While the late Malcolm X has been referenced numerous times in Hip Hop, according to a recent interview with West Coast spitter Ab-Soul, he personally learned a lot from the minister and his famed The Autobiography Of Malcolm X.
The Top Dawg Entertainment emcee spoke on Malcolm X and a variety of other topics while being interviewed by HardKnock.TV.
“I’m not like a racial person by any means, you know what I mean? I really try to stress equality, but I kinda feel like every black person just kinda goes through this black power phase, in my generation per se,” Ab-Soul explained. “You kinda just go through this little enlightenment about wanting to know your history and where you wanna come from. The story is deep with African-Americans. So Malcolm X was a real courageous figure. We heard a lot about him in school and so something told me to really just crack that book open and hear what he had to say. And I think it just taught me a lot.”
Ab-Soul also shared the details on how his “Jimmy Iovine” collaboration with Seattle rapper Macklemore came about. The rapper revealed that he linked up with Macklemore while touring and the two shared similar interests in sparking a conversation within.
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“Well, I met Macklemore on the Groovy Tour with Q,” said the TDE rapper. “He’s a real cool guy, very intelligent guy. You know what I mean? I think he, like I, is trying to spark a lot of those conversations. Of just within, within yourself. And that song he just sent me the record…And I thought that was a brilliant song. That’s how serious people are to get into this business. It’s almost like that. They’re almost willing to catch Jimmy Iovine slipping outside the club. Like, ‘what’s up?’ So I think that was an important record to do.”
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