“And Christ died at 33, and she at 33/And she was born on two eleven; that’s a robbery/Damn, she done stole my heart from me,” are bars that sum up all there is to know about Ab-Soul’s fourth full-length solo album, Do What Thou Wilt. Highlighted on the track “Womanogamy,” Soulo uses the life/death duality and police code terminology in metaphorically describing his complex relationship with the opposite sex. Call it a drug-induced blanket statement or deeper testimonial thinking; whatever. It all makes sense to Top Dawg Entertainment’s lyrical shaman in that jigsaw of a brain of his. Some may dismiss those crackpot theories as self-serving, but thankfully, his third-eye wisdom is articulated well enough to bring challenging proclamations about the already more confusing world at large. As the monochrome cover featuring Herbert Stevens shirtless without his signature shades brought by light-sensitivity suggest, Do What Thou Wilt looks into a man whose reality (both literally and figuratively) is clearer in the shadows.
At times profound and others, utterly confusing, the 16-track opus gets denser with every listen. All the while, Soulo becomes more lyrically proficient than he’s ever been on top of some of the darkest production in 2016 raposphere.
Troy Ave and Jay Electronica disses aside, Do What Thou Wilt opener “RAW(backwards)” featuring Zacari eases listeners by providing good ol’ rapping that’s come to be expected by the same guy who gave fans dense entertainment with past projects Longterm Mentality and Control System. Wondagurl adds to her already prolific production career on the Bas guested “Braille” and fits well into soundtrack where dingy drums and shadowy melodies prevail. Soulo finds that lyrical “grove” on “Huey Knew THEN” (featuring Da$h) but by the time “Threatening Nature” rolls around, Do What Thou Wilt travels down a much deeper undertone.
Inspired by Ras Kass classic track “Nature of the Threat” from 1996’s Soul on Ice, “Threatening Nature” offers some daring themes about religion and misogyny it can spawn. Spitting on the haunting instrumental, Soulo spits rhymes: “And we don’t speak on sexism much as we really should/The black man could vote before the woman could / You singin’ hymns in church, I’m lookin’ for the her’s/In 66 books in the Bible, they ain’t let a lady say one word/Hillary Clinton is out somewhere/Tryin’ to get ahead in the Senate/I’m getting head and I’m sinnin’ with an authority that welcomes reexamination. All of this before he calls the album “an algorithm” and saying the American Flag was designed “by fags.” (All disrespect intended, of course.)
Those themes appear several times including the aforementioned “Womanogamy,” “Wifey vs. Wifi,” “Portishead in the Morning / / / Her World” and “God’s a Girl.” Part of Do What Thou Wilt’s enjoyment partly comes from Soul rationalizing his ideas of women and where they fit into the world he occupies. Even when he challenges his own troubling consumption of pharmaceuticals on “D.R.U.G.S,” he gives the most nuanced pro-choice remark in recent memory with “Wasn’t for these abortions I’d probably be on my third son/That was they decision, for the record/Just clearin’ my conscience/That don’t make it better, nigga/You know I know better, nigga.”
When penultimate number “The Law” — featuring Mac Miller and Rapsody — springs up, Soul revels in the album’s underlying feminist theme when he splices Tupac’s “God’s coming she’s just taking her time” lyric over a sample of Angie Stone’s pro-black men anthem “Brother.” Having Marlanna Evans deliver a spoken word segment proves why she’s become her peer group’s voice of female reason.
Ab-Soul expounds on his cranial compound Do What Thou Wilt and fully revealed himself as an artist who plays mind games with himself and listeners. Although figuring Soulo lyrical intent continues to be a guessing game, at least there are some critical takeaways that linger far after indulging in the music.
Huge fan of this man. i hope he keeps coming out with his work. Truly on of the most underrated and under appreciated artist out right now. This album was a solid one, different from his last two but you can still feel that Soulo didn’t change his way. I will believe that if he truly wants to get noticed he will have to make some artistic sacrifices.
Lmao his lyrically dope but album is evil an dark so I don’t rock wit it or its themes subject matter
What is evil about the album? Unless you don’t get the concept.
Its evil because celebrating women?
its kinda evil cause hes using ideas from alister crowley , who is a famous satanist and did some um…. interesting stuff back in the day
and one of his book the book of the law revolves around the theme of god being female , and do what thou wilt basically means yolo before the phrase was popularized by drake. So in a way its rebelling against god , but thats the whole concept i suppose just a really dark yet interesting take on religion and sexism.
You might be true…. Even his album cover looks like a picture of Aleister Crowley. I’m pretty disappointed about this perspective. So many models around the globe and Soulo choses one of the most malefic man ever.
another great album from soulo
Flames
Amazing album start to back
Superior album 4/5
Underrated. But undefeated. Keep it up. He, along with probably the rest of the TDE crew will be very big names someday.
Soulo might have topped control system wit this one. This actually feela like a sequel. Really top notch lyricism. And production.
Do What Thou Wilt. perfectly illustrates ours times the same way Control System did in 2012. I mean we never realized how prevalent sexism in this day and age. Soulo needs some real accolades for this follow-up.
