Ab-Soul has hinted at previously attempting suicide after fans assumed his recent track “Do Better” is him reflecting on the experience.
The Top Dawg Entertainment rapper sat down with Rolling Stone for an interview about his upcoming album Herbert, and he took some time out to address the commotion around his alleged suicide attempt.
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According to the reporter, Ab confirmed that he did, in fact, try to take his own life in the past. The Carson, California native didn’t reveal exactly when the attempt happened but acknowledged last year as the hardest one he’s ever experienced.
Ab-Soul also implied that most of the album was written before the attempt. “Most of what you’ve heard, I wrote before … it,” he explained. “I just wanna make it clear: You see me smiling, but it’s not funny. I think that’s just my way of healing from it.”
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With his new album Herbert, Ab said he doesn’t have a problem with people using the project as a way to heal from their own issues, adding that although his experiences might not contain all the answers, people will know they’re not alone.
“We’re all going through things, all of us,” he said. “Me sharing my testimony — if it doesn’t help, it might let you know you’re not the only one going through it. That’s what ultimately gives me the courage to put it out there.”
Even though he didn’t explicitly detail his suicide attempt, Ab-Soul spoke on someone else’s experience with the act on the song “Book of Soul” from his 2012 album Control System.
The song finds Soulo talking about his relationship with Alori Joh and losing her to suicide months before Control System dropped. The rapper also briefly mentioned stopping himself from taking his own life in the lyrics.
“And as much I wanna cower, bid the mic adieu/ And fall off a fucking tower tryna find you/ I gotta stay ’cause I remember that day/ I looked you in the face and told you: ‘Nothing can stop me, not even you’,” Ab-Soul raps on the song.
Ab-Soul’s new album, Herbert is set to drop on December 16 and includes appearances from Big Sean, Russ, Joey Bada$$, Jhené Aiko, SiR Punch, Zacari, Fre$h, Ambré, ALEMEDA and Lance Skiiiwalker. On the production side of things, he joins forces with Sounwave, DJ Premier, James Blake, Hit-Boy, Boi-1da, DJ Dahi, among others.
The cover art for Herbert was also revealed last week, showing a picture of the Black Lip Bastard sitting in a living room with headphones on in his younger days. Behind the rapper is a collection of vinyl records and other audio equipment.
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Ab-Soul also shared a trailer for the upcoming album that shows vintage clips of the rapper as a child mixed with other images such as a park, a man flying through the clouds and Ab rapping along to a spoken word poem delivered by Sistar Outspoken.
