These Days

These Days...
Studio album by Ab-Soul
Released	June 24, 2014
Recorded	August–October 2013
Genre	Hip hop
Length	89:28
Label	Top Dawg Entertainment
Producer(s)	Blended Babies Corin Roddick Curtiss King Dave Free DJ Dahi DNYC3 J. Cole Kenny Beats Like Mac Miller Rahki Skhye Hutch Sounwave Tae Beast Terrace Martin The Kathy Tommy Black
Ab-Soul chronology
Previous	Control System (2012)
Current	These Days... (2014)
Next	Do What Thou Wilt. (2016)
Singles from These Days...
1. "Dub Sac" Released: October 25, 2013 2. "Tree of Life" Released: April 18, 2014 3. "Stigmata" Released: May 22, 2014 4. "Hunnid Stax" Released: June 10, 2014

These Days... is the third studio album by American rapper Ab-Soul. It was released on June 24, 2014, by Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). It features guest appearances from artists such as SZA, Action Bronson, Asaad, Danny Brown, Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco, Rick Ross, and Schoolboy Q.

Regarding its title, he explained to XXL, "It's kind of like self-explanatory. I just wanted it to be a little time capsule of the last couple of years since my absence. The vibe of music and life right now like the last couple of years." He added to HipHopDX, "That album is what I feel like these days sound like, in my own right. Of course, it was no mockery, but it was. I used a lot of references of today, of present and past, because that's popular too." He named his favorite song from the project to be "Just Have Fun." Influences he's drawn from for the album include Drake, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Snoop Dogg, Lupe Fiasco, Rick Ross, Daylyt, Kendrick Lamar, and Migos.

Synopsis

Ab-Soul is the Black Hippy collective's wild card, and These Days shows that he has no intention of circumscribing his style. The rough edges of his raps are left intact, which gives even hyper-focused songs like "Tree of Life" and "Hunnid Stax" the breathless, live-wire intensity of improvisation. Ab-Soul revels in self-contradiction. He's not afraid to juxtapose spiritual introspection with a filthy outburst, or place the suave "Feelin' Us" next to the desiccated thrusts of "Ride Slow." The self-portrait he offers on "Stigmata" is apt: "Real rare breed/Cut from the cloth like a phoenix feather when I write/Molotov, yikes!"

Background

On May 1, 2014, Ab tweeted: "I'm this close to just leakin my shit like its a mixtape...." He explained to Vibe, "That tweet wasn't a shot at TDE, it was just a response to my audience—I don't like to say fans. If you looked at my comments at that time, I couldn't tweet anything. They'd be like. 'Shut the fuck up, Soul. Get back in the studio.' There wasn't an internal issue. I turned in two albums at the top of the year. The project didn't come together for whatever reason on the business end and we just felt like I could have done more with this one. So we took more time on it, expanded it and made it a masterpiece." He also conversed with Microphone Check, where he mentioned he had to "[turn] it in the beginning of the year," though was given extra time to "clean," "expound," and "elaborate."

In promotion, he embarked on a 40-city tour, the These Days Tour, that began in mid-September.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.7/10
Metacritic	70/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllHipHop	7.5/10
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	B−
Exclaim!	7/10
HipHopDX
Paste	7.7/10
Pitchfork	7.7/10
PopMatters	5/10
Rolling Stone
XXL	4/5

These Days... received generally favorable reviews. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100, gave a 70 based on 17 critic reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? holds the score of 6.7.

AllMusic praised, "is a bit scattered and a tad overwhelming, but those who like their hip-hop to be a mix of machismo and maverick can easily ignore these small bumps in the road, because These Days... offers a whirlwind of excellent hooks and exciting ideas." Julian Benbow of Boston Globe noted, "He stays away from heavier themes," while HipHopDX opined, "the album is more of a ramble than a relay, it doesn't feel overly calculated or suffer from excessively punched in verses. Still, it's crowded and Soul isn't as isolated or solitary as a result." In comparison to Control System, Consequence described it as, "far less conspiratorial than its fantastically paranoia-charged predecessor." They felt his songwriting "suffered due to an inebriated lack of coherence." Exclaim! was mixed, though concluded, "[he] succeeds for the most part in moving out of his sonic comfort zone while toeing the lyrical line between enlightenment and ignorance."

Paste summarized, "These days, there is almost always as much reason to be thinking deeply as there is to escape. That Ab-Soul tries to do both makes for a pretty entertaining ride, even when he technically falters. Ambition changes the definition of success, making this Ab-Soul record a better experience that can be picked apart." Pitchfork stated, "He embraces his outsider status, filling his raps with struggling mid-level rapper details [...] Ab's on-record presence is primarily a playful one." PopMatters expressed their disappointment: "it's too long," "beats are often too cluttered," and "some of these features drag their songs down..." RapReviews.com remarked, "feels like a record crafted by a rapper who feels left out and is begging for acceptance." Similar to PopMatters, they believed the record would've been better if shortened and added, "feels like a very quickly thrown together product that lacks the depth and introspection of his previous projects." Rolling Stone wrote, "Ab-Soul works a warm underdog weirdness over heavy-lidded beats on his third album. He rarely strives for the depth of Lamar or the intensity of Q; there's plenty of clever imagery on These Days [...] but a fully realized dude never quite comes into focus."

