Dubcnn: Yo Fab! I see you over there with your pop phone!

FAB: *laughs* Yeah, you know, we bringing it back, swaging real quick. Shouts out to Splitarellos man. I don't even smoke, but I just like this phone, this shit is swag. *talks into phone* -Hold on let me call you right back, I gotta promote my new album man, December 6th, Found My Backpack Part 2- So, what's good with you bro?

Dubcnn: Everything's good man, you're back on dubcnn. We're here to talk about the new album as you just mentioned. It drops December 6th. Let us know what it's all about.

FAB: The new album man, it's called "I Found My Backpack 2" and to a lot of the early fans that know Mistah Fab, they know me from the Wake Up Show and battle rapping, cyphers, "backpack" rapper, pre-hyphy. That's what I was doing, I would go everywhere and have freestyle cyphers with cats. A lot of people told me "Fab man, you need to go back to that backpack rap."

So I did a project earlier this year called "I Found My Backpack", and it actually did well! People liked it. Numbers wise, it didn't sell like a miraculous amount of numbers, but what it did was, it made people who might not have been as familiar with my ability to do things like that, go "Yo… dude can really rap rap!" So I'm following it up with Part 2, and this one is on steroids! It's dope man.

Dubcnn: You've cultivated two separate fan bases throughout the last couple of years. That has become apparent in your various projects too, such as the "backpack" projects and then you had the "Grind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste" series for the street crowd. How has it been juggling with the different expectations that people have from you?

FAB: I got so many different fan bases it's crazy. I think my ability to do so much different stuff is my curse, because when you listen to my records, you never know what you're going to get. You don't know if you're going to get the party-Fab, the hyphy-Fab, the charismatic-Fab, the serious/conscious-Fab etc. But to me, I utilize it more as a gift than a curse, because it's actually a gift. Nowadays, when you listen to rap, all rappers sound the same. I think I have embodied and taken full advantage of my ability to sound different on every song. Sometimes, they may compare me to a Ludacris, sometimes to a Kanye, but I'm just me, Mistah FAB. And I respect all those people.

But yeah, like you see, I have the "grind" fans, that love street music and my "backpack" fans. I just got off tour with my homeboys Potluck and them, so now we've got juggalo fans that's listening to Mistah Fab. Shouts out to Insane Clown Posse and the Kottonmouth Kingz and Tech N9ne and the rest of the homies. It's about that diversity. The real true underground hardcore Hip-Hop fans, they still love me, so I just try to keep doing me. You can never make everybody happy. I make myself happy.

Dubcnn: Now on "I Found My Backpack 2", you're on the Hip-Hop tip. The first video, "Bring The Classics Back", has gotten really good feedback online. In the beginning of the video, you're doing a little cypher on the block. Would you have hoped to be included in the BET Cypher?

FAB: Yeah, I think I got snubbed again on the BET Cypher and a lot of people feel the same way. Not only due to my ability to fit in with any of those rappers - shout out to the Shady cypher, that was crazy. Bit I feel like I could have fit in with any of those people. And then, they had no Bay representation! Whenever the industry does things, they always forget the Bay. They never include us.

Even if it wasn't me, I would have loved to see another Bay representative be a part of that cypher. I would have loved to see a Locksmith be a part of that, a Ya Boy or anybody else who would have had a presence that could have been felt. It's just unfortunate that we come from an area that always gets forgotten about in the industry. But it's no worries, that's just why I did the cypher in the beginning of the video and it's actually a follow up, because the first single I released off the first "Backpack" volume, was "Boom Bap". So it's the follow up to that, same producer, Ekzakt, who is my in-house producer. We go hard everyday and he did the first one that's why we followed it up with this. That's why it's black and white and has the same vibe.

Dubcnn: You have a lot of high profile collaborations on this album. You leaked a song with Noreaga and Jadakiss ("Probably B The Greatest"). Tell us about that.

FAB: That was is produced by Ekzakt, once again. He did the first two records on the album. I grew up on Jadakiss, he's one of my favorite rappers and he's every rappers favorite rapper. Good dude, I reached out to him one day and he was like "Yo, Fab, I rock with you doggy." I said "Yo what is it gonna cost me to get you on my record?" So he did his lil "Ahh-haaaa" scream and said "You ain't gotta pay me man!" He did the record for me for free. It was dope, just to grow up listening to somebody and now have them respect you on some Hip-Hop stuff. That was beautiful man.

And N.O.R.E. is my brother. He invited me to his wedding, that's my brother right there. He's possibly one of the best humans on earth. It was a dope record, and it's more of a East Coast friendly record, I've been out there a lot, networking with cats in New York and they show me love. It was dope to be embraced by pioneers like that.

Dubcnn: Who are some other people that we can hear on the record?

FAB: Let's see, Jadakiss, Noreaga, Talib Kweli, Royce Da 5'9. I know a lot of people are like "You got a record with Royce?!" Shouts out to Royce man, that's the big homie right there man. Our rap battle, that was nothing man. What was something is that when I was in the hospital man and some of my own people wasn't calling me after I had a car accident. I got a phone call from Royce Da 5'9 checking on me. For the rest of my life, that's always going to be respected.

So Royce hopped on a record for me, then we got Philly Freezer, Freeway. I got Prodigy from Mobb Deep, Andre Nickatina, The Grouch, J. Stalin.. The record with J. Stalin is a hometown collaboration, he's somebody who's doing numbers right now. Me and him grew up rocking house parties together. I love what Livewire is doing. Oh, and the San Francisco legend, San Quinn is on the record and Erk Tha Jerk. Erk is making great music right now, I love what he is doing, he's in his own lane, very creative, very talented. I was happy that he jumped on the record for me.

Dubcnn: Can we expect any more videos off the album?

FAB: Yeah, we're doing two more videos. I'm doing a bonus video, which is going to be a tribute to my mother. That might be on the next project, which is called "Motivated By Pain". I'm just working, but I'm going to New York to shoot the video with Jadakiss and NORE for "Probably B The Greatest". I'm working man, it's dope to see the love that we're getting from the project, just being in New York for a week and a half. I'm going back out there to promo it, just working baby.

Dubcnn: So "I Found My Backpack 2" in stores December 6th, is there anything else you wanna let everybody know?

FAB: I found my backpack, so I feel sorry for you rappers. *laughs* We're holding it down! Ya'll make sure to check out my artist Blast Holiday - oh Blast Holiday and Nio The Gift are also on the record. Blast is a artist from my neighborhood that I'm working with, he's lyrically hella dope. We're just trying to get him to focus more on this music stuff. He's got a project called "Ice City - The Coldest Winter Ever", it's dope. And everything else that Mistah FAB is doing man, I'm just continuing to work.

I'm hoping that one day I can give ya'll a real real album, but until then, I'm working. It's easier said than done, the fans are like "Why don't you put out a real album?" And I be like "Yo, why don't you support a real nigga!" It's hard, because I've got a big album that's got so much dopiness to it, but why put it out if it's not going to have the tools and the machine behind it? To me, it makes no sense. Just put it out to please everybody else? I got records with Snoop Dogg, Jamie Foxx, Lupe Fiasco, big records! Production from the best of the best. But why put it out, just to watch it do nothing?