Friday on Elm Street (originally titled Freddy vs. Jason) is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Fabolous and Jadakiss. It was released on November 24, 2017, by Street Family Records, Roc Nation, D-Block Records, Def Jam Recordings.[1][2] The album is preceded by one single, "Stand Up" featuring Future.
Fabolous and Jadakiss have collaborated on a number of tracks, including "Respect It", "The Hope", "B.E.T.", Young Jeezy's "OJ" and Troy Ave's "Do Me No Favors".[3] The album is the speculated horror theme suggested by the title named after two of horror's most popular villains Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.[4] On January 7, 2017, Fabolous and Jadakiss had an interview with HipHopDX and Fab described the theme of the album during the interview.[5]
"...Jason, you knew he was killer. You knew his work and you knew what he do. Freddy was a killer, and he might be a little more witty, cuz he talk more. The Jason character didn’t really say much, but you knew he was there. You can’t even escape it. Once you heard those footsteps, you knew he was in the area. There’s a lot of comparisons when you want to compare to things, but that was one of the ones we were looking at with Freddy vs. Jason. When it came to villains, they were always the two that were brought up."
On February 29, 2016, Fabolous posted a picture on Instagram with Jadakiss with the caption, "Freddy vs. Jason coming soon". This indicates that Fabolous and Jadakiss are releasing a joint mixtape titled, Freddy vs. Jason.[6] On March 31, 2016, Fabolous releases a snippet of a Metro Boomin-produced song on Instagram that will appear on the album.[7] On April 2, 2016, Fabolous and Jadakiss released a freestyle of Future's "Wicked" from his mixtape, Purple Reign (2016).[8] That same day, Jadakiss tweeted "#FreddyVsJason" to promote the album.[9]
On March 16, 2016, Fabolous confirmed he was releasing a project with Jadakiss, "Oh yeah man, he came to my party out at CIAAinCharlotte and we was talking about doing a couple things and one was to do a mixtape[…]I wanna do a mixtape, but we're gonna go through iTunes too."[10] In October 2016, Lenny "Kodak Lens" Santiago, Senior Vice President of Roc Nation, told fans to prepare for the joint project.『Be excited about Fabolous and Jadakiss and what they’ve been talking about for months,』he told Rap-Up. On January 17, 2017, the official trailer for the album was released.[11] It's a blend of The Blair Witch Project, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. It's about a young woman running for her life, only to be disappointed, in tears, and haunted by a familiar yet frightening tune.[12]
On November 21, 2017, the tracklist was officially revealed, and the album's title was changed to "Friday on Elm Street," as legal issues prevented the duo from naming it "Freddy vs Jason."[13]
On January 13, 2017, the promotional single, "Rapture" featuring Tory Lanez was released. The song was produced by Vinylz and Cam O'Bi, which samples Anita Baker's, "Caught Up in the Rapture". The album's lead single "Stand Up" featuring Future was released on October 31, 2017.[14]
Friday on Elm Street debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 with 35,000 album-equivalent units, of which 20,000 were pure album sales.[15] It is Fabolous' sixth US top 10 album and Jadakiss' fifth.[15]
