Ab-Soul - Do What Thou Wilt.

An average hip-hop album nowadays is all about sounding badass without much credence in the lyrics. Unfortunately, that's all Ab-Soul's new album Do What Thou Wilt. embodies.

Do What Thou Wilt. is Ab-Soul's fourth album, so you'd expect something sounding vaguely cohesive. Wrong. This record is just all over the place, full of almost cringe-worthy lyrics and repetitive, sloppy instrumentals. It starts promising, 'RAW (Backwards)' having an evil sounding instrumental and an epic guitar solo in the center, giving it a unique vibe that many hip-hop tracks don't often have. 'Huey Knew THEN' even gives you a sense of nostalgia, the intro quoting the iconic intro of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. 

It's all downhill from there. There's a very specific group of people this album is made for: people who simply just don't care about lyrics and enjoy this type of instrumental. I can appreciate that, in moderation. This album is literally a copy-paste of these instrumentals. The same crappy, rickety drumbeat background is constantly repeating behind the weird lyrics of the record, 'Braille' at the beginning of the record and 'God's A Girl?' near the core, the latter of which is truly a trainwreck.

The lyrics are just all over the place. This album devolves quickly from some actual bars to literally just repeating the same words for five minutes before turning into something wildly different but just as bad ('Beat The Case / / / Straight Crooked'). Then comes just randomly referencing a completely random band in a completely irrelevant song. Portishead doesn't deserve that.

There are a few moments on the record, despite all of this. The moodiness of 'INvocation' really sounds great on the track, giving the record some cool vibes that explores the evil nature it had at the start. 'D.R.U.G.S.' later on the record has a pretty great and dramatic instrumental, too, that helps it standout and actually maintain interest. It's hard to feel that way when other songs on the record like 'Womanogamy' just have you shaking your head.

Do What Thou Wilt. is a confused record without much variation to help it maintain any sense of flow or interest. Ab-Soul doesn't shine on this record to me. It lacks direction and cohesion and adheres to conformity more than anything. There's a ways to go for this one.

Favorite Track: INvocation

Least Favorite Tracks: Everything from 'Womanogamy' to 'Now You Know' (besides 'INvocation')

Rating: 48 / 100