SOUL VISION
SHOW DISCIPLINE
I came across Ab-Soul in a very genuine way. He was probably the third member of Black Hippy that I discovered. I was aware of Jay Rock due to his song with Lil Wayne—I remember that being played a lot.
And then, of course, I knew about Kendrick because of Overly Dedicated and Section.80. I got put on to Kendrick by being a J. Cole fan. In an interview, J. Cole gave a huge shout-out to Kendrick, so I went and checked out Overly Dedicated—and that project was amazing.
From there, I noticed Ab-Soul features on both projects. He’s on Overly Dedicated, and he’s on a few songs on Section.80. So when he dropped Control System, I think those were the only reasons I checked for it—without knowing I’d be opened up to a guy rapping about Anunnakis, the pineal gland, and taking over the government.
Ab-Soul is prolific in that way and very unique—he raps about a lot of things other people don’t touch. The title Control System refers to being controlled, making people aware of… For example, I learned the terms “chattel” and Stephen Johnson syndrome from Control System. He opened my mind up with just that album. He was also very transparent, talking about his ex, who had committed suicide. Every song on there was amazing to me.
And then, to put the cherry on top, I found an early interview where he talked about being a huge Reasonable Doubt fan. I thought that was very cool—a guy who looks like Eazy-E from the West Coast, with the big shades and the curly hair, rapping about the things he raps about. Shout out to that song.