The hip-hop recording artist releases the clip to the collaboration track from his 'Control System' album.
- Jan 16, 2013
AceShowbiz - Top Dawg Entertainment artist Ab-Soul drops the music video for "ILLuminate", the 2012 hip-hop track from his independent studio album "Control System" under the TDE label. Directed by Fredo Tovar and Scott Fleishman, the clip features his fellow West Coast rapper Kendrick Lamar. "Control System" follows Ab-Soul's debut studio effort, the moderately-successful "Longterm Mentality".
The new music video takes place in a dystopian world where a group of people rummage through the dirt to find Ab-Soul's LP then sit around throwing cash onto a makeshift bonfire. As Ab-Soul's "illuminated" image appears while he delivers his rhymes, the words get written on a notebook before it gets torn off and used to light up a green torch. They proceed to carry bulky pieces of audio-video equipment as if instantly spellbound by the rhymes to take these on a journey.
"Back when I first grabbed that pen / I told myself I was gon' win / And I ain't know when / But it was gon' end / Up happening, I want in / So you can take your top 5 list / Dead or alive and put me after Em," he raps. The TDE artist also mentions a host of other popular hip-hop stars in the second verse, "I used to wanna rap like Jay-Z / Now I feel like I'm runnin' laps around Jay-Z / Nas ain't seen nothing this nasty / B.I.G. & Pac got it coming when I pass too / You got the mic, I ain't the one you wanna pass to."
Lamar joins Ab-Soul in the hypnotic hook, "They wanna share my light [x8]/ You can have all my shine, I'll give you the light [x2]". He wraps up the third verse, where he also name-drops other top hip-hop acts, "See the truth is, they wanna know how close me, Dre and Snoop is / Or how the shoe fits when they choose this to be 2Pac."
