The mixtape has killed the necessity of a need for good albums to be made.  If a rapper can prove he or she can rap well and that he can fill 16 bars with 32 punchlines, there's no need for them to go ahead and make a cohesive, good album.  Yet Fabolous has lways seemed like a rapper reaching out for that missing link: respect.  While he has entranced the pop charts and has the mixtape circuit on constant lockdown, he is still far from critically adored.  Hyped up as his own hip-hop masterpiece, Real Talk shows the true side of Fab.

He starts off his third album with a weak Def Poetry Jam-knockoff poem called "Exodus" by Black Ice.  It's a bad omen for an album full of much worse things.  The first song, "Don't Stop, Won't Stop", sets up the rest of the album's feeling: we've heard all of this before.  This particular song sounds like an exact knockoff of "Never Duplicated" (if that is not irony...) from his last album, Street Dreams.  "Real Talk (123)" is another sound-alike, and "Gangsta" wins an award for being the five millionth hip-hop song with that title.  The style finally changes on "Tit 4 Tat", but definitely not in the right direction.  In a dissapointing Neptunes production (which non-shockingly sounds exactly like the beat for Royce Da 5"9's "Mr. Baller"), Fab seems to have even lost his knack for making catchy dance songs.  "Baby" is the closest thing to a good song this far in the album, as frequent Fab collaborator Mike Shorey added his syrupy tenor to a song which desperately needed it.  However, lyrics like "Just lookin at ya onion girl/ I could cry" change this from kind of good to cringe-worthy.  "Church" features Charlie Murphy of Chappelle's Show for no apparent reason, but it's most definitely the best song this deep into Real Talk.  "Can You Hear Me" is another fallen homies tribute that oozes corniness.  While the content isn't exactly bad, Fab has never been adept at being genuine, and he certainly shows that here.  "Do the Damn Thing" is a sad try at crunk, and he fails miserably.  "Holla At Somebody Real" is his obligatory song with Lil Mo, and they seem to have gotten progressively worse since "Superwoman II" (with "Can't Let You Go" being the lone exception). 

Just Blaze gets behind the boards on the next two tracks and sounds outstanding.  "It's Alright" is a basic dance track, but Just's use of that overused spanish guitar for a stomping dance song is inspired, and Sean Paul adds some extra flavor.  "Breathe" is the standout track, though, and deserves it's spot as lead single.  The song is simply extraordinary, and makes Just sound like the hip-hop visionary he is.  Scott Storch adds his trademark sound to the radio-friendly "Round & Round", his newest update on his club bangers like "Damn" and "Youngn'".  He does show off some newly aquired skills on "In My Hood", where he seems to have found a comfortable way to tell his ghetto tales without sounding like a parody of a gangsta rapper.  "Ghetto" is where he gets back to that cliched gangsta mentality and reminds us he could be doing better.  He finishes the album with his reliable sidekick Shorey, but also brings in former "Can't Deny It" crooner Nate Dogg, on the cop tale "Po Po".  It's an overused concept, but Fab makes his verses suprisingly vivid.  It's another sign of unrealized talent in an artist who's shown those same signals for two albums.

Real Talk is anything but what its title implies; it's a rehash of the same trite ideas and subject matter he used on his first two albums.  His unwillingness to risk his double platinum status is what will ultimately keep him out of that small circle of rappers who can court both the commercial and hip-hop purists.  Until he can breakthrough that group, he'll always just be a mixtape rapper to the world.

iPod Worthy:  "Breathe", "In My Hood", "It's Alright", "Po Po"

Skippable:  "Do the Damn Thing", "Ghetto", "Gangsta", "Real Talk (123)", "Tit 4 Tat"

Overall:  2 out of Six Shots