Top Dawg: Ab-Soul's New Album Is Finished

Ab-Soul

Aftera recent announcement, it looks likethe rest of TDE's 2016 schedule is falling into place.

With a new Instagram post, Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith revealed the news that many TDE fans have been waiting for: Ab-Soul's new album is complete.

"Just got the @souloho3 final mixes in !!!!!! I like that ( Khaled voice)