Now that Ab-Soul’s latest studio album, These Days… has been released, the TDE wordsmith has discussed the project in a handful of interviews, radio appearances, and more this week. Most recently, Soulo took part in a Google Hangout session with XXL magazine’s Editor-In-Chief Vanessa Satten.
While speaking on These Days…, which includes guest appearances from Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco and more, Ab-Soul revealed that Jay Electronica was the one feature he hoped to secure for the album, but was unable to.
“Man, I’m trying to hunt Jay Electronica down,” he said. “I’m saying I’m hunting him down. I can’t even get him on the line…It’s crazy. So crazy. But I mean hey, you gotta respect the mystery in him…That’s probably the only person that I was really like trying to get that I couldn’t reach.”
Ab-Soul later spoke on how These Days… compares with his second studio album, Control System. According to Soul, he was able to aim for a better quality of sound with this project.
AD LOADING...
He later revealed that he was more concerned with creating a project the fans could enjoy than he was competing against other artists releasing albums this year.
“More than anything the quality. The sound quality,” the rapper said. “You gotta think. Before Control System came out I didn’t get to listen to it like on Beats By Dre products. You feel what I’m saying…Ali’s recorded quite a few great albums since then. So, he had a lot of great tricks up his sleeve for this one too. We just really stepped it up with the sound quality for sure…This album in general probably took me about a little over a year to complete. When I turned it in at the top of the year we all agreed that I should probably just go back in. It sounded great already. I should just expound on it and make it a little bit more concrete.
“I think it should stand toe-to-toe to just about anything that drops this year,” he added. “I’m not gon’ say that I don’t wanna be number one or the best artist, but you know, all of that is cool. More so we just wanna have some good music to give to the people, man. We want everybody to feel good. We want everybody to have fun.”
As far as album favorites, Ab-Soul named “Just Have Fun” as his current favorite, but says he plans on revisiting the album soon and may find a new favorite.
AD LOADING...
“I think ‘Just Have Fun’ is probably my favorite song on that album,” Soulo said. “To be honest with you. So far…I’ll probably revisit it and see which ones are the ones that stand out the most to me. But I think ‘Just Have Fun’ is probably my favorite song on the album.”
Video of Ab-Soul’s Google Hangout can be found below.
RELATED:Ab-Soul Likens Puff Daddy To Mentor, Explains “These Days…” Contribution
