Summary
➡ Rapper Absoul, influenced by Alistair Crowley’s teachings, compared himself to gods and devils in his music. Despite his efforts to gain mainstream success, he remained overshadowed by his labelmate, Kendrick Lamar. This led to a personal crisis, culminating in a suicide attempt. Absoul’s story serves as a cautionary tale about the music industry’s potential dangers and the importance of seeking success through righteous means.
Transcript
Instead, he watched his dear friend become the star he always wanted to be. All he was left with at the end was knowing that he gave up everything for it but never achieved it. Being left without chasing the success he dreamed of, losing his soul and almost losing his life. Absoul’s life is a story of a lost soul and today, I would tell you exactly how he lost his soul. Hey guys, I hope all is well. Welcome back to the truth is where I drop new videos every other day exposing the truth. In today’s episode, we will be talking about how Absoul was sacrificed by TDE for Kendrick Lamar.
Let’s get right into it. Have you ever wanted something so bad you were willing to do anything for it? You were willing to fight and change if it came to it. Even sell your soul to have it. I hope you answered that question with a no. But for those who said yes, take this story as a warning as God tells us himself that nothing in this world is worth more than your everlasting soul. Hollywood is the place where souls go to die. People who imagine themselves having the world in their hands only to realize the price for their dream is much more expensive than they can afford.
That’s exactly what Absoul learned the hard way on his journey to make it as a rap superstar. A journey that nearly cost them everything and left them with nothing. Let’s start this story at the very beginning. Herbert Anthony Stevens aka Absoul was born February 23rd, 1987 in Los Angeles. He lived with his father who was in the military stationed in Korea until his parents split at the age of four. When his parents split, he ended up back in the United States living with his grandma in Carson, California. At the age of 10, he contracted Steven Johnson syndrome which caused him to be hospitalized and is the origin of his signature dark lips and light sensitive eyes that forces him to always wear shades.
This led to him often getting bullied because of his condition, but he didn’t let this stop his confidence as by 12, he had already decided he wanted to become a famous rapper. See, music was always a part of his childhood as his family owned a record store that he was always in. He ended up writing his first song at the age of 12 to a twist a beat for the song Emotions. By the time he graduated high school, he decided that he was going to give his music dreams his all, not knowing what this would end up costing him in the end.
For the next few years, Absoul would work on making songs and trying to get signed which didn’t take long. After recording his first song in 2002, by 2005 he was already signed to an independent record label called Street Beat Entertainment. While on this label is where he would end up meeting his future boss TDE Punch, with Absoul claiming Punch saw his full potential and gave him an opportunity. By 2007, Absoul was one step closer to making his dreams a reality as he would end up signing to TDE, an upcoming Cali label that would end up signing the massive star Kendrick Lamar.
Absoul is associated with this label to this very day. He would immediately get to work on making music to put out on their TDE with moderate success, something that would become normal for Absoul. By 2009, Absoul will end up forming the rap collective Black Hippie with fellow labelmates Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar, a rap group that would become well loved by fans of the artist. Little did Absoul know that soon his dreams would be stolen by one of the rappers in that very group. By 2012, Kendrick Lamar exploded in popularity, eventually becoming one of the biggest rappers in the world.
Today, he’s possibly considered the biggest rapper in the world after recently beating Drake in the beef of the century. Now, he’s set to perform at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. While Kendrick exceeded, Absoul was forced to watch him from the sidelines, something that Absoul did everything possible not to be his outcome. This hunger for more fed his drive to keep on trying to become the star that Kendrick Lamar was, and this took him to a wicked place that he was never able to come back from. See, in 2012, while Kendrick was reaching new heights in the music industry, Absoul was dealing with a tragedy, as his longtime girlfriend Lori Jo had done the unthinkable.
Lori was not only Absoul’s girlfriend, but she was also a fellow artist signed to TDE, having songs with the entire black hippie crew, including Kendrick Lamar. In a mysterious turn of events, Lori took herself out by leaping off a radio tower in Compton, California. She was only 25 years old. This loss deeply affected Absoul, who felt he had sacrificed a part of himself by losing her. But still, he kept on his dreams of trying to be a star, something that only kept on becoming more and more true for Kendrick Lamar. On March 15, 2015, Kendrick Lamar dropped his critically acclaimed Billboard chart-topping album, to Pimp a Butterfly.
