Ab-Soul is giving us a bit of a break from Ab-Soul. The Carson, California rapper’s last album, Herbert, sheds his alter-ego and gives listeners their clearest glimpse of who the man born Herbert Anthony Stevens IV is. And for Soul Burger, released today, he’s decided to rap from the perspective …
Read More »Why Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' Should Get Album of the Year at the Grammys — and Kendrick Lamar Should Get Song of the Year
Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter is much more than a country album — it’s actually a tour through the Black roots of American music that manages to be both thematically rich and stuffed with indelible pop songs, in multiple genres. Kendrick Lamar‘s virtuosic “Not Like Us,” meanwhile, completely transcends its status as …
Read More »He Made His Mark on Kendrick's 'Damn.' Now TDE's Zacari Is Ready for His Moment
“Love.,” the four-time platinum single from Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opus Damn., was made an inescapable earworm and a breath of fresh air with a timeless hook from Zacari. At the time, the young singer was not yet signed to Kendrick’s label, Top Dawg Entertainment, but was managed by TDE …
Read More »Ab-Soul is Finally Ready to Share His Truth
I n the parking lot of Anderson Memorial Park in Carson, California, just south of Compton and north of Long Beach, Ab-Soul chain-smokes Newports and speaks gently. We’re close to the houses he grew up in alongside his mother, aunts, and paternal grandparents. “I kinda like to call it the …
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