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Ab- Soul nato Herbert Anthony Stevens IV,is an American hip hop recording artist hailing from Carson, California. He is a signer of the Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) record label and a member of the prolific rap group called Black Hippy along with his label mates and fellow Californian rappers Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q.
The rapper has released four independent albums under TDE: Longterm Mentality, Control System, These Days … and Do What Thou Wilt . As for his artistry, he is known for his introspective texts and imagery.
The rapper was born on February 23, 1987 in Los Angeles, California, and in 2019 he is 32 years old.
The rapper spent his first four years in Germany since his father was in the army. Her parents split up and her mother moved back to the United States and stayed with her grandmother in Carson, California.
The rapper’s net worth is estimated at around $ 1 million with his streaming revenue from the sales of his albums, concerts, live performances, and musical bio in a nutshell.
Ab-soul contracted a rare disease when he was 10. The rapper was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a condition linked to his hospitalization with symptoms characteristic of his dark lips and light-sensitive eyes. In an interview; he has declared:
“When I was ten I became seriously ill. It was a pretty vivid day. I got a rare virus called Steven-Johnson Syndrome. And it was very, very revolutionary for me. It obstructed my vision and my skin configuration. It definitely put a huge dent in my circle dreams. I also kept trying to play. I tried to keep playing with my shadows, it was really fun when I think about it now. Many of my friends have been really great. They weren’t going to make me feel different or anything, but I just thought … I won’t have the sharp vision for that. ‘During his teens, however, Stevens was harshly teased about his condition: “When I got sick when I was younger it obviously hit my lip skin, so at school I had very dark lips and low eyes. . I had to wear sunglasses and shit. So I was pretty weird. People made fun of my lips and said I look up. I didn’t even start smoking weed until after graduating from high school. ‘
The rapper wrote his first verse, to the tune of Twista’s ‘Emotions’, when he was 12:
“I was like, I can do this; I’ll try it. And I wrote it. It’s a day I remember vividly. Since that time I have had a keen interest in the whole craft. Be a huge fan of words and create a real connection with them. Saying things that can make you open your eyes. I can say something and I can make my head spin. ‘
As soon as he graduated from high school, he began to take his music career seriously:
“I just wanted to be tight [my raps] but I was growing a passion for it. It was only after I graduated from high school and entered community college that I realized I wanted to be a full-time rapper. I probably did the equivalent of half a semester in total, in my presence. I tried one semester and I dropped out and then I tried another semester and I dropped out. So it just didn’t work. ‘
Ab-soul met with the president and president of Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) in 2006. which, as the rapper puts it, ‘saw more in his music than metaphors and punchlines’ and in the 2007 officially joined the TDE bandwagon. The label is known for signing some prolific rappers such as Jay Rock, School boy and Kendrick Lamar. Ab-soul made a brief cameo in 2008 for rapper Jay Rock’s label mate commercial debut single, ‘All My Life (In the Ghetto)’.
In 2009, together with his label mates he formed the supergroup Black Hippy, The other members involved rappers Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock and K-Dot.
In January 2009, the rapper released his first mixtape from a series called Longterm. The mixtape, titled Longterm, was the first of a four-part series. In an interview he said: “When I did the first Longterm I knew there would be four. When I did the first. So there will be four: long term 1, 2, 3 and 4. So right now it’s two o’clock. You will have to wait for the next one. This is for the next Ab-Soul interview. ‘.
Ab-soul released his second mixtape and follow-up to his first, on June 28, 2010. The tape, titled Longterm 2: Lifestyles of the Broke and Almost Famous was highly acclaimed and saw the rapper sing in several songs.
The rapper had a long-term relationship with Alori Johnson, but their relationship ended when Alori took her own life on February 6, 2012.
Ab-Soul then began dating a fox model and video named Yaris Sanchez. The couple has always been a rather discreet couple, who have decided to keep their relationship private for the most part. The couple have been together for about four years and seem to be more in love than ever. His girlfriend decided to usher in a new year of her partner’s life by sharing a series of heartfelt photos of the two of them together.
In February 2011, the rapper revealed that he was working on an album called Longterm Mentality and on March 21, 2011, he released the music video for a song called ‘Nothin’ New ‘, in promotion for the album. He went on to tease the album by releasing a song on March 25 entitled ‘Gone Insane’, the fourth released track that was taken from the album.On March 30, a trailer for the Longterm Mentality album was released via Top Dawg Entertainment. On April 1, 2011 he released the music video for “Gone Insane”, directed by Top Dawg in-house directors Fredo Tovar and Scott Fleishman.
