Ab-Soul recruits LeBron James to A&R his next album
Fresh off last month’s drop of HERBERT, Ab-Soul is already planning for his next release. Yesterday (Jan. 25), the California rapper shared a video on his Instagram feed of him speaking with LeBron James outside of Crypto.com Arena after the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 113-104.
According to the video, Soul asked Bron to assist him in an executive way for his next project, and the four-time champion agreed to help out.
“You really the right of passage,” said Ab-Soul. “Top [Dawg] told me to ask you if you would A&R the next album.” Without a doubt, LeBron responded, “Yeah, I can do that.”
Ab-Soul also told the King that Calmatic, the director of the recently released House Party reboot starring LeBron, shot music videos for him and Kendrick Lamar during the early stages of their careers. A shocked Lebron, then complimented Soul on his latest album before gifting him his game-worn sneakers.
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This comes after the Lakers superstar previously showed love to HERBERT via Twitter days after its Dec. 16, 2022 release. “Ab-Herbert-Soul is so COLD MAN!!!!!!!!!” he wrote at the time. “[Fire] project G.” Soul responded by requesting tickets to a Lakers game. “Need them floor seats King!!! Get @dangerookipawaa on the phone.”
Need them floor seats King!!! Get @dangerookipawaa on the phone https://t.co/UFXfRY9q8Y
— Ab-Soul (@abdashsoul) December 19, 2022
LeBron must have really enjoyed the album because along with the tweet, he uploaded a video of himself jamming to HERBERT, and rapping the lyrics to “Message In A Bottle” as he got a haircut.
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If the four-time NBA MVP is serious about being an A&R for Soul’s next effort, it won’t be the first time he’s played that role in hip hop. In 2019, LeBron assisted 2 Chainz on his album Rap or Go to the League.
“I helped him put the tracklist together, sequencing, which songs should flow, which song should be first, which one should be last, how to end the album, what should fall in the middle,” he told Vanity Fair during Chainz’s release. “Executive producer was kind of a title that was given to me. He asked if I wanted to executive produce his album, and I was like, ‘What does that entail?’”
