Not everyone loves their boss enough to write a song about them, but Ab-Soul has returned with a fiery freestyle in celebration of TDE founder Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith’s birthday. Produced by Devin Williams, the beat is built on a soulful loop and features some of Ab-Soul’s slickest wordplay yet, with timely references to Eminem, Craig Mack, Michael Jordan, Nat Turner, and John Mayer. Midway through the song, the beat switches up, trading in its soul sample for one from Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam,” while Ab-Soul unleashes, delivering nimble-tongued odes to Top Dawg and Soul’s late friend Mac Miller.
Ab-Soul has had a quiet couple of years since the release of his most recent album, Do What Thou Wilt, but recently began to poke his head back above the surface for neck-snapping verses on labelmate Reason’s latest single “Trapped In” and performances at Day N Vegas and the annual TDE community concert, where he promised his new album would arrive in 2020. With albums from the likes of Isaiah Rashad, Jay Rock, Reason, Schoolboy Q, and SZA reportedly coming soon, 2020 is very quickly shaping up to be a crowded year for the Los Angeles-based label — if coronavirus quarantines don’t derail their mainline artists’ respective comebacks.
Check out the “Dangerookipawaa Freestyle” above.