Although it endured several fits and starts throughout the year, Ab-Soul’s latest album arrived on Friday (December 9), and with it came some of his finest work to date. Do What Thou Wilt, like other Soulo albums, is dense material, requiring several listens, but his varied flows and selection of beats make many of the songs instantly grabbing.

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One such record is the album’s opener, “RAW (backwards),” and on that track, Soul slows his cadence, enunciating every word so that his message is crystal clear to its intended recipients. As the title suggests, the song is Ab’s declaration of war “on all you rappers.”

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While many of his word are applicable to the MC universe, he reserves a few pointed lines specifically for Troy Ave and Jay Electronica. As he raps and has explained in a number of interviews, the Black Lip Pastor took issue with Ave’s unseemly remarks about the late Capital STEEZ, during Ave’s war of words with Joey Bada$$. Regarding Electronica, Soul did not take kindly to the MC’s attacks on Soul’s label-mate, Kendrick Lamar, earlier in the year, as Kendrick was embarking on a Grammy night that would yield several trophies for the Compton MC.

For the song’s video, Soul is seen performing in a dimly lit venue, with a full band. They are surrounded by a raucous crowd and nearly everyone in both the audience and on stage is dressed in black. Perhaps, symbolically, Soul is hosting a funeral for the MCs he is killing with his words.