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Mistah F.A.B. - Some Feel Good Music
Interview By: Quinton Hatfield
 The Bay area has a rep of hip-hop legends from the area with E-40, Too Short, San Quinn, and Mac Dre. Unlike other regions in hip-hop, especially in California the Bay area is known for their fun and crazy sound that can make you go dumb. While in hip-hop many regions are defined by their movements such as Crunk, the Bay has Hyphy which really received national attention due to Bay pioneer E-40. You have to dig the Bay area’s style too as they exposed us outsiders to things like “Stunna Shades”, “Thizzin”, “Scrapin” and the most popular of all the crazy stunts "ghostriding the whip".
 Next up for the Bay and very confident that he will uphold the region is Mistah F.A.B. and the good thing about it is that his upcoming release “The Yellow Bus Rydah” will not only give us a taste of Hyphy, but worldly views also. In this interview Mistah F.A.B. explains what it will be like to hold down the Bay and the language and swagger of the region. The Oakland California native will explain to us this new fad of "ghost riding the whip", the meaning of his name, not making excuses in life and the new album “The Yellow Bus Rydah” as it will be in front and back of the bus.
Nobodysmiling.com : Mistah F.A.B. how it feels to be one of the new faces repping the Bay?
Mistah F.A.B. : Aw man it’s a challenge you know, not only is it a blessing it’s also a challenge because you have some much history that you have to uphold with being a Bay Area artists. We were doing things what the south was doing ten years ago. We was having that run and that nation wide influence and a lot of people from the south will tell you that they were influenced by Bay Area rap. You got a lot of people, you got Too Short, E-40, last but not least is the Mac Dre’s and Tupac’s that looking at you like “What you gonna do” so I’m just gonna hold it down man in the name of them.
Nobodysmiling.com : I see you got like ten names so can you tell me some of them and let me know how you got them?
Mistah F.A.B. : I got my name game up man, my name game is definitely up. You got Fabby Davis Jr. that’s like Sammy Davis he’s like on of the greatest entertainers ever and the whites and the Blacks loved him. I got the Yellow Bus Rydah, in the Bay we got stupid, we go dumb so you can’t get no dumber than riding that yellow bus.
Nobodysmiling.com : [Laughs], hopefully it’s one of those long yellow buses.
Mistah F.A.B. : Nah it’s that short one man, the real stupid one. I got Caesar Chavez all types of names.
Nobodysmiling.com : The Prince of the Bay?
Mistah F.A.B. : The Prince of the Bay most definitely that’s the one that I uphold the most, the freestyle king, the myspace master [laughs].
Nobodysmiling.com : The myspace master in the building!
Mistah F.A.B. : Oh yeah I’m really addicted to that, I think that put crack in the keys when you get on that thing.
Nobodysmiling.com : [Laughs], with you being a Bay artists how you feel about the hyphy movement getting so much attention, especially in the east coast, the south and the Midwest?
Mistah F.A.B. : I think it’s gained a lot of attention because people are looking like damn this is something new and the rap game ain’t seen nothing new in a minute. Being from the south you see the Snap music and the Crunk, but that’s been going on for so long it ain’t really nothing new it’s just getting new to the rest of the nation. That’s how it is with us like the Hyphy ain’t new to us, but it’s new to everybody else. It’s a beautiful thing that people are having that much attention on what we doing, it’s definitely going to be a good look for us and we just got to take advantage of it.
Nobodysmiling.com : I was watching the news a few weeks ago and out of the blue I hear some west coast music and cats talking about this new trend about “Ghostridin” they cars, I’m from the east coast and I’m tired of the same stuff too.
Mistah F.A.B. : It’s crazy man because I was on “Hannity and Colmes” not too long ago. Anybody that’s familiar with politics know “Hannity and Colmes” are two of the biggest Republicans, so they represent for mainstream White America to the fullest. I was on their show on Fox News which is nationwide talking about ghostriding. They played my video and it was crazy, because their guest are usually people like Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama so for me to be on that joint that was worldwide. People was hitting me up from everywhere like “Dude you really handled yourself proper on Hannity and Colmes”, it’s really gained a lot of nationwide attention. My video aired on MTV recently as “Jam of the Week” and that had people like “Wow this is crazy”.
Nobodysmiling.com : Before you know it everybody will be having “Stunna Shades” on over here.
Mistah F.A.B. : Man that will be big, the big lenses too. The big lenses are called the “Get High’s” you know, when you get high you don’t want nobody to see your eyes so you wear the big shades.
Nobodysmiling.com : Straight up looking like a bug.
Mistah F.A.B. : Straight up bug!
Nobodysmiling.com : Now in the Bay ya’ll have some crazy terms so tell me about some of this Bay area lingo.
Mistah F.A.B. : The lingo you know really just comes from swag man, like New Yorkers have a certain swag about them when they be like “What up yo, what’s really good”. You be like “Damn that ni**a was fly, he had swag”, you heard how he said that”. When LL Cool J and Rakim was rapping you was just like man “That dude had swag” and that’s how the Bay is. The Bay just comes up with different ways to express our lingo and language with swag.
Ghostriding is when you do nothing more, but show off. You come through after you just copped a brand new Bentley, in the hood that’s like an Oldsmobile on 22’s, TV’s, candy paint so when you come through in that it’s your pimp debut. You hop out the car and come to a complete stop showing everybody love. You then let the car roll with your music blasting about five-seven miles per hour and hop back in your car and scrape out. Scraping is usually when your rims are too big for the car that their on so sometimes when you hit corners they scrape, we just made scraping a good thing so now you just ride and scrape.
