Control System

Take a cue from biting tracks like "Pineal Gland" and "SOPA"—rapper Ab-Soul is as clever as he is crass, as sharp as he is straight-forward. Indeed, Control System is the high-concept dramedy to the unflinching drama of fellow Black Hippy member Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city. (The refrain from "Mixed Emotions," for example, is "Who got a Sprite?") Ab's rhymes can be unapologetically out-there at times, such as when he's rapping about Sumerians or nodding to Seinfeld on "Nothing's Something," a song about, well, nothing. But a heart beats resoundingly at the center of Control System. You hear it most affectingly on "The Book of Soul," on which Ab mourns the suicide of ex-girlfriend Alori Joh; she guests on multiple tracks here.