Tag Archives: Mac Miller

The Next Step • Ab-Soul’s rising popularity leads to greater responsibility, but that doesn’t mean he’s not having the time of his life

It’s not breaking news at this point, but in the hip-hop world, no one is touching T.D.E. The Los Angeles-based team of Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Isaiah Rashad is loaded with talent, and with nine albums combined over the past three years, they have yet to shoot a brick. It’s evident that they are students of the game, with a deep respect for the craft and culture. Favoring quality over quantity, and exercising patience in pursuit of perfection, they have earned the top spot with pure skill, sans gimmicks. The strength of the dynasty though is their unique but complementing personalities, and none is more bold and boundless than Ab-Soul.

From his flowing hair and dark shades, to his wordplay and concepts, it’s clear Soul is a free spirit. With his debut Longterm Mentality (2011), and more widely recognized Control System (2012), Soul established himself as the thinking man’s rapper, a mad scientist of sorts: wise beyond his years, willing to experiment with styles and substances in an effort to explore and expand. From conspiracies and religion, to drugs and love, he tackled it all with a fresh perspective, assuming the role of educating through rap. While folks were quick to label him a “conscious rapper” due to his content, doing so was only hearing one side of a man with exponential potential.

In June 2014, at 27 years young, Soul released These Days, an album he explains is a reflection of the times. No longer the unknown or overlooked MC, he stepped up and knocked out his most diverse album to date. Still sharp, still dropping science and always having fun in the process, These Days shows an MC finding his groove with no intention of slowing down or getting comfortable.

Submerge caught up with Soul on a Sunday morning as he relaxed in his tour bus bunk before he stopped in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2014.

Photo by Slick Jackson

How do you enjoy tour life? Is it fun, work or a constant battle between the two?
It’s all of that, but this is the dream. This is what we came here for. It’s work in terms of movement, but I’m having a great time.

Are you able to get a lot of writing done?
I write all the time. I don’t necessarily use paper or utensils; words come to me constantly. The writing never stops. I’m always creating and composing, whatever the circumstance may be. I’m always creating and observing, always trying to come up with something clever to say. Even right this second.

Talking about how you’re always writing, and how where you’re at is all part of the dream of making it, how have things changed as the stakes get higher and your craft becomes a career?
I won’t say it’s a job, but I would say it’s more of a responsibility. I have a larger audience to cater to now. There are a lot more people that want to ask me questions, like yourself, and I have a responsibility to do so, even though I’m like half passed out in my bunk on a bus right now [laughs].

What about with recording? Do you take that same responsibility with you?
Yeah, absolutely, but I talk about what I want to talk about. I don’t talk about what I think I need to talk about. There is nothing that I have to talk about, but I try to talk about whatever it is that I want to talk about.

You strike me as a pretty heady person. Do you ever find yourself becoming a victim to your thoughts, or does writing/recording free you from that?
I don’t like phrases like “you’re thinking too much” or stuff like that. I don’t think you can think too much. Your brain is a very powerful tool. I’m optimistic, though… As much as I may be in my head all of the time, I understand that I don’t have all of the answers. I’m not afraid to ask questions, or reason with anyone. So, even if I am in my head so much, I’m not afraid or ashamed to be incorrect or get to the bottom of something.

I really dig the album, but I know there are groups of people who were expecting a Control System 2. Can you talk about expectations, and people wanting to keep you in a box?
People love this album man! With These Days I was just trying to capture as many sounds of the times as possible. I challenged myself to create a project that everybody could relate to today. Even if you wouldn’t expect me to do a song like “Twact,” I challenged myself to try and cover as many of the sounds as possible. But yeah, I think people feel like a negative response makes people want to respond more than positive responses. These shows have been great, though, so I don’t know who is saying what. I think we’re just reading comments from folks who don’t get out of the house.

On “Ride Slow” you say, “These rhythms are visions of me living colossal. Ahead of my time, in time you’ll find that I’m a fossil.” Can you elaborate more on that?
Yeah, I mean these rhythms are literally visions of me living colossal. All art transcends art, so as a rapper, sometimes I’m a painter, a storyteller. We as rappers, we embellish a lot, make things more colorful than they may actually be by using crazy analogies and metaphors. If I’m ahead of my time, as a figure of speech as an old soul, then I could potentially be a fossil. An old monument that still holds value. Shout out to Mac Miller on the beat…real spooky beat.

