Where Is Ab-Soul From?

Where is Ab-Soul from? Ab-Soul is from Germany, where he was born Herbert Anthony Stevens IV on February 23, 1987. The future rapper’s father was an Army man stationed overseas, and Herbert remained in Germany with his mother for the first four years of his life. When his folks split, he moved with his mom to the States and eventually landed in Carson, California. Since Ab-Soul grew up in Carson, he justifiably refers to himself as a California rapper, not a German one, and since forming the Black Hippy collective in 2009 with Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul has emerged as a young rhymer to watch — an introspective lyricist with a unique perspective. In addition to a series of mixtapes, he’s dropped two full-lengths: “Longterm Mentality” and “Control System.” His third LP, “These Days,” is due out on June 24, 2014, and it promises to make him an even bigger star.

Fans wondering where Ab-Soul is from probably won’t find too much in his music about Germany, where he was born, though he rhymes plenty about Cali. Ab-Soul made his debut in 2009 with the mixtape “Longterm,” and by then, he’d already begun working with his Black Hippy cohorts. While “Longterm Mentality” didn’t exactly make him a household name — the disc peaked at No. 73 on the Billboard Rap chart — his second record, “Control System,” turned more than a few heads, and not just in Ab-Soul’s hometown of Carson, California. The disc hit No. 9 on the Rap chart and eked into the upper half of the Billboard 200, climbing to No. 91.

Although the answer to the question of where Ab-Soul is from is California, the rapper says he and his Black Hippy crew aren’t simply representing for their part of the country. In an interview with Billboard, he looked ahead to his third album and beyond, promising big things in the future.

“I’m definitely going to expand on [“Control System”],” Ab-Soul said. “This is Martin Luther King’s dream that we, Black Hippy, are trying to do. We’re trying to get everybody together. I hope I can speak for all of us when I say, we’re just trying to unify everybody. It’s not a West coast movement. It’s not a California movement. It’s not a Carson movement. It’s for everybody.”