Nobodysmiling.com : Can you school me on what “Thizzin” means?
Mistah F.A.B. : “Thizzin” is one of those words that have a double meaning. Thizz is an ecstasy pill so sometimes when people would pop a pill they would say “Aw man I’m thizzin”. With the music that we made in the Bay Area with the label I come from our label is like the Swishahouse in Houston, Dipset in New York and our label is called Thizz. We transformed it to be musically “Thizzin” where you feeling good off the music, that way you ain’t influencing anybody to go use drugs. You just letting them know you don’t need drugs to have a good time to make some feel good music.
Nobodysmiling.com : You had a lot that went on in your life as far as your mother, brother and father. How did you fuel that into positive energy?
Mistah F.A.B. : I mean since we got here in 1607 Black people as a heritage has had a reason for always making excuses. As time progresses it will be to a point where you say “How long will I let this excuse be the reason that I’m hindering myself as a person”. When you progress as a person that means that you really understand the process of growth, certain things are no longer entertaining to you no more. Certain things are no longer stagnating to you anymore and many things just don’t have the effect that they once did, because you learned to grow with them.
In your growth you learned to adapt, absorb, and always look for an optimistic view point. My father died of A.I.D.S. in ’94, my brother been incarnated about that time and recently got out after doing about a good twelve years in jail. My mom has been about twelve or thirteen years clean of drugs, my story is no different than any other child thats probably even been through worse. I have learned to erase excuses and channel excuses with fuels of fire to make you want to do something good. I can be like them and be like “Hey this is my excuse, I come from this broken home” and lose or I can do something none of my family members have ever done.
Nobody in my immediate family ever graduated from high school and I did so that was a blessing for my mother. I was able to make a career and sustain myself without having to go out and sell drugs. As an adolescent you are always open to temptation, you may do some things mischievously, but I was always able to maintain being good kid and follow my dreams. I just turned 25 and it’s definitely a blessing, at 25 my mom was selling drugs, my dad was pimping, and my brother was in jail. I just look at life like God makes things happen for a reason and you just have to take that reason and find your reason.
Nobodysmiling.com : How does it feels getting ready to drop this album “Yellow Bus Rydah” from Atlantic?
Mistah F.A.B. : The “Yellow Bus Rydah” will definitely hit the nation. Not only are we Hyphy in the Bay area, but we also got political views, socialist views, and have an opinion on what’s going on in the world. We also make worldly music and that’s what my album will consist of, it’s gonna cater to the cadence of the Hyphy genre in the Bay, but at the same time it’s gonna touch somebody in North Carolina, Maine, New York or New Hampshire by it’s worldly views. People in Oakland just don’t like Jordan, everybody wear Jordan’, because that’s a worldly appeal. That’s what this album will do as I will make it appealing as possible.
Nobodysmiling.com : The album will be a double disc where you will get the back of the bus and the front of the bus, so what will be better the back of the bus or the front?
Mistah F.A.B. : That depends, certain people prefer certain things, like to reiterate with the Jordan metaphor. Some people like Jordan’s some people like Air Force’s who is to say what shoe is better as it’s all part of a opinion. In my opinion and in my heart I feel that the front of the bus will appeal to people outside of my area and that’s what I meant when I said in making a worldly album, because of the topics and issues I touch on the front of the bus. Demographically I think the back of the bus the Bay area will love it.
Nobodysmiling.com : Break down how you get the name Mistah F.A.B.?
Mistah F.A.B. : Mistah F.A.B. is an acronym and it stands for “Money Is Something To Always Have Forever AfterbBread”. Just stay husslin man no matter what you go through in life you gonna just keep husslin and one day you gonna get the things in life you was husslin for if it’s a legitimate and attainable goal. Certain people make their minds so far-fetched in what they really want to accomplish that is not realistic. What they end up doing is that they end up chasing a dream and what you have to do is chase reality that you dreamed of. It’s a difference and I’m just chasing reality and all that is are the things that I dreamed of. Some people say dreams are premonition, they are things you can keep for yourself if you follow down the road that you plan for and that’s all it’s about money is something to always have forever after bread (Mistah F.A.B.) Everybody is a Mistah F.A.B.
Nobodysmiling.com : What can fans expect most from this “Yellow Bus Rydah”?
Mistah F.A.B. : They get a chance to see a new artist that they can critique [laughs] instead of writing off a “Oh he sounds like this person”. That’s what fans want to do, fans is like baseball cards. Remember when you used to trade baseball cards and be like “I got this new Ken Griffey” and you be like “I don’t care I got this Frank Thomas rookie card”. People just want to compare you to the people and fans want to say this is my favorite artists. I'm gonna get somebody to say this my favorite artists or I don’t like him you know, people just want to critique things and feel like their involved. I’m a give them a well rounded album that they can critique.
Nobodysmiling.com : Can you sum up your favorite song on the album?
Mistah F.A.B. : I don’t know man I put my heart in all my songs, that’s a hard one. Maybe “Guardian of Angels”, I like it because I just talk about some real stuff on there.
Nobodysmiling.com : Appreciate the interview Mistah F.A.B. and I look forward to “The Yellow Bus Rydah”, anything to say to the readers of www.nobodysmiling.com?
Mistah F.A.B. : Good looking on this support and watch out for this Hyphy movement coming to a town near you. You can hit me up on www.myspace.com/mistahfab, hit my line and see what we can do.
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