand toe to toe with the next man. The first was Phonte from Little Brother, an easy pick as he was well respected and a notable lyricist. The next two, pre-Slaughterhouse days were Joe Budden and Royce 5’9, everybody knew were on the verge of really blowing up. And then as a surprise to me as a request from Steve Raze was the last entry Mistah F.A.B. who I had no background whatsoever on.
The day of the battle came and unfortunately Joe and Phonte didnt show. So we were just left with Royce and the guy who I never heard of. But the show must go on. I think like me, everyone was expecting Royce to go off and flame this dude, and it started off that way with a few bars from the bigger name of the two. But all of that changed as soon as F.A.B.’s mic turned on. You could tell Fabby knew he was in New York and he had to let everybody inderstand why he was there. He proceeded to destroy Royce and even went in on the emcees that didn’t show up. He burned that small NYC club down and earned the respect of everybody in there, while spitting all off the top of the dome.
That was nearly 12 years ago, but nothing has changed. F.A.B. is still flaming mics, and proved he can go off the top better than anyone as he stepped into the 5 Fingers of Death on Sway In The Morning.
Watch the full freestyle below:
