Monday, June 9, 2014

Who Is Ab-Soul? by SirMichaelOriginal

 

            Most know of Ab-Soul as the TDE member with the long hair, black lips, and dark shades. Of course there’s more. The guy has an unmatched skill of mixing soul, reality, and meaningful wordplay together in a song. Standing out in group of diverse talent is pretty difficult and competitive, but Soul brother number two is handling it well. Go deeper into the conscious emcee’s mind below.
            The twenty-seven year old Ab-Soul was musically born in a family owned record shop. The shop was called Magic Disc and it opened the door for something different in Soul’s mind. The store allowed him to become student of music first and an emcee second. Having the works of Canibus, Eminem, Jay-Z, Twista, and Nas at arm’s reach gave Soul an advantage. Leaders of music planted an enriched seed and now we see the growth.
            Ab-Soul started his Longterm Mentality mixtape series in 2009 with project Longterm. A year and some months later Soul drops my favorite mixtape out his resume titled Longterm 2: Lifestyles of the Broke and Almost Famous.  This project is home to amazing tracks “Turn Me Up” featuring Kendrick Lamar, “Be a Man”, and “Soul Cry”. The mixtape as a whole is very personal and showcases what it means to pour out your soul in something.
            Creating a buzz from the two projects recently discussed, Soul releases the Longterm Mentality album in 2011. The album offers more complete songs and elaborate thoughts than his mixtapes. One of the best tracks off the album is “Nothing New” featuring the melodic voice of Jhene Aiko. Soul addresses world issues and personal matters that never change. Another highlight from the album is “Hell Yeah” which is assisted by Schoolboy Q. The song is very aggressive in the fact that the two are expressing their competitiveness against peers in hip hop. Ab-Soul started to gained momentum and listeners were anticipation for more.
            As the TDE name continued to grow, so did the artist. Ab-Soul kills his appearances on projects from Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q, thus drawing new listeners to his work. This leads up to the release of Soul’s science project Control System.  The album touches on sensitive personal and social issues while shedding light on possible resolutions for these issues. Every line, verse, and bar plays a critical role in the overall concept of the album.
            Currently, Ab-Soul is preparing the release of long awaited album These Days. With the release of lead single “Stigmata” featuring Action Bronson and Assad, as well as a video, give fans a lot to be excited for come June 24th.  In the meantime, do some homework of the intellectual Black Hippy member that was discussed above.
 


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