While TDE Records has been meticulously plotting the rollout for the next SZA album, they’ve also been in the cuts working on the next Ab-Soul album. Now one of them has been announced — and it ain’t SZA. Herbert — Ab-Soul’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Do What Thou Wilt. — is coming before the year is over. Slated for a December 16th release, Herbert already has a slew of singles out in “Do Better,” “Hollandaise,” and “Moonshooter.” On the newly-released, Sounwave-produced “Gang’nem,” Ab-Soul shows that he’s loyal to the Carson soil that he’s from and drives the point home in the track’s new video.
Opening with a shot of the Galway St and Turmont Ave intersection of Ab-Soul’s youth, the clip was filmed entirely in Carson and the track features a verse from Fresh. Ab-Soul rapper makes it abundantly clear that he’ll ride or die for his home turf, rapping: “Take a bullet, catch a body for the gang and ‘nem, look the judge in the eye and lie for gang and ‘nem. Since a youngun I been some ride or die sh*t, I got secrets I’mma die with.”
The new album’s title references Soul’s birth name Herbert Anthony Stevens IV, and hints at its autobiographical theme. Ab-Soul is approaching Herbert with a renewed outlook on his career and making music, and how it’s taken him six years to get back on deck.
Watch the video for “Gang’nem” above.
Herbert is out on 12/16 via TDE Records. Pre-order it here.