State Champ Radio ab-soul
Ab-Soul was largely seen as a neutral player in the ongoing Joey BadA$$ versus the entire West Coast beef that’s going down, but it appeared that the back-and-forths were done with. Ab-Soul emerged with a new track addressing the war of the coasts while also throwing a shot towards DJ Akademiks that sparked an expected response from the media figure.
Ab-Soul recently joined Big Sean and JoeyBad$$ two weeks ago in a Red Bull Spiral Freestyle, where the Black Lip Pastor spoke directly to Badmon’s salvo against the West Coast. However, Soul also showed his alignment and respect for BadA$$’s Pro Era team and kept things strictly rap.
Since that time, a barrage of songs from Soul’s TDE labelmate Ray Vaughn, Hitta J3, Az Chike, Daylyt, and more. Joey got backup from the likes of his Pro Era colleagues Nyck Caution and CJ Fly, along with jabs from Generation Now’s Kai Ca$h among others.
The new drop from Ab-Soul was produced by Low The Great, who has a project with the aforementioned Az Chike, and Python P, whom Soul has worked with on previous tracks. The first half of the new joint finds Soul rapping in an aggressive double-time flow at a lower register than we normally hear him, conversational in tone as he dissected Daylyt and Vaughn’s battle bars and their assumed flaws.
In the second half of the song, Soulo ramps up the energy and lets it be known that while he has love for Pro Era, it’s still very much Carson and TDE for life for the lyricist. In this half, Soul raps that he’ll smack Akademiks when he sees him, setting off an entirely new thread to this coastal conflict.
Ak, talking to his fans on stream, fired back with the threat of death towards Soul, saying, “If you ever raise a hand on me, it’ll be your last day on Earth, n*gga. You’ll join Nipsey, King Von, and Pac. All of y’all gonna be having a good time.”
Fans on X caught wind of DJ Akademiks issuing the grim warning towards Ab-Soul and dropped off some choice words. We’ll share the reactions from all sides, along with the track in question, below.
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Photo: Gilbert Flores / Getty
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Red Bull Spiral, the innovative Hip-Hop series from Red Bull 1520, is back for a third season and is kicking things off with three lyrical heavyweights. Big Sean, Joey BadA$$, and Ab-Soul all hopped into the Red Bull Spiral cypher with their unique, face-melting bars.
Opening up the Red Bull Spiral is Big Sean, with the Detroit wordsmith sounding comfortable over the head-nodding production behind him with some assistance from Joey BadA$$ and Ab-Soul. After Sean Don playfully says that Ab-Soul’s lady told him that he was going to “wash” him in the cypher, the Black Lip Pastor returns the jab but delivers another one of his amazing displays of lyricism as only the Martin Luther King of Carson can. In his verse, Soul-O also shouts out BadA$$’s Pro Era set but still flies the TDE flag high.
On the anchor, the Brooklyn Bad Mon Joey BadA$$ ripped a hole in the multiverse with his bars and backed up all the tough talk he delivered over his blistering “The Ruler’s Back” track, expertly saluting Ab-Soul’s hometown and shouting out Sean. The synergy between the trio makes it appear as if they were an actual group, but this is the first time the three stars have appeared on a track of this sort. And if there was any doubt about Joey’s love for the West Coast, it was squashed amicably at the end of his set.
Check out Big Sean, Ab-Soul, and Joey BadA$$ in the Red Bull Spiral cypher below. Peep the lyrics here.
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Photo: Koury Angelo / Red Bull Content Pool
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Kendrick Lamar may have released his last album on TDE with Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, but the label isn’t going to be deterred from continuing to give the streets what they want. TDE’s top dog, no pun intended, teasing a new project that’s been raising many eyebrows as it may involve K. Dot.
Over the weekend, Top Dawg Entertainment founder, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith was fielding questions from fans on Twitter. When someone asked whether we’d get a new Black Hippy song, Tiffith not only said there’s a chance of a new song but suggested an entire project may be forthcoming. “I think they will… they owe y’all an album or EP,” he tweeted.
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Featuring the label’s heavy hitters of Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul, Black Hippy’s pleased fans over the years with a few songs under their belt. But they never actually dropped an entire project together. With each artist experiencing solo success and focusing on their own careers, they probably haven’t had time to get together and hammer out an entire record together.
While we await word on a potential Black Hippy project, Tiffith does have a slate of projects planned to release throughout 2023. Jay Rock, Reason, and Q amongst others should have new work out in these streets if they “do their part.”
That’s good and all, but we want a Black Hippy album above everything else now that it seems like an actual possibility. In an interview with MIC back in 2022, TDE President Terrence “Punch” Henderson explained why a Black Hippy album never happened.
“Everybody was never in the same timeframe. So we didn’t want to hold back; we wanted to keep going and just push further into their individual careers,” Henderson said.
Hopefully, for the sake of their fans, Black Hippy can carve out some time to create something special that’ll live in Hip-Hop lore forever. We might’ve never gotten a Murder Inc. album (Jay-Z, Ja Rule & DMX), but maybe we can get a Black Hippy album in our lifetime when it’s all said and done.
Do y’all think Black Hippy should make an album or EP happen? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Photo: Getty
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