Watch Ab-Soul’s Searing ‘RAW (Backwards)’ Video
Ab-Soul unleashes a battle cry in the gritty new video for “RAW (backwards),” the opening track from his new album Do What Thou Wilt.
The Top Dawg MC partners with a full band in the APlus-directed clip, setting up on top of a truck to deliver the dynamic track, which mixes spaced-out hip-hop with a hard rock edge.
Surrounded by fans, often shrouded in fog and lit up by orange flares, Ab-Soul tears through the vicious “RAW (backwards),” referencing Aleister Crowley – whose notorious dictum became Ab-Soul’s LP title – and calling out Jay Electronica on behalf of label mate Kendrick Lamar (their feud stems back to Lamar’s infamous “Control” verse, a song that also featured Electronica). “I was like a swami of Jay Electronica until he figured/ Dizzle wouldn’t admit that he would body him for a milli,” Ab spits. “I told Kenny keep quiet, I’ma get him/ We don’t need dirt on your hands gettin’ the key to the city.”
Ab-Soul released Do What Thou Wilt, the follow-up to 2014’s These Days…, last week. The rapper previously released videos for “D.R.U.G.S.” and “Huey Knew.”