The album was a massive hit, selling 324,000 copies first week and eventually going platinum. All this success led to Kendrick being nominated for a total of 11 Grammy Awards, winning five of those nominations. Unfortunately for Absoul, he wasn’t nominated at all that day and had to watch Kendrick’s victory from the sideline. As his old groupmate and labelmate swept the Grammys, taking home five awards, Kendrick was being praised by all of Hollywood as one of the best rappers in the world, while Absoul had to live in his shadows. This is the moment Absoul knew that if he wanted what Kendrick had, he was going to have to do something drastic.
He was going to have to sell his soul to the devil in order to have it all. In 2016, Absoul decided that in order to gain the whole world, he would have to first sell his soul. This is exactly what he did when he decided to involve himself in the world of the occult, hoping to reach new levels of success. After the Grammys in February 2016, a couple months later, Absoul ended up dropping his album, Do What Thou Wilt, in a cult-themed album that was influenced by one of the sickest occultists to ever live, Aleister Crowley, the man who called himself Pophamet, or the wickedest man alive.
This was Absoul’s ultimate attempt at going mainstream, him telling Hollywood he was willing to show his occult ties. The album was named after Aleister Crowley’s Creole, Do What Thou Wilt, which was the core principle and phrase for his occult sex religion known as the Lima. The Lima is an occult religion that many celebrities and artists subliminally show their alliance to. Absoul didn’t do this subliminally though, he did this out in the open, admitting that he was inspired by occult principles of The Lima, which by most people would be considered Satanism. As even though Crowley didn’t consider himself a Satanist per se, his religion openly worshipped deities like the Egyptian god Horus, Pophamet, and the Babylon woman, or as Crowley called her, the Scarlet Woman.
Absoul put many of the core ideas taught by Aleister Crowley and his religion into this album. For instance, in The Lima they say, love is the law, love under well, which we hear Absoul repeat throughout his song called The Law. In the hook of the song he raps, love is the law, love is the only law, clearly referring to Crowley’s love is the law, love under well. He also raps in the first verse of the song, they spoke of us in Cairo, quit some time ago, how these atom minds adapt to this is incredible. They love to go to sleep, but hate to be awake, treat the eye of Horus as if it’s just a symbol, unattainable they read the wrong rites.
Also rapping in the second verse, I know you a modest Scarlet Woman, like to say you everything but nothing, but your nothing but my everything. These lyrics were full of Crowley’s teachings. Like I mentioned earlier, Crowley taught about the Scarlet Woman, which Absoul raps about. He rapped about the ancient Egyptian god Horus, who Crowley claimed was his god. Crowley claimed that Horus came to him in a vision and possessed him, using him to write the bible of his religion called the Book of the Law. This song was full of references to Crowley’s occult teachings, just like his song Threatening Nature, in which not only does Absoul compares himself to Christ and calls himself a god, but he also admits that the devil is after him and compares himself to Crowley.
In the intro of the song, Absoul raps, This bar aligns with the teachings of Alistair Crowley, who taught his followers who were a part of his religion that they were their own god, in charge of their own will and fate. This is what Absoul was referring to with these lyrics. In the next part of the song, he goes on to compare himself to Alistair Crowley, rapping Do What Thou Wilt and also rapping, but is ten times hard enough alone fighting temptation. Face facts, still wicked as Alistair Crowley. Absoul eventually ended up doing a few interviews for press for the album, where he was seen praising Crowley and trying to defend his decision of making a full album dedicated to Alistair Crowley.
For me, I think it was important to me to re-instill that if you didn’t know the song, you could be the one who made it. If you missed that part of the culture of music in general, he’s had a big influence on the culture. At first sight, he’s the wickedest man alive. He’s a very wicked man, but if you dig into the poetry and you read between the lines of his poetry, you dig into his story, a lot of the things make more sense to you. I feel like it made a lot of sense with me.
A lot of the things that he discusses resonates with me. I just want to leave you with this. My album is called Do What Thou Wilt, and it’s influenced by Crowley’s The Book of the Law. Love is the law, love is the only law, love under will, the law is for all. If you read the Christian Bible, that’s the only commandment that Jesus left. I discovered the name of the album was the same, Do What Thou Wilt, which brought me to Alistair Crowley. You know who Alistair Crowley is, right? He was a magician, a poet, and he was also linked to Satanism.
What does that mean to you, and did you decide to name your project? You’re the first one to bring up the Satanism, and I’m so glad that you did, because you know it’s all church with me. Do What Thou Wilt immediately sounds like free will. Alistair Crowley has been influential throughout music, entertainment, ideology, and philosophy. The album is based on that quote, Do What Thou Wilt, which is in the book, the book of the law. Love is the only law. I respect that, because you know my main thing is ain’t nothing wrong with a righteous man, correct? So I really admire this guy.