The A.V. Club penned, "Considering his music is often best when it veers left, it's unsurprising that Ab-Soul's hooks have never been his strongest suit. The moments when the album seems as if it's even sniffing at radio play, instead of just letting Ab rap, are its most forgettable." While they gave acknowledgement to the rapper's "weird brilliance," overall they believed it to be "an oddly distant" record. XXL assessed, "Ab's creative leaps are sometimes jarring at the onset" and "somewhat dumbed down realm compared to what fans are accustomed to in Ab's material." Complex also showed ambivalence, saying, "Ultimately—and unfortunately—Soul's neo-theologian flow wins out. [...] Ab-Soul's wordplay is often lazy and inarticulate. And so the first half of These Days suffers a lack of clarity and a failure of imagination." They thought that the second half improved and became "cohesive and distinct," but overall the record was unmemorable.

Track listing

These Days track listing
#	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"God's Reign" (featuring SZA)	Herbert Stevens IV Solana Rowe Corin Roddick	Purity Ring	4:18
2.	"Tree of Life"	Stevens IV Dwan Howard Dacoury Natche	Curtiss King DJ Dahi	5:37
3.	"Hunnid Stax" (featuring Schoolboy Q)	Stevens IV Quincey Hanley Kenneth Blume III	Kenny Beats	3:23
4.	"Dub Sac"	Stevens IV David Friley Fredrik Halldin	Dave Free Tommy Black	5:50
5.	"World Runners" (featuring Lupe Fiasco and Nikki Jean)	Stevens IV Wasalu Jaco Nicholle Leary Donte Perkins	Tae Beast	5:02
6.	"Nevermind That" (featuring Rick Ross)	Stevens IV William Roberts II	The Kathy	4:39
7.	"Twact" (featuring Yung Jinx and Short Dawg)	Stevens IV Supreme Williams Theron Morgan Donte Blacksher	DNYC3	3:48
8.	"Just Have Fun"	Stevens IV Gabriel Stevenson Richard Perry Jonathan Keller Aubrey Graham Anthony Palman Noah Shebib Noel Fisher Andre Proctor	Like Blended Babies	5:30
9.	"Kendrick Lamar's Interlude" (performed by Kendrick Lamar)	Kendrick Duckworth Terrace Martin	Martin	4:59
10.	"Closure"	Stevens IV Mark Spears	Sounwave	3:28
11.	"Sapiosexual"	Stevens IV Jermaine Cole	J. Cole	3:36
12.	"Stigmata" (featuring Action Bronson and Asaad)	Stevens IV Arian Asllani Saayid Asaad Columbus Smith	Rahki	3:48
13.	"Feelin' Us" (featuring Jay Rock and RaVaughn)	Stevens IV Johnny McKinzie RaVaughn Brown Derrick Hutchins Keith Cozart Tyree Pittman	Skhye Hutch	5:09
14.	"Ride Slow" (featuring Danny Brown and Delusional Thomas)	Stevens IV Daniel Sewell Malcolm McCormick Thebe Kgositsile	Larry Fisherman	7:21
15.	"W.R.O.H" (featuring JMSN)	Stevens IV Christian Berishaj Perkins Davone Campbell	Tae Beast	23:00
Total length:				89:28

Notes

• "God's Reign" features additional vocals by Isaiah Rashad.
• "Tree of Life" features additional vocals by Audra the Rapper and Joey Badass.
• "Hunnid Stax" features additional vocals by Mac Miller and Puff Daddy.
• "Dub Sac" features additional vocals by A-Mack and Punch.
• "World Runners" features additional vocals by Jade Honesty.
• "Nevermind That" features additional vocals by BJ the Chicago Kid.
• "Twact" features additional vocals by Doeburger.
• "Just Have Fun" features additional vocals by Dash, Mac Miller and F.O.A.R.
• "Just Have Fun" contains the hidden track "These Days..." featuring The O'My's.
• "Kendrick Lamar's Interlude" features additional vocals by JaVonté.
• "Closure" features additional vocals by Jhené Aiko.
• "Sapiosexual" features additional vocals by Bilal Chaudhry (B-Diddy), Jae Crizz, SZA and Isaiah Rashad.
• "Ride Slow" features additional vocals by Earl Sweatshirt and Doeburger.
• "W.R.O.H" features additional vocals by Daylyt.

Sample credits

• "Hunnid Stax" contains a sample of "National Anthem" performed by Lana Del Rey.
• "Just Have Fun" contains an interpolation of "Own It," written by Aubrey Graham, Anthony Palman, Noah Shebib, Noel Fisher and Andre Proctor.
• "Closure" contains a sample of "Get Out," composed by Shlohmo.
• "Feelin' Us" contains an interpolation of "Love Sosa," written by Keith Cozart and Tyree Pittman.
• "W.R.O.H" contains a sample of "Air for Life," composed by Above & Beyond and Andy Moor.

Gallery

Track Listing

References

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