DWTW has dope bars and an even doper concept
dope album 5/5
Ab-Soul should have made all the headlines for this new album, not J. Cole and his overrated album !
Soul is on his best penmanship,like usual.Would have loved a Lupe feature though.
Abstract Ass-Hole. Genius Idiot.
Dooooooooope af
Great album.
Gotta listen several times to an Ab-Soul album, annotating him is almost as tough as Lupe. Gotta give respect on the album though, much better than his last one and on par with Control System
Good album, think it will grow with every listen. Altough it won’t make my year end lists, I gotta say this is a good album that problaby the hardcore ab-fans will love.
not bad, but not my cup of coffee. a bit too low-key, a bit too long. idk
Top notch lyricism and production, but loaded with simpish blue pill propaganda, patronizing and deifying p.ussy/women which is extremely beta. I also dislike the demonic/hedonic promotion of the pedophile satanist Aleister Crowley. 4/5
Great Album from the secret weapon, brilliant theology and factual at the same time if u cant decode hip hop lyrics this lp will go over your head
3/5
nothing really good about this album one of ab’s worst waited so long for this half ass shit to come out its crazy that he’s the most lyrical one at the and yet he makes the worst album my boy Rashad is the truth right now i cant stand ab for this one
spot-on! ab- soul is my favourite rapper since i heared long term 2 back ’10 so i dunno what he was thinking with this shit. 6/10 for me. HUEY is overly dope thou – just have to say.
nothing really good about this album one of ab’s worst waited so long for this half ass shit to come out its crazy that he’s the most lyrical one at the and yet he makes the worst album my boy Rashad is the truth right now i cant stand ab for this one
Album of the year hands down. If your new to this hiphop shit then don’t let the fickleness of people effect your listening rights. This time last week everyone said j coles album was a snorefest but soon as the numbers come out then everyone wants to jump on his wagon in fear of looking unpart of the Masses.
Ab soul is a genuine genius. 8.5/10
soul brother no. 3 has been my favourite rapper since i heared long term 2 back ’10 so i dunno what he was thinking with this shit. 6/10 for me. HUEY is overly dope thou – just have to say.
no. 2 (typo)
Great album. Lyrically his best work yet he’s finally finding ways to make music pleasant to listen to. I love it. It’s pretty much a sequel to Control System, I think it’s Album of the Year.
The Ral Shaman Himself, Mr AbSoulutely
Great album it praises the woman the god first salute Ab Soul!!
Fire!!!. I was definitely mind fucked by this album.
I don’t like the title…sounds way 2 “satanic”….the album is just AVERAGE
Classic album of the year
Incredible lyricism, delivery, subject matter and ideas. I just wish the production on some songs was a little bit more pleasant to ears, anyway its definitely album of the year, Tribe and De La finishing in 2nd and 3rd, yeah it’s THAT good and original, copped the CD which is something i rarely do “these days…” (pun intended)
It’s like God made my music eyes just to listen to soulo . This album is the best album of 2016 and 2017 . Love it
This album can be explained in one word, no two. “GENIUS” and “BARS”. Not only the word play and lyricism shown on this album, but the underlying tones and the array of meanings and perspectives you can get from this show Soulo as one of the best in the game – the album continues to blow my mind on every listen. Simply genius.
Not evil or satanic in my opinion, the phrase “Do what thou wilt” is not satanic by nature and neither is this album, it just depends on how you look into it – and if you don’t listen to an amazing album just because its a bit “evil” then you need some serious help.
This album is over hyped. Don’t care for the woman concept album approach. The standout tracks for These days top the standout tracks on this album:
This album has the year’s best bars on it. Ab dropped a gem here.
Interesting album from a clearly talented mc, its just not quite as dope as people are willing it to be.
3 out of 5
Nope.
man the more popular my favorite rappers get, the more they tend to cater to the demographic that likes the type of music i like. this album was very average in comparison to his other shit.
beautiful album,
Aleister crowley made this saying in the law ironically a track so definitely these qaballistic heads of entertainment do have a say it’s hidden censorship most young cats will say the album name like its cool but invoking devilish entities on themselves just like the necromonicon
Get out of that spook mentality. If that’s what you believe, then you have made yourself vulnerable to the nonsense.
really fucking good
His womanist angle is interesting. I don’t always believe him, but he is definitely trying to work through actual ideas and not just struggle rap cliches. clearly all these TDE cats are pushing each other to higher levels of quality, like heiro used to do. one image Ab Soul stuck in my head is about praying blindly to a god that you aren’t necessarily sure is there and going down on one knee to propose to a woman with the same sense of uncertainty. at first it seems like a dis to women *and* monotheism… but it’s not. you have to think about it though, which is a big deal, because even J. Cole doesn’t expect you to THINK about his lyrics… just FEEL them.
I Think He’s The Shit Like Come No One Is The Game Ever Thought Of Actually Bringing Thsee Ideas 2 Life And Am Sure IF They Tryed They Couldn’t Do What Solo Does Don’t Bitch About His Album It’s Good Music And Intellectual Music Best Of Both Worlds In One
solo ho