Ab-Soul's Control System: The Album That Showed How Dangerous He Could Be

Vance and Ahki go back to 2012 for Ab-Soul's Control System, the album Vance calls Soul's peak and one of the best projects TDE ever put out. He explains how GTA VI anticipation and old memories of Illuminate sent him back to the record, and the two trace where Control System sat in TDE's early run alongside Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, and the Black Hippy era.

They dig into the Digi+Phonics production, then work through the songs that still hit: SOPA and the 2012 fight over internet censorship, Bohemian Grove and its conspiracy talk over a party groove, Terrorist Threats, and Rebellion. Ahki gives an extended reading of Double Standards and how young men and women get judged differently.

They sit with Alori Joh's presence on the album, revisit the debate over whether Ab-Soul out-rapped Kendrick on Illuminate, and ask what his career could have looked like with more creative freedom.

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