I HATE A.B.S.!

Royalty Magazine: What's good? How's everything on your end?

A.B.S: Everything is good. Same way, different day.

Royalty Magazine: How are you feeling about 2013 so far? Is it what you expected? Have you accomplished what you set out to accomplish?

A.B.S: Personally, it has been a great year.  I've taken a little hiatus from music, had a daughter, and relaxed.  I finally met my producer The Last Brain face to face in NY after virtually working with him for close to a decade.  We finally got to meet up, chill and do work. 2013 has been hot.  I'm happy and we still got a couple of months to go before 2013 is a wrap.

Royalty Magazine: 2014 is a few months away. What are your predictions about the upcoming year? Do you see the economy getting better or worse? Why or why not?

A.B.S: Predictions?  A lot of music!  My circle is getting wider and I'm excited to hear other people's shit for a change.  As far as the economy goes, the dollar isn't quite the euro but things are looking better.  

Royalty Magazine: In 2013 the envelope has continued to be pushed. Reality shows are getting wilder, men entertainers have started wearing skirts, more and more people are talking about the "Illuminati", etc. What are your thoughts about these issues?

A.B.S: I love reality shows.  Not like the Top Chef kind, but the real trashy, useless ones. I like mindless shit like the MTV Challenges and Undercover Boss. I don't know shit about men wearing skirts but I saw that Kanye sported one recently. Not my cup of tea but whatever. The get-ups people wear these days surprises the shit out of me. It's amazing. I can't speak on the Illuminati and that's all I got to say about that. (laughs).

Royalty Magazine:  On a lighter note, what can we expect to see or hear from you later this year or early next year? Any upcoming projects we should be looking out for?

A.B.S: Yeah.  Expect to hear from me.  A lot.  The Last Brain and I shot a music video for "Take It" off my album Lifetime when we met up in New York.  He produced most of the beats on that album.  We did a entire LP together back in 2008 called Smoke N Mirrors and now we're coming back with a sequel.  Most of the tracks have been done for a while but we want to fine tune things and release it in the new year. We just continue to chip away. I'll have a solo mixtape and probably an album as well, who knows.  I've been slowing down as far as quantity of tracks over the past couple of years.  There is a lot of material I put on ice and it's getting ready to thaw. I haven't released an album in 2 1/2 years, it's been nice sitting back, but the vacation's over.

Royalty Magazine: How do you feel about hip-hop today? What are your predictions for the future?  Is it changing for the better or for worse?

A.B.S: Today I feel good about it. I'll hate it. I go back and forth. When I listen to old classics I love it.  When I realize there aren't many new classics, I hate it.  I think the future will be cool.  I'm gonna have a Jetson's car and two kids to take care of me. Oh you mean hip hop predictions?  I predict that eventually people will become original thinkers again and we'll start to hear some good stuff. Right now it is indeed changing for the worse but things change quickly sometimes.  You can sit and complain about it or do something about it. 

Royalty Magazine: Speaking of hip-hop, describe your role in it and what you do as an contributor to help keep it alive?

A.B.S: My role in hip hop has been small. I've been like the janitor at a Fortune 50 company. But there's millions of others like me and we're called hip-hop fans.  Collectively we've made a huge contribution.  We've kept this genre alive by going to shows, buying records and showing support.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm a hater too so as much as I build it up I can tear it down. 

Royalty Magazine:  What are some of your greatest accomplishments to date so far music-wise and why?  Tell us one thing that you will do differently next year than you've done in previous years?

A.B.S: Last year I won the XXL Magazine & Corona Extra "Ready Or Not" Rap Battle. I was chosen over millions and entered into a 16 man competition, battled week after week and won the whole damn thing.  I had a full page feature in XXL Magazine (October, 2012 Issue), visited XXL Headquarters in New York and met their Editor-in-chief. Jaeki Cho was the one who invited me over. We clowned the wack rappers from the battle, hung out a bit and he gave me a stack of back issues of XXL and Slam Magazines for the flight back. It was dope. 

My greatest accomplishment to date is just the fact that I've got like 9 or so quality released projects, a decent following and a good team.  Not too shabby.

Next year will be different in that I will really have a plan of attack.  In the past, I've just randomly released music whenever I felt like it.  I've come to realize life is all about timing and release dates have to be accurate and concise if you want to build a proper buzz and real anticipation.  I'm gonna put out more singles and more freebies to engage the audience more frequently. 

Royalty Magazine: Any last thoughts or comments?  Anything you want to touch base on that we haven't already?

A.B.S: Yeah I just wanted to speak briefly about space travel and linear particle accelerators. (Silence)  OK, let's skip that.

Royalty Magazine:  Any peeps you want to shout out?  How can people keep up with you or check out some of your work?

A.B.S: Of course I have to shout out The Last Brain again.  We were gonna do this interview together but he is in the process of moving and shit is crazy for him right now so I did this solo.  Big shout out to him though.  We're gonna put out a solid record.  Again.  

Shouts go to Cujo, Bing, Lid, Mone, Space Cadetz, and the rest of the Skullneck Family!  

Check me out at www.ABSmusic.net.  I have links to everything on there.  



Written by TazDatMC for Royalty Magazine