Word, yeah I understand you were on a good one when you recorded that song.
Yeah, yeah hell yeah. I had the tabs on my tongue. We did it in like 20 to 30 minutes. I had my verses ready by the time he finished the beat… With that, please be responsible with the psychedelics. They are mind-altering. I’m not trying to persuade anyone to do any of that.

I get the feeling it’s not recreational for you, but more of a spiritual thing.
Definitely. I take a scientist approach with almost everything I do. It’s like an experiment. An experience. A lot of legendary people that we look up to dabbled in these things, so I’m trying find the connection between them and this.

On the cover, you’re pictured bloodied, wearing a crown of thorns, sitting in front of wooden cross. It’s a powerful image, and I’m curious what moved you in that direction to represent the album.
I feel like these days Jesus has become one of the most popular figures. I just feel like religion has been heavily referenced in music, like the gods are back. The God MCs are back, like Rakim and them. I think Jesus represents all of us, and that is another message that I’m trying to get across. Being willing to sacrifice yourself for what you feel is the greater good. Being able to sacrifice yourself to tell the truth, because you feel like it’s important to be honest. I think Jesus represents all of us, personally. If you’re willing to take that sacrifice for your greater good, for your people, then you too can be Christ-like.

And this extends past rap I imagine.
Absolutely… I do have hair of wool and feet of bronze though, so you never know [laughs].

Was there a moment over the past couple years where you felt like it was clear this is your destiny?
It has been a series of events. What has been remarkable to me, since I’m on this…you know everyone wants to attach me to this conscious or spiritual type of wave. What’s ill is that there has been MCs kicking this shit before I even started rapping. Before I knew what rap was! These same concepts that I’m speaking on have been spoken on long before I picked up a pen or really listened to rap music at all. So for me to be here, speaking on these same things without having the knowledge of all of the stuff that has been said before, it’s spiritual. This is supposed to be said. Jay-Z has been J-Hova this whole time, and I don’t think people really notice that. We’ve been God MCs from the beginning. Rakim done made hip-hop a religion. So for me to be here, describing these things in my music, and then going back and hearing these same concepts being spoke on, I feel like it’s all supposed to happen. I’m sure I haven’t said nothing that hasn’t been said twice. No idea is original; there is nothing new under the sun. But for me to be here speaking on these things and gain respect from artists who I respect, I feel like that our purpose is clear. You know, push intelligence in our movement, our religion.

AB-Soul_s_Submerge_Mag_Cover

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A constant collaborator, indie rapper Murs remains strongly individual

Los Angeles rapper Murs never sought to be different as an angle or platform to get his music heard. His moniker is an acronym that translates to Making Underground Raw Shit or Making the Universe Recognize and Submit. Now in his thirties, Murs is still out to make raw music, but with a grown man’s wisdom.

Murs came up in the Living Legends collective, a group of eight rappers from the Bay Area and greater L.A. area. He’s put out seven records as a solo artist, on both indie and major labels, and worked on collaborative records with Slug of Atmosphere (as Felt), 9th Wonder, Terrace Martin, and his group 3 Melancholy Gypsys. Murs related that his openness to collaborate and exclude no one from his inner circle stems from moving a lot as a kid and an adult philosophy on acceptance.

He brings this philosophy to his Paid Dues Festival, which he held last month in San Bernardino, Calif. He said he fielded some criticism from people who crusade for “positive rap” for including the L.A. collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All on the bill.

“Just because they’re negative, doesn’t give you the right to say you’re positive, but fuck them,” he said. “As soon as you step outside of your positivity and say fuck someone else, you’re no longer being a positive person who listens to this progressive music you’re so proud of.

The same philosophy on life has to be extended to your music and the same philosophies in your music have to extend to your life. There are a lot of people who don’t do both.”

Murs’ latest album, Love and Rockets Vol. 1: The Transformation, was released in October 2011, but he’s just now beginning to work on Vol. 2. In the following interview, Murs speaks more about the Paid Dues festival as well as his slate of upcoming projects, including a collaboration EP with Fresno-based rapper Fashawn.

What I’ve enjoyed about the Paid Dues Festival you throw, is that there never seems to be exclusion or allegiance to a certain sub-genre of hip-hop. You have no problem inviting Mac Miller and Dipset, along with Boot Camp Clique and Brother Ali–people who probably would never share a bill together. What’s your mindset in curating?
It’s started with me trying to get all my friends together. I was the guy that was friends with Aesop and El-P and down with the Legends. We all knew of each other, but I was the one who’d sleep at their houses and know everyone’s wives and girlfriends and kids. That kind of stuff. So I was able to bring everybody together.

