Ab-Soul

Ab-Soul's Control System is one of the most thoughtful, provocative and truthful albums of the year so far. It is a breath of blue dream steam from an industry that is sounding more than ever like it's running on schwag fumes. Unlike TDE counterpart Kendrick, who often sounds like he's channelling early Eminem, Ab-Soul doesn't really sound like anybody in the rap game, and that's a good thing. He has a high-pitched rapping voice that likes to run, like syrup, from flow to flow, punch line to punch line and epiphany to epiphany. Soul appears to abide by ScHoolboy Q's rule of thumb: attack a new flow in every song or, sometimes, every verse. Most of the production on Control System is handled by in-house (or close to house) production crew Digi+Phonics. On "Track Two," Soul shouts out Tae Beast – "these niggas done did it again. Tae Beast, why do that, man? Why the fuck you had to do that man? This shit sound like a hundred birds under the courts and sheriff's station" – channelling that similar intro from Kendrick's "Ronald Reagan Era." If Habits & Contradictions was a reinstatement of gangsta rap, then Control System is a giant leap forward in conscious rap. Never has there been, from a swag-era rapper at least, such an informed perspective on today's relevant issues. Cop Ab-Soul's Control System and prepare to enter the void.