Idolator

When hyphy artist Mistah F.A.B. released the Ray Parker Jr.-sampling "Ghost Ride It", he got a ton of flak from Ghostbusters purists, who mocked the way his video's stars wore their proton packs. (They were upside-down. Heresy!) Now, F.A.B. is getting even more flak:

F.A.B. was first blamed for the deaths of people ghost ridin'. Then MTV asked that he edit his video over and over again for the single that featured the sport, and banned it right before it was going to air on 106 & Park and TRL. Finally, Columbia Pictures which owns the rights to the Ghostbuster franchise (the single's beat is based on that jingle) is demanding that the song be pulled.

F.A.B.'s response? "Adversity is something that shows the character of a person."

It costed $70 thousand of his own money, and he's fighting back with a mixtape called "Can't Ban The Ghost Rider."

F.A.B. admits to ghost ridin' himself, but he says it's important to be responsible for your own actions and to do it in a safe environment. For example, he says, one cannot throw a football in the middle of the street, and blame football if somebody gets run over.

While we appreciate that F.A.B. is taking life lessons from The Brady Bunch, we have to admit that, aside from the inconvenient matter of people dying, this "controversy" isn't a bit of a PR coup. For one thing, the talk of banning the video while copies of it remain on YouTube (above) is probably giving his song more buzz than a snippet of it airing on one of the daily video count down shows. And, perhaps more importantly, the cries of infringement put forth by Columbia soften any dissection by fanboys griping about the clip's lack of authenticity.

Hyphy rapper Mistah F.A.B. gets blamed for deaths, then banned by MTV and Columbia Pictures for "Ghost Ride It" [mercurynews.com]
Mistah F.A.B. [MySpace]
Earlier: Videodrone: Mistah F.A.B. Ain't Afraid Of No "Ghostbusters" Fans