As Halloween night creeps in and the air turns cold, there’s no better time to revisit one of Hip Hop’s most haunting collaborations: Friday on Elm Street, the 2017 joint album from lyrical heavyweights Fabolous and Jadakiss. Originally teased under the title Freddy vs. Jason, the project fused horror-inspired imagery with razor-sharp bars, delivering a cinematic experience that embodied both artists’ street-rooted storytelling and lyrical precision.
Released on November 24, 2017, through SoRaspy, Street Family Records, Roc Nation, D-Block Records, Desert Storm Records, and Def Jam, Friday on Elm Street debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, moving 35,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. It marked Fabolous’ sixth top 10 album and Jadakiss’ fifth which was proof that two of New York’s most seasoned MCs could still command respect and numbers in an era dominated by streaming singles and viral trends.
The project featured Future on its lead single “Stand Up,” released fittingly on October 31 of that year, and included the earlier promotional track “Rapture” with Tory Lanez. With production from Vinylz, Cam O’Bi, and Metro Boomin, among others, the album balanced grit and atmosphere certifying a fitting soundscape for a project that paid homage to horror’s most iconic killers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.
Speaking with our friends at HipHopDX, Fabolous explained how the theme captured their creative chemistry: “…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.”
That eerie duality translated perfectly into the music. Fabolous played the slick-talking Freddy who was clever, sharp, and unbothered, while Jadakiss embodied Jason’s cold precision and silent menace. The chemistry between them was effortless, built over years of collaboration on tracks like “Respect It,” “B.E.T.,” and “The Hope.” What started as a rumored mixtape became a full-length project with a cinematic rollout that even included a horror-style trailer blending elements of The Blair Witch Project, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th.
Beyond the spooky concept, Friday on Elm Street was a reminder of why both rappers have endured for decades. The bars were crisp, the flows surgical, and the energy nostalgic which was a nod to Hip Hop’s mixtape era when lyricism and persona ruled the game.
Eight Halloweens later, Friday on Elm Street still holds up as a darkly imaginative collaboration that blurred the line between rap and horror. As the night falls and Freddy and Jason haunt movie marathons everywhere, it’s worth remembering that Fabolous and Jadakiss brought that same menace to the mic and turned it into timeless Hip Hop terror.