- published: 04 Jul 2015
- views: 6011
Herbert Anthony Stevens IV (born February 23, 1987), better known by his stage name Ab-Soul, is an American hip hop recording artist from Carson, California currently signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and Interscope Records. Stevens is a member of hip hop supergroup Black Hippy along with fellow West Coast rappers and label mates Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q.
Stevens was born and raised in the suburb of Carson, California. He grew up with middle class parents, who owned a local record store called Magic Disc Music, where Stevens had to go everyday after school: "I worked there my whole life. We closed it last April. For a long time it was just something that my mom sold, it was just our business, so I didn't really care for it. I didn't understand the big deal about it, it was something we sold for money. It was my mom's job. Somewhere along the line, with my love and compassion for words and stories, I found a collection of music." At the age of 10, Stevens contracted Stevens–Johnson syndrome which caused him to be hospitalised and is the origin of his dark lips and light sensitive eyes: "When I got had got sick when I was younger of course it affected my lip skin, so coming up in school I had very dark lips and my eyes were low. I had to wear shades and shit. So I was quite peculiar. People teased me about my lips, and say I look high. I didn't even start smoking weed until after I graduated from high school."