This weekend will mark the 10th year anniversary of the fatal tragedies that took place in New York City (9/11) which resulted in the loss of the World Trade Center and many lives. Something else was going on in New York City as well, two of rap’s most respected emcee’s were dropping albums.

Reporting by @Lathleen

We were living in an era where ipods and mp3 players didn’t exist yet. Many of us were ripping fresh plastic off our brand new CD cases in 2001. Rapper Fabolous, then 23, released his debut album entitled Ghetto Fabolous, on the same day Jay-Z, then 32,  released his sixth studio album entitled The Blueprint. The Blueprint featured Takeover a song that participated in what would be one of the biggest rap battles in hip hop history. It contained lyrics dissing his opponent Nas.

Fabolous’ debut album sold over 140,000 copies and was ceritied platinum in 2003. Fabolous’ career began when he first performed on a song with singer Lil Mo called Superwoman. Then he linked up with late rapper Nate Dogg for his debut single Cant Deny It. In an early career interview with JET Magazine, Fabolous says he wanted people to remember his name.  ”When I first started I spelled my name in about every song…now people get it. That’s my signature for people to know who I am. I started to hear people’s grandmother saying.” We all remember that spelling f-a-b-o-l-o-u-s on every track, for sure. Popular DJ, DJ Clue often gets credit for sparking Fabolous’ career.

Despite the 9/11 attacks, Jay-Z’s album The Blueprint sold over 400,000 copies in it’s first week and to no surprise, it was later certified platinum. Some folks even say that some of the songs on the album helped them cope with the devastation that was felt in New York City at the time due to the 9/11 attacks. The private rapper had a track entitled Song Cry (Sounds Like A Love Song) on the album which revealed a softer side of him. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. The Blueprint album was ranked #2 by Entertainment Weekly for Best album of the Decade. Chicago rapper Kanye West’s career was kicked off by producing songs for The Blueprint (Takeover, IZZO (H.O.V.A) and Never Change).

Tweet me and let me know what your favorite tracks were off both these historic albums @Lathleen !

Lathleen is an entertainment reporter and freelance writer based in New York City.

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