Ab-Soul Raps Over Jackson Brown’s ‘These Days’ On The Introspective ‘W.W.S.D’

If there’s one thing you can expect from Ab-Soul, it’s the unexpected. He’s the dark horse of TDE, neither a boisterous man of the people like Schoolboy Q nor a widescreen cinematic storyteller like Kendrick Lamar. Ab-Soul, rather, investigates the territory of his own life, crafting detailed, painful narratives about his struggles and self-discovery.
His latest release “W.W.S.D” is as inward-focused as ever. Soul spits over Jackson Browne’s classic “These Days” in its entirety, adding nothing to the melancholy, redemptive country-rock song besides his equally gray-streaked words. Soul pulls no punches when exploring his insecurities: he details years of fruitless attempts before finding his current success.
“Can I win one time?” Soul asks, running through a laundry list of problems: “expensive clothes, insufficient funds… chasin’ the light at the end of the f–kin’ tunnel.” As if that wasn’t enough, “God took my angel and left me here.”
Soul also tackles questions about modern modes of media consumption: “Digging for gold in these codeine bottles/tryna picture potential potential in these Instagram models/information racing around the internet/before the iPad was invented/I had a pad, written.”
Nothing comes easy in Ab-Soul’s world, or Jackson Browne’s for that matter. They’re two dudes trying to figure things out, asking questions without obvious answers. Listen below.