In an interview, he was sure to add that his label mates’ respective independent albums partly inspired the material on his long-term minded album:
“I compare [the process behind the] Long-Term Mindset to the process with all my joints. Kendrick’s STARTING was out and Q’s Setbacks was out. I had these bodies of work to start with as references, as inspiration. I’ve heard what Kendrick is talking about, what Q is talking about, I’ve heard what Jay Rock was talking about. So how am I going to put all this together and add my two cents too? How can I continue the sound but have my individuality as an artist? It’s the same challenge every time. ‘
on April 5, 2011, the rapper released his first independent album under his own record label; exclusively on iTunes with critical acclaim with albu, m. The album reaches number 73 on the chart of the best R&B / Hip-Hop albums in the United States.
Stevens began promoting his second independent album, Control System, releasing a song called ‘Black Lip Bastard’ on January 17, 2012. The song was produced by TDE in-house producer Willie B. The rapper revealed that the title of the ‘album is Control System on April 17, 2012 , and revealed that the release date will be May 11, 2012. Additionally, the rapper also released a music video for’ Pineal Gland ‘on the same day. On April 24, 2012, the rapper released a song produced by Nez & Rio, titled “SOPA”. The song referred to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a United States bill introduced by United States Representative Lamar S. Smith,
On May 4, 2012, it was revealed that ‘Black Lip Bastard’ has been remixed and will feature its cohorts Black Hippy, Rock, Lamar and Schoolboy Q.On May 8, 2012 his collaboration with Lamar was released, entitled “ILLuminate”. The day before the album’s release, Ab-Soul revealed the track list and released snippets of the album. .
The album was released exclusively via iTunes on May 11, 2012, under Top Dawg Entertainment. The album sold around 5,300 units in a shortened week, debuting at number 83 on the 200 Billboard and appearing on many other Billboard charts as well.The album sold around 3,700 copies next week.
The rapper released another music video on May 1, 2012, for a new song called ‘Empathy’. The song samples the voice of Ab-soul’s deceased girlfriend Alori Joh (December 16, 1986 – February 6, 2012), who committed suicide in early February.Alori’s death had a huge impact on Ab-soul and the Control System recording process .At the end of the album, the album wore an inscription: ‘Dedicated to the beautiful soul of Loriana Angel Johnson aka Alori Joh’
In late 2012, Ab-soul and fellow rapper Joe Budden teamed up on a project that resulted in a feature on Joe Budden’s mixtape: A Loose Quarter on the track ‘Cut From a Different Cloth’. The song was praised as one of the best songs on the Budden project. Budden has since announced that he and Ab-Soul have recorded many songs together that will see the light in the near future. Budden went on to praise Ab-Soul as ‘one of the best things in hip hop right now’
On March 26, 2013, it was announced that Ab-Soul would star in XXL ‘s 2013 Freshman Class issue, alongside Schoolboy Q and other up-and-coming rappers.
Ab-soul took to Twitter on May 5, 2014 to announce that his third album would go under the title ‘These Days….’On May 30, 2014, his record label; Dawg’s top management took to Twitter to reveal it These days… , it’s been scheduled for a June 24th release. consecutively that same day, TDE management also unveiled the album cover and released a music video snippet for the rapper’s song ‘Stigmata’.Ab-Soul released a music video on June 21st 2014 for a song called “Closure”, taken from their album These Days….
These days … it debuted at number 11 in the US Billboard 200, with first week sales of 21,812 copies in the US and received generally positive reviews from music critics.
In July 2015, Ab-soul took to Twitter confirming that his next album was ‘almost done’.Additionally, he provided an update on the album: ‘My album is almost done …’, he tweeted, adding: ‘It’s a love story.’ He completed the post with the hashtag “DWTW”, presumably the acronym of the title of the album he kept referring to.
On June 8, 2016, via Twitter, Stevens revealed that he had completed his next album and turned it in for mixing.The album, titled Do what you want. , was released on December 9, 2016 with a positive response.
The rapper claims the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964) as one of the publications that really enlightened him by saying, ‘It taught me a lot about people, religion, society, possibilities in society, success and things like that. From there, I have been very attentive to many of the major political or religious figures that we have and have kept an eye on [them]. It may seem transparent, but in the end it is very important [to draw your own conclusions]. ‘
As for the music, Ab-Soul cites fellow American rappers Twista, Canibus, Eminem, Nas and Lupe Fiasco as the biggest influences, with Jay Z being his biggest influence. He stated: “There are so many others, but those are the ones that came to my mind right now. These artists are basically the model for my format as an MC. Everyone captivates me with their music, whether it’s the atmosphere, the delivery, the cadence, the story or just the lyrics in general. ‘
The universe folds to a still mind, peace be calm.
“I try my best to be honest. Many of the greats before me have done the same and what you will come to find is that when you have the opportunity to share your words with millions of people, you are not the only one who has had that experience. This is the beauty in it. ‘~ Ab-Soul
‘We are all different and I respect my difference. I just try to be myself at all times. As long as I do it my music will always be different. ‘~ Ab-Soul
‘There are a lot of people in this world who listen to a wide range of music and there should never be a CERTAIN type of music that an artist should be limited to, in my opinion.’ ~ Ab-Soul
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