Ab-Soul is a west-coast rapper and one of the most prominent rappers in the Top Dawg Entertainment label especially since the departure of Kendrick Lamar in 2021. Two years ago, we got Ab-Soul’s fifth studio album “HERBERT,” a more personal album that saw him dealing with the grief of the premature loss of close friend and fellow TDE affiliate, DoeBurger. While I respected “HERBERT” as a personal album with phenomenal standout tracks such as the moving “DO BETTER” and the punchline heavy banger “GOODMAN,” it was hit and miss for me as a whole. Now, Soul has come back with his sixth studio album named in tribute to his fallen friend “Soul Burger.”
While the album is named “Soul Burger,” similar to Ye’s “Donda,” it’s not really a personal memorial for his close friend but more like a record dedicated to him. Soul sticks to his bread and butter of West-Coast-style tracks with punchline heavy bars that still make him a standout amongst his peers, which we see on the intro track “9 Mile.” It’s an awesome avant-garde track where we see Soul deliver acapella bars over a barebones vocal sample for two minutes straight before transitioning to the “Shook Ones Pt. II” beat and interpolating Eminem’s iconic “8 Mile” verse into his own to talk about his struggles in the past few years, including a failed suicide attempt. Despite that, Ab-Soul is still moving forward and keeping his friend with him in spirit.
“9 Mile” establishes an unexpected theme we can see throughout the whole album which is the many layered references to other rappers. Just to name a few, he interprets lyrics from Jay-Z, Nipsey Hussle, Eminem, Lil Wayne, and more that go beyond my area of knowledge. He even goes so far as to have two whole songs on the album be one big reference to other rappers in “B.U.C.K.O. Jr” (a reference to Lil Wayne’s “BM J.R.”) and “Squeeze 1St 2” (a reference to Jay-Z’s “Squeeze 1St).
The former is a track I have very mixed feelings on. It’s purposefully reminiscent of Lil Wayne and has a few admittedly clever and funny lines like, “Cannibal on instrumentals, dinnertime, I meet you I got cake, she got cake, my thing’s a sweet tooth.” I find that “B.U.C.K.O. Jr” lacks charm and the instrumental is insultingly bland and boring for how long the track is. “Squeeze 1St 2” is a track that works much better thanks to standout production and much more consistent killer bars: “I do it, I was born with this style, it’s unfortunate how / They put a pro-choice in question like abortion is now.”
Outside of the few standout tracks, “California Dream” and “Don Julio 70” with great features from both Vince Staples and Fre$H respectively, the three track run from “Squeeze 1St 2” to “Peace” is the best part of the project. “Crazier” has a fittingly haunting beat and solid verses from guest star JID and Soul. The following track “Peace” is easily the best track on the project that is executed perfectly on all fronts. The concept of the track is healing and finding peace again stemming from the death of DoeBurger echoed by the somber chorus sung by Soul and TDE President Punch.
On the lyrical front, legendary lyricist Lupe Fiasco delivers a stellar verse with some of the best and wittiest punchlines of the whole project, “Drum clip like Whiplash, that’s kick crash, that’s symbolic Art Blakey with the arm lately, that’s stick math.” This is followed by the most moving and heartbreaking moments on the record as we get a full verse from DoeBurger where he essentially tells the listeners to stop crying and move on and ironically talks about his hypothetical death in a chilling line “I’m speakin’ in past tense like I ain’t still here.”
The album finishes out strong with “Righteous Man.” The beat is another standout on the project that interpolates the “How Much A Dollar Cost” instrumental. Here we see Soul come back with full confidence and tell the listener what he sees himself as after the healing process as a “Righteous Man.”
This album is really authentic and effective, but the amount of middle-of-the-ground, uninteresting tracks like the run from tracks seven through 10, especially the unnecessary track “Go Pro,” bloat the album, which is unfortunate because in the moments where Soul is really trying and bearing out all his feelings, it works really well.
Rating: 3/5
Appreciate the write up, but how do you review this project without mentioning the slap: All That, with great feature by Problem