Control System

Control System
Studio album by Ab-Soul
Released	May 11, 2012
Recorded	TDE Recording Studio: House of Pain (Carson, California)
Genre	Hip hop jazz rap
Length	71:44
Label	Top Dawg Entertainment
Producer	Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith (exec.) Punch (co-exec.) Dave Free (also co-exec.) AAhyasis Curtiss King King Blue Nez & Rio Skhye Hutch Sounwave Tae Beast Tommy Black Willie B.
Ab-Soul chronology
Longterm Mentality (2011) Control System (2012) These Days… (2014)

Control System is the second

Throughout 2011 and 2012, Ab-Soul was working on his second album. He had recorded the songs "Empathy" and "A Rebellion" with Alori Joh. On February 7, 2012, it was reported a young woman committed suicide by leaping from a radio tower; the woman was later identified as Loriana Johnson, also known as Alori Joh. In a June 2012 interview with HipHopDX, Ab-Soul publicly spoke on Joh's death and how it impacted him and the album: "I was actually pretty much done with the project before that happened. Luckily for me and all of us cause I definitely don't think I would have been able to put it out in the time that I did. It was difficult. It's still very difficult. She helps me out with all of my projects. It's a very difficult thing to get over but at the same time this is what we've been – we, me and her, were working on for the majority of the time I've known her. She was one of my biggest supporters so I feel like I owe her and I owe everybody else that's taken a liking to what we're doing." "The Book of Soul" was of the last tracks that he recorded on the project, he touches on a couple topics throughout his life, with Alori Joh being the main subject over a jazzy instrumental produced by Tommy Black.^[13]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	83/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
DJBooth.net	[16]
Exclaim!	8/10[17]
HipHopDX	[18]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)	A−[19]
Pitchfork	8.1/10[20]
Spin	8/10[21]
XXL	4/5[22]

Upon its release, Control System received universal acclaim from music critics. At

• "Track Two" contains a sample of "Tightrope", as performed by Electric Light Orchestra.^[26]
• "Bohemian Grove" contains a sample of "Day Dreaming" by Aretha Franklin and "Elegant People" by Weather Report.
• "Terrorist Threats" contains a sample of "The Bottom Feeders" as composed by Darren Korb (from the Bastion soundtrack)^[27] and interpolates "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99)", written by Shawn Carter, Jonathan Burks and Timothy Mosley.^[28]
• "Pineal Gland" contains a sample of "Attic Thoughts", as performed by Bo Hansson.^[29]
• "Double Standards" contains material sampled from "Islands", as performed by King Crimson.
• "Lust Demons" contains a sample of "Aruba", as performed by Isaac Hayes.^[30]
• "Illuminate" contains a sample from "
  Madonna, and an interpolation of "A.D.H.D.", written by Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Mark Spears.^[31]
• "A Rebellion" contains a sample of "Follow the Path", as performed by
  Black Eyed Peas featuring Kim Hill
  & Ingrid Dupree.
• "Showin' Love" contains a sample of "Swahililand", as performed by Ahmad Jamal.^[33]
• "Nothing's Something" contains an interpolation of "Addiction", written by Kanye West, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
• "Beautiful Death" contains a sample of "
  OutKast.^[34]
• "The Book of Soul" contains a sample of "Swahililand", as performed by Ahmad Jamal[35] and "Moondance", as performed by Bobby McFerrin.^[36]
• "Black Lip Bastard (Remix)" contains a sample of "A Song for You", as performed by Donny Hathaway.^[37]

Charts

References