If you want to become a fast fan of a rap artist, look for one who can tell you where they’re from, where they’re at and where they’re headed in the span of a few of their songs. If they’re masterful at their craft, particularly the lyrical aspect of it, you’ll be hooked.
We got hooked after a rotation or two of Trillmatic, the recent album by A.B. Raps. The 30-year-old emerging rapper from the east side of Houston released the 12-track album in June, the latest big step he’s taken in a promising career which began in earnest in 2020. You can probably learn everything you need to know about A.B. Raps – or, just A.B. for short – by listening to the songs, but we couldn’t pass on the chance to pick his rhyme-packed brain.
First question: which of these songs tell listeners where you came from?
“I would probably pick ‘Clouds’ off of the album, just ‘cause the sound of it’s so impactful, it feels epic almost,” he said. “I’m actually born in California and we moved out here whenever I was maybe a year or two years-old. The thing about ‘Clouds,’ the instrumental, the beat for it, it has this opening sample and it sounds kind of angelic, it has kind of a gospel feel to it. Whenever the actual beat drops, you have the 808s and whatnot, it’s gritty. The energy on there’s real gritty and I feel like those two styles mesh together and kind of sums me up as a whole artist.
“If you listen to it once,” A.B. said, “you kind of get the idea, ‘Okay. This is what he’s about.’”
One of the song’s lines goes, “no scholarships, no paid tuition, hopes and dreams and an intuition,” which is followed by lyrics about being devoured by the streets if one’s not equipped for them and, best of all, “My mama told me never settle for less, you need more than a crown, so I’m chasing a halo.” You can hear A.B.’s intent in those rhymes, how he plans to make the most of any opportunities available. He said his rap dreams began by listening to his older brother and his friends rap while growing up on the east side and in Channelview.
“Whenever I got to high school I ended up (rapping) with my friends for fun,” he said. He started writing rhymes and thought, “I think I can pretty much hold my weight up against a lot of these people that are in school. I started listening to different hip hop artists from Houston and not from Houston and kind of picked them apart. I guess you could say I was studying.
“I just really liked the technical part of it,” he continued. “It wasn’t until 2020 when I said, okay I could put a little more time on this music stuff and try to pursue it a little bit more.”
“I can’t remember her name but one of my English teachers would always tell me I had very good imagery when I would write,” A.B. recalled. “And just listening to different artists and the way they would write and piece things together, for some reason I would just pick up on certain rhyme patterns and schemes. I don’t know what it is. I don’t wanna say I see the words, it sounds corny, but I can really differentiate the way people rhyme. As a hip hop artist I would catch little common things that they do. My thought process is, ‘Okay, I don’t wanna be that guy where people say, “Oh, he always does this’ or ‘He always says this.’”
So A.B. filled notebooks with unique rhymes and worked on delivery, another strength. He wanted to be sure the waves of rhymes he wrote washed over listeners in a crystal clear gush, a true flow they could feel, no matter the speed of the current. Once he had that down, it was time to perform live shows. His first was a few years ago when fellow Houston artist and local DIY rap legend Jon Black encouraged him to get on stage.
“I took it very serious and I was rehearsing every weekend leading up to that date, and it almost came kind of natural. Not to sound cocky or anything but I loved it There was something about actually seeing the people there, you know, friends and family, and having strangers really lock in whenever I start to actually rap,” A.B. said. “I really try to put on a show, I don’t want to go out there and just rap my songs. I feel like a lot of people are getting away with that right now.
“Anything could happen,” he said of his live set, heard most recently at Spindletap Brewery and headed for a headlining show at House of Blues in January. “It’s definitely a good feeling when it does come out right.”
Next question: which song sums up who you are this this moment in your career? He picked a track which reflects on where he’s at in his personal and professional life and how he’s determined to succeed at both.
“I would have to say ‘The Reign, Pt. 2.’ The first verse is more personal. I talk about my fiancée and how I might feel like I’m God’s gift to Earth when it comes to hip hop but in reality I have someone like her to back me up,” he said. “Then in the second verse I speak on one of the things I’m unhappy about right now in local hip hop. A lot of people are charging us to perform. It’ll be a ridiculous amount and we don’t get a lot of time on stage and often times we have very poor quality. The sound is off and there’s not a lot of people in attendance, they want you to bring the people. And how they use our culture, you know, being Hispanic – I don’t wanna say as a marketing gimmick, but it feels that way.”
“On the third verse I just speak on the technical part of things and how I feel like I can go up against the best, whether it be local artists or mainstream artists,” he said. “Of course, I still need help getting my name out there and whatnot, but when it comes to the skills part of things I feel like I’m definitely up there.”
“The Reign, Pt. 2” doesn’t just spotlight A.B.’s current place in the rap game. As the last track on the album it’s sort of a natural springboard for where this exciting artist is heading next.
“A lot of my close friends were like, you’re getting too emotional,” he said of a run of songs which close Trillmatic and speak to matters close to his heart. “Of course, I do love hip hop but eventually I do want to broaden my talent, I guess you could say. I want to work with everybody, whether it be singers or different people that play different instruments, I really want to be a live performer. I want to make music, I don’t want to just rap.”
That’s a look ahead, a promising future also touched on in another track we discussed. Which Trillmatic song speaks best to A.B. Raps’ future, we asked?
“Man, I have to say ‘No More.’ I had a lot of fun recording that song. ‘No More’ and ‘Like Me’ were actually the last two songs that I recorded. I was working with the same engineer on the whole album so I was very comfortable. I would usually go in there and knock out these songs, record ‘em and just kind of sit back on my phone and let him mix it and make it sound good. These two songs were the first time that he tells me to re-do them. He was like, you sound like you’re forcing your voice, you need to feel it.”
It was a simple ask and A.B. corrected things by honing in on the rhymes he’d written, how real they were to him. You can hear that honesty on the tracks and it’s a good indicator for the genuine music he wants to deliver for years to come.
“We had a lot of trial and error with those two songs,” he continued. “’No More,’ that one would definitely be a hint to what I’m trying to get out there. Of course, I’m going to always rap and be a hip hop artist but I really do want to tap into different genres and different styles.”
A.B. Raps’ Trillmatic is available on all major streaming platforms.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
