Album Review: Ab-Soul - Control System - RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture

Ab-Soul’s full-length, independent album, Control System, is a new precedent in swag-era hip-hop. It is smart, passionate, empathetic and, above all else, brutally honest. As the self-proclaimed ‘deep thinker’ of TDE, Ab-Soul can’t help but try to align himself with former black leaders of America. That is, discounting Obama, whom Soul calls out on “Terrorist Threats”. Control System is an album about freedom: the lack thereof it, and how to steal it back. Control System is a call to arms.

Unlike Kendrick, who can often be mistaken for the rapper he is channeling – sometimes he sounds a bit too much like Em – Ab-Soul is his own voice. He can be high energy and angry, like a KRS-One, or he can be soulful and full of color, like a DJ Quik. Sometimes you never know what to expect from Soul. He’ll lead you along with a specific flow, and then right when you think the punchline is about to drop, he’ll take a left turn and tail off into the chorus. As ScHoolboy Q likes to remind us, those TDE cats have flows for days.

Album standouts include “Track Two,” “Pineal Gland,” “Mixed Emotions” and “Beautiful Death.” “Track Two” begins with a familiar intro: Soul begging in-house (or close to house) producer Tae Beast of Digi-Phonics to take it easy on the boards, as “this shit sound like 100 birds under the courts and sheriff’s station.” The vibe intensifies further on “Pineal Gland,” a piano-driven macabre number, that has Soul lecturing as to why he can’t take other rappers seriously: they failed at testing the shapes that crawl behind the sky, more or less. “Mixed Emotions” is a change-up. It is the closest thing on the LP to a party song, yet still has Soul spilling his guts about why he sips lean. Understandably, he dreams of buying out the bar, posting up in the VIP, refusing a drink, and sippin lean for all to see. Soul indicates that he sips lean so that he can say, with much emphasis, “get off my dick.” Finally, “Beautiful Death” comes in near the end of the album to summate what Soul is really trying to say with this project; Something along the lines of: We ought to “break ties from the everyday lies…” and not be “so afraid to die,” all over a scratchy piano sample and steely drums.

Control System, despite its mixtape promotion, is not the kind of album you bootleg, listen to once through, and then forget about until you’re conversing with a fellow hip-hop head and don’t want to sound misinformed. Control System sticks with you. Ab-Soul, beyond just musical prowess, is a master of rhetoric. After 17 songs he truly has you convinced that freedom is something worth fighting for.