Black Concert: Ab Soul Live in Silver Spring MD Thursday 5-4 & Baltimore MD Saturday 5-6!
09:00 PM
Silver Spring, MD
In February 2011, Ab-Soul revealed he was working on an album titled Longterm Mentality, and subsequently released “Hell Yeah”, a track featuring Schoolboy Q. On February 22, 2011 Stevens released another promotional recording taken from the album, “Moscato”, a collaboration with another fellow Black Hippy, Kendrick Lamar. In February 2011, Stevens also embarked on the “Road to Paid Dues” concert tour, after being enlisted by fellow American rapper Murs.
On March 21, 2011 Stevens released the music video for a song titled “Nothin’ New”, in promotion for the album. On March 25, he released “Gone Insane”, the fourth track liberated that was taken from the album. On March 30, a trailer for Longterm Mentality, 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.
Stevens has stated the respective independent albums of his label-mates partly inspired material on Longterm Mentality: “I compare [the process behind] Longterm Mentality to the process with all of my joints. Kendrick’s OD had came out and Q’s Setbacks had came out. I had these bodies of work to go off of as references, as inspiration. I hear what Kendrick is talking about, I hear what Q is talking about, I heard what Jay Rock was talking about. So how am I going to piece this all together and add my own two cents, too? How do I continue the sound but have my individuality as an artist? It’s the same challenge every single time.” The album, although its title is Longterm Mentality, is not the third part of his Longterm series.
Soon after the release of Schoolboy Q’s second independent album, Habits & Contradictions (2012), Stevens began promoting his second independent album, releasing a song titled “Black Lip Bastard”, on January 17, 2012. On February 28, 2012, Ab-Soul, alongside Schoolboy Q, appeared on Sway Calloway’s #SwayInTheMorning radio show, where Ab-Soul called “Black Lip Bastard”: “pretty much one of the title tracks”, The first song that appears on the album, to be released was “Showin’ Love”, also produced by Willie B.
On March 24, Schoolboy Q announced #TheGroovyTour; a month-long tour with Ab-Soul accompanying him the entire way. The tour began on April 20, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California. On April 6, 2012, Ab-Soul liberated a song titled “Terrorist Threats”. The song features frequent collaborator Jhené Aiko and fellow American rapper Danny Brown, who proclaimed on Twitter that “Black Hippy the new Beatles and I’m Harry Nilsson”.
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”, a song inspired by the psychedelic drug DMT and of course the pineal gland, a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. On April 24, 2012, Stevens released another song, “SOPA”. The song, produced by Nez & Rio, references the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith, that would have allowed the U.S. government to control the Internet.
On May 1, 2012, Ab-Soul released another music video, for a new song titled “Empathy.” On May 4, 2012, it was revealed “Black Lip Bastard” was remixed and would feature his Black Hippy cohorts, Rock, Lamar and Schoolboy Q. On May 8, 2012, his collaboration with Lamar, titled “ILLuminate.”
(Second part of song)
Track Two
Pineal Gland
Bohemian Grove
Terrorist Threats
These Days
Just Have Fun
Twact
Dub Sac
Ride Slow
Hunnid Stax
Man of the Year
(ScHoolboy Q cover)
World Runners
Tree of Life
(Second part of song)
Stigmata
Tree of Life
Feelin Us
Illuminate
Nevermind That
W.R.O.H.
Encore:
God’s Reign
Control System (2012)
These Days… (2014)
Do What Thou Wilt. (2016)