In the same groove, I did a song with Kendrick Lamar–like before Dr. Dre knew who he was. So I was in with those guys. I was at the first Odd Future Christmas show. My former assistant is now their road manager. I have a genuine connection to so many people. Growing up I realized that people aren’t all that different. I seem to be in the center of this web. Five years before the Based God was born, Lil’ B was coming to my shows at Berkeley.

I don’t have any borders in my life. So the festival has always been a reflection of me bringing my friends together.

Living Legends just rocked Paid Dues together. You guys still make music together. Not a lot of groups can say that about their careers over the passage of time. What keeps everything tight knit amongst the crew?
I don’t know, man. Everybody is who they are. We’re a group of eight individuals. The name and the crew existed, and we didn’t even think about making a record together until Almost Famous in 2001. We’d been living together and touring together for years and never even thought about it. Then, it was three or four years before we thought about making another one.

As much as people say it, it was never Wu-Tang Clan or Odd Future or Hieroglyphics. It was something different. It works for us, but the individuality for other crews may not work.

Love and Rockets Vol. I is obviously part of a series. How is Vol. 2: The Emancipation coming along?
It’s not on a deadline. I think about it every day, write little notes for it, but I don’t think it will come out until like Paid Dues [Festival] 2013.

Will it be produced by Ski Beatz again?
Umm, probably not. It could always change. I know certain things about it I’m not ready to reveal yet. It was never intended to be Murs and Ski Beatz Present Love and Rockets. There will be another book with it. I can say that. It may be an electro record for all I know. It may be a symphony. I don’t know who I might meet next. I don’t want people read this article and say, “Aww, he said it was going to be Araabmuzik producing soft jazz shit.” I don’t want that down the line.

What are you looking at releasing before that? I saw on your wiki page that you’ve got an EP in the works with Fashawn.
We’ll hopefully have that done by the summer. These two producers, K-Salaam and Beatnick, we’d talked about doing something together for a while. My solo albums, up until my last one didn’t seem to be working out, so we’d been trying to find away to work together because I’m a big fan of their music. They suggested collaboration with someone, threw out possible members of The Lox and went through all these musicians and connections we both have.

Then, he brought up Fashawn, and Fash is a kid I’ve seen around and talked to, had him on Paid Dues, but we didn’t ever vibe or kick it. I’m a fan of Fash though, like I have his album [Boy Meets World] and the Grizzly City mixtapes. But it seemed like it might make sense as an outsider option. Randomly, Fash’s manager called me just asking for advice and just update on business. I told her it was crazy she called me. But I had to ask if Fashawn was even a fan of mine. I didn’t want to assume anything.

Have you recorded any songs yet for the project?
We recorded a song that was completely funny. We have a lot of similarities. He goes through the same things I go through. I’m associated with the backpack crowd like Aesop Rock and Atmosphere. He’s associated with The Alchemist and Evidence. But, we’re in a middle ground together of rapping about inner city and at-risk youth–but we’re both non-traditional with it. Things are naturally coming together. We’ve got way more in common ground than I expected.

K-Salaam and Beatnick have this really mid-to-late ‘90s sound they’re giving us. It’s sounding like, what I hope will be the West Coast version of [Only Built 4] Cuban Linx [Raekwon’s solo debut]. That’s ambitious, but you set the bar high to shoot for the stars and land on the moon, type thing. It will be for people who genuinely love Raekwon and Ghostface and Tha Dogg Pound.

Have you and Fashawn had the opportunity to record together or is it a project that’s emailed back and forth?
Every time we’re both in L.A. we’ll hang out for four or five hours. We got the name of the album, while hanging out with Maseo of De La Soul. Maseo basically named the record.

As long as there’s an understanding or friendship between the two it works. I used to think that we have to be sitting there and looking at each other. But, the more I’d talk to people like DJ Quik and hear about how he recorded All Eyez on Me, people can tell if there’s a true connection or if it’s forced.

Have there been projects you’ve turned down from a lack of connection?
Definitely. I wouldn’t name those projects though. There’s people I’m good friends with, but we haven’t made good music together. Brother Ali and me are the best of friends, but we’ve never made a song together. We’ve toured together. That’s my homie. That’s my brother. We’ve just never recorded a song together. It’s never even come up.

There are people I’ve tried to record stuff with and we both just let it sit there and nothing happened with it.

Have you considered updating the MURS acronym?
No. I’m not doing anymore. No more of that shit.