Download Ab Soul Control System Album Zip
Higinia Livoti
Now here's Ab-Soul, speaking for himself, on the opening track to his resounding new full-length Control System: "Said I was the underdog/ Turned out I was the secret weapon." The album opens with a quote from Janet Jackson ("This is a story about control/ My control"), and Control System similarly feels like a young artist discovering his voice. Ab-Soul is the only member of Black Hippy from the suburbs (Carson, Calif.); he throws around terminology like "paradigm shift" in his lyrics. He is probably the member of Black Hippy who has spent the most time in a headlock. But Control System booms with self-possession and confidence. "I used to wanna rap like Jay-Z, now I feel I can run laps around Jay-Z," he tells us matter-of-factly on "ILLuminate", and I think of Lil Wayne explaining why he called himself "Best Rapper Alive" on Dedication 2: When you are busy mastering your craft, you should absolutely feel like you are the best at it in the universe. Ab's record is an exhilarating real-time document of that process.
Control System is the second studio album by American rapper Ab-Soul. It was released on May 11, 2012, by Top Dawg Entertainment. The album features guest appearances from Jhené Aiko, Danny Brown, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, BJ the Chicago Kid, Kendrick Lamar, JaVonte, Punch, Ashtrobot and vocals from the late Alori Joh. The album's production was handled by Digi+Phonics, King Blue, Nez & Rio, Skhye Hutch, Curtiss King, Aahyasis, and Tommy Black.[1]
The album is Ab-Soul's fourth full-length project, which was preceded by numerous promotional singles, the first being "Black Lip Bastard" on January 17, 2012. The song was produced by Willie B.[2] On February 28, 2012, Ab-Soul, along with Schoolboy Q, appeared on Sway Calloway's #SwayInTheMorning radio show, where Ab-Soul called "Black Lip Bastard": "pretty much one of the title tracks",[3] the song, however, failed to make the album's final track listing. The first song that appears on the album, to be released was "Showin' Love", also produced by Willie B.[4] On April 6, 2012, Ab-Soul released the track, titled "Terrorist Threats". The song features frequent collaborator Jhené Aiko and Danny Brown, who proclaimed on Twitter that "Black Hippy the new Beatles and I'm Harry Nilsson".[5]
On April 17, 2012, Ab-Soul revealed the album's title to be Control System and unveiled the release date to be May 11, 2012. That same day he also released a music video for "Pineal Gland".[6][7] On April 24, 2012, another single, by the title of "SOPA" was released. The song, produced by Nez & Rio, references Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a United States bill introduced by US Representative Lamar S. Smith, that would've allowed the US government controversial control over the internet.[8]
On May 1, 2012, Ab-Soul released another music video for a song titled "Empathy"; the song features vocals from JaVonte and his late friend and girlfriend Alori Joh, who committed suicide in February 2012.[9] On May 4, 2012, it was revealed "Black Lip Bastard" was remixed and will feature his Black Hippy cohorts, Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q.[10] On May 8, 2012, his collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, titled "Illuminate" was released. The music video would be released on January 15, 2013.[11] The day before the album's release Ab-Soul revealed the track listing and released snippets from the album. The album, as written on the back cover, is "Dedicated to the beautiful soul of Loriana Angel Johnson aka Alori Joh"[12]
Upon its release, Control System received universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".[14] The album was named the 20th best of 2012 by Complex Magazine.[23] Spin Magazine named the album the twelfth best hip hop album of 2012.[24] Robert Christgau ranked the album 46th on his 2012 "Dean's List".[25]
With that being said this is a great project from Soul-O nearly every song is damned good and whenever he drops this next album, hopefully he can have a well executed conceptually amazing piece of art.
Throughout the release, Ab-Soul gives the listeners colorful displays of lyricism over textbook Top Dawg Entertainment sound. With Ali at control of the helm with top notch engineering, the shades-wearing rhymer delivers a vocal style punctuated by dramatic swings in delivery. AS does a great job representing the common man's thoughts on everyday issues. He enlists Tae Beast, Sounwave, Willie B, Dave Free and more to create a project with a combination of eerie and soulful beats throughout.
Ab-Soul is a Top Dawg Entertainment signee and a member of the West Coast musical outlet, Black Hippy. Prior to Control System, Ab-Soul released his debut studio album Longterm Mentality, on April 5, 2011. Control System was released on May 11, 2012.
I remember when I first discovered Ab-Soul my sophomore year of college. I sent my brother a random picture of myself and he claimed I looked like this rapper who he knew I never heard of. Since my brother has a pretty great musical opinion I decided to check out Ab-soul (mainly to lie and say I knew who he was the whole time) and instantly fell in love with his music. His raps were intelligent, riddled in double entendres and required you to do a bit of research just to understand what he was saying half the time. This was my kind of hip hop and honestly still is.
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A: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Honestly, it's a huge relief for me, because for a long time it felt like making an album was this daunting task, and I had to be at the center of it. It wasn't fun anymore.
A: The second I heard that song, I was totally blown away. It was a really cool opportunity to go in a direction that I've always wanted to go in - kind of bridging the gap between things that I love about soul and funk and Prince but also very poppy. I'd never been able to quite master that idea.
The Opportunity: Since arriving in 1995 with their eponymous debut album, Foo Fighters have established themselves as one of the preeminent rock bands in the world, earning 15 Grammy Awards along the way, including winning Best Rock Album five time...
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