Well see what he’s saying is, are you signing your name on the dotted line? Are you signing your soul away? Yeah, that’s what he’s saying. Are you in the Illuminati, Abb? I mean, what’d you think? As you heard for yourself, Abb’s soul was praising Crowley and claiming that his teachings were good, which surprised anyone who knows what Alistair Crowley was truly up to. This was Abb’s soul’s attempt at crossing over into the mainstream, his attempt at making it big like his labelmate Kendrick Lamar. But even after selling his soul and literally worshipping pagan gods in fulfillment, his career didn’t make it to the next level, still falling short of becoming the rap superstar he wanted to be.
The rap superstar he watched Kendrick Lamar become. This seems to start eating at Abb’s soul, who considered himself to be the best rapper alive, better than anyone else. Even though he saw it like this, no one else did, no matter how many albums he dropped. No matter how lyrical he was, he was still living in the shadows of TDE’s golden child, Kendrick Lamar. It was almost like his success was sacrificed for the success of Kendrick. As the bigger Kendrick became, the farther away Abb’s soul still away from reaching him. Abb’s soul realized that all the attention in TDE was going directly to Kendrick Lamar, as naturally he was the star.
This devastated him and destroyed them from the inside, and it eventually got to the point where he just couldn’t take it anymore. Exactly 6 years after he dropped his album Do What Thou Will, Abb’s soul attempted to take himself out by leaping off a highway overpass. He only managed to survive when he ended up landing on a vehicle that broke his fall. This happened exactly 10 years after his former girlfriend, Olori Jo took herself out in similar fashion. It had appeared that Abb’s soul had reached his boiling point, realizing that the years were passing and his dream was only drifting further and further away.
It was setting in that he had lost the love of his life and even his soul, but it still wasn’t enough for him to achieve his dreams. Abb’s soul spoke about why he tried to take himself out during an interview with Charlamagne, where he tries to blame it all on his addictions and not thinking clearly. But throughout the interview, moments of his displeasure with the outcome of his career were shown. Moments when the truth seems to unknowingly spill out as he tries to explain it all away. In one part of the interview, he stated how he wants the money, complaining about how all of his plaques say Kendrick Lamar on them.
As you heard for yourself, Abb’s soul complains about all his plaques, saying Kendrick Lamar’s names are on all of them, clearly pointing out the fact that he was tired of living in K-DOT’s shadow, tired of watching him live the dream that he felt he deserved. He stated that he wants the money, not just the mediocre recognition, he wants to be at the top, he wants a Grammy, he wants all of what Kendrick has. Abb’s soul gave this interview a few months after he tried to take himself out, clearly reflecting what he felt and what led him to do it.
Abb’s soul wanted to fame money and power that came with being a rap superstar. He embarked on a journey to achieve this goal that cost him his love of his life, his eternal soul and eventually almost took his life too, leaving him with nothing but the regret of not making it that he has to now live with. The music industry isn’t a place for those that are blessed by God, but a place where your soul is required for success and sometimes it still isn’t enough. As was the case for Abb’s soul, who is now just the story of Allah’s soul.
I recommend that whatever you want in life, you pursue it but through God, asking God to guide you in the right direction. If your dream aligns with God’s will, then he will ensure you achieve it, without having to sell your soul or become someone you’re not. God is truly the only way, not to only eternal salvation, but to worldly salvation as well, as following his guidance will always keep you on the right path. Something I wanted to say before I end this video, was that I don’t think Abb’s soul was the only one who turned to the worship of Alistair Crowley and Thelema in TDE.
In fact, I believe everyone in TDE are a cultist who follow Alistair Crowley. That goes for SZA, Screwboy Q and even the golden child of TDE, Kendrick Lamar. In fact, Kendrick’s latest album seems to prove that, as Kendrick continues his long running theme of presenting himself as a god, just like Abb’s soul did. If you guys would like me to make a full video about this, comment Kendrick Lamar below. I will only cover this if enough of you guys want to see it. I know many of you feel like Kendrick is against the industry while being in the industry, but you might not see him that way if you see the things that I need to point out.
So if you want to see that, let me know in the comments. I pray that Abb’s soul turns back to God and he forgives him and heals his heart. Well, I’ma end this one here. But before you guys go, I would like to kindly ask you guys to subscribe if you’re not. Please like, comment, and share this video so others will need to see this get a chance. I want to thank you all for watching and I’ll see you guys in the next one. Bye!
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