![]() ![]() Stevens also began crafting his rapping skills at an early age: "I was on BlackPlanet freestyle chat, rapping my ass off. Stevens encountered music at a very young age, due to his family owning a record store. In his adolescent years, Stevens was severely teased about his condition. Newborn babies loved Michael Jackson." At the age of 10, Stevens contracted Stevens–Johnson syndrome, which caused him to be hospitalized and is the origin of his dark lips and light-sensitive eyes. But I know early on, I really, really liked Michael Jackson, like we all did. He once recalled being five years old: "I was serious into video games and basketball, at five. He spent the first four years of his life in Korea while his father was in the military, right up until his parents split and he and his mother subsequently moved back to the United States, to live in his grandmother's house in Carson, California. Herbert Anthony Stevens IV was born on February 23, 1987, in Los Angeles. He is perhaps most known for his introspective lyrics and his five independent albums under TDE, Longterm Mentality, Control System, These Days., Do What Thou Wilt., and Herbert, which were all released to positive reviews and commercial success. Raised in Carson, California, he signed to indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) in 2007, where he eventually formed West Coast hip hop group Black Hippy, alongside fellow California-based rappers Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. ![]() Ab-Soul can’t even fuck with Herbert,” one of his longtime friends, King Richard, says at the end of “No Report Card.” The Black Lip Bastard has set high standards, but his homie may have a point.Herbert Anthony Stevens IV (born February 23, 1987), better known by his stage name Ab-Soul, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. (The music video bravely recreates the conditions of his suicide attempt, while a separate lyrics video shows comments from fans sharing how the song impacted them.) “Herbert,” meanwhile, details the relentless string of struggles that he’s fought all his life: being diagnosed at 10 years old with the rare disease Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which impacts his skin and his vision losing his father to gun violence and his former partner Alori Joh to suicide and more.īut what’s notably missing from Herbert is those conspiracy theories that electrified older albums like Control System he’d rather mine his own life experiences for deeper meaning instead of digging through the annals of YouTube and message boards. He revisits his younger days of memorizing Kris Kross lyrics (“Hollandaise”) and dealing with shady promoters during his journey to rap stardom (“Moonshooter”) taps into the street culture of his hometown of Carson, California (“Gang’nem”) and spits like his life is on the line on the DJ Premier-produced “Gotta Rap.”īut the centerpieces of the album are “Do Better” and the title track, “Herbert.” On the former, Soul grapples with depression and substance abuse while motivating himself to strive for his personal best. It makes for his most grounded record yet: His boastful rhymes teem with gratitude, his nostalgic verses produce sharply distinct memories, and voicemails from family members and loved ones hold the album together. (This included things like seeing an image of Hitler in photos of the 9/11 attacks.) So this time around, the cerebral, heart-baring lyricist sheds the veneer of his rap moniker and exposes fans to his real name, Herbert. He lost two of his best friends-rappers Mac Miller and Doeburger-and started to climb out of what he describes as a “rabbit hole” of misinformation and conspiracy theories that impacted his relationships with loved ones and critics alike. In the six long years since Ab-Soul last released an album, he's been through a lot.
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