Ab-Soul - Empathy.

About a year ago, I stumbled upon the shades wearing Ab-Soul, a rapper from Carson, California. Aside from the great music he makes, I was intrigued by the fact that this man always wore sunglasses. Night and day, rain or shine, the sunglasses would never come off. That, and that he also refers to himself as The Black Lip Bastard, a peculiar nickname. All these attributes combined made him quite a character and made me curious to learn more about him, beyond just music. In this interview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3QwL4dWSE, Ab-Soul brings to light some of the mysteries shrouding him. Furthermore, Ab-Soul was one of the people that actually molded Kendrick Lamar into the MC that he is today.

Aside from being an MC, Ab-Soul is quite the vocalist. Something that took me by complete surprise. When I first heard the audio to his track Empathy, I thought the person singing was a feature on the track. I was in shock when I saw the music video for the first time and saw that it was him. Of course you have other rappers that try to sing and rap like Drake, or Chris Brown, but the quality of this man's lyrics, his powerful voice, he undoubtedly has some soul, there's something more organic about him than other artists who take on the challenge of being a singer and a rapper.

The song Empathy is a tribute to a fellow artist from the same record label, Alori Joh, who committed suicide a few months before the song was made. The definition of empathy is the ability to recognize feelings being felt by another being. Ab-Soul is transmits various feelings through this song, which people will more or less will be able to identify. The soft, mellow, smooth beat make for a relaxed listen, with his voice complimenting perfectly. Even when transitioning from singing to rapping, the central feeling the song is projecting is never lost. An artists who is able to combine all these attributes together and a hint of mystery to themselves is not something you normally see nowadays, and sadly most rappers are typical and don't differentiate from each others most of the time. Overall, you don't have to take my word for it, you be the judge!