Sometimes you hear an artist and you just see their trajectory at an early stage. Then if you’re lucky to track that journey while they get more comfortable in their skin and confident in their age it’s straight magic. I first heard Herbert Anthony Stevens IV on a Black Hippy track called “Zip That Chop That” with his TDE cohorts, K-Dot aka Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, and Jay Rock. Jay Rock was coming off that unbelievable track with Lil Wayne and Kendrick was Rock’s hype man basically. Kendrick was soaking game and then you had Q and Ab just working on their craft and refining it like their cohorts. Here’s “Zip That Chop That” if you’ve never seen or heard it.
I can’t even tell you what year all of this was But when Kendrick dropped Overly Dedicated it came with so much hype from the blogs like 2DopeBoyz and SmokeSection.net. They were both on TDE early and us fans got to follow the rise of the brand out of LA. When Overly Dedicated dropped I knew K-Dot from the Kendrick Lamar EP but on this he took it to the next level and the production was literally on some next level shit. Just throw on “P&P 1.5” and tell me you don’t feel a certain way. All I need in life is p*ssy and patron? That’s how I’m trying to live, you?
While Kendrick was on a Michael Jordan type of ascension, Soulo was like the Dennis Rodman to the gang. He went against the grain and was a master wordsmith bringing dope lyrics on some west coast 2010’s gangster type vibes. I remember seeing “Day in a Life” and I felt he had an Eazy-E type of vibe. He was honestly a lost member of Ruthless Records from the late 80’s but here he was a new school cat. Pure dopeness.
Soulo was just popping up in a lot of songs I liked at the time because to me he was straight underground hip hop like I grew up to in the 90’s. Hip hop and skating go hand-in-hand for me so when Black Hippy dropped “Say Wassup” from the Jay Rock album Follow Me Home and utilized a fisheye lens for their videography I was all in. It felt like some Spike Jonze type shit from an old Beastie Boys video or any skate video during a time back in the day. This “Say Wassup” song tho??? How many times do you hear 4 rappers weaving through each other’s bars with complete fluidity? Smif-N-Wessun was always so good at the 2-man-rap back-and-forth and we can’t ever forget Tip and Phife from ATCQ doing their thing. But question to all you rap fans…. What song shows off a 4 man rap verse coming off like a cypher out on the curb after any hip show back in the 90’s? This 3rd verse on this track is on some shit.
“Turn Me Up” with Kendrick off the mixtape Long Term 2: Lifestyles of the Broke and Almost Famous” was keeping the fire streak alive while tracks like “Drift Away” were showing listeners the different styles Ab was capable of. I feel like “Drift Away” set the stage for Ab-Soul’s whole lane. Which was no damn lane… Just good vibes from a creative dude out of Carson, CA.
When I think of Soulo vibes I go right to songs like “Gone Insane” which has Ab just riding that beat like a jazz musician free flowing on a solo without giving any f*cks what anybody thinks. This Ab flow is just so good and then the chorus going through some of his non-rap influences mentioning artists like Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and John Lennon. Shout out to ScHoolboy Q who gives a nice chorus to stitch this song together so well. This was some trippy hip hop with wordplay for days that will straight go over most people’s heads.
Ab-Soul drops his new album Herbert next Friday and I think it’s going to be the rap album of the year that will cross genres in the same vein of Tyler. Soulo seems ready to blow on the mainstream level which is what I knew would happen when hearing him battle Kendrick on “ILLuminate” which is a 5 mic classic of a song. Each verse builds with the song and these TDE beats dropping on every album from Sounwave, Tae Beast, Willie B, and the whole production crew with mixing and mastering by MixedByAli? Guaranteed fresh. Man that TDE movement was something with all of those early albums from the crew. And the passion Ab-Soul and Kendrick bring on “ILLuminate” is something else.
“They wanna see me wear polo draws, put 2 chains on and that ain’t wrong but that ain’t me, I go too damn hard I don’t need clothes and jewelry to stand out…..”
Everything Soulo is dropping right now is fire. Every single, every feature, every radio interview, every lyric breakdown. This is now Ab-Soul’s time to show the entire world why he feels like he can run laps around Jay-Z now./ Love the full circle element captured in this recent meet up between Ab-Soul and Jay-Z. I feel like Jigga is going to hop on one of the tracks from Herbert like he did with Kendrick on the “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” remix. Jay knows when talent is about to blow and you just gotta wonder if Ab-Soul will go to Roc Nation or if he keeps it at home with Top Dawg and Punch. Either way, the fans will be there to watch Ab for all he is. One of the top 5 emcees in the game.
Here is my Ab-Soul playlist to celebrate the album Herbert dropping on Friday, December 16th. Couldn’t think of a better audio stocking stuffer for all of us hip heads. Check Spotify for the playlist and keep bumpin that good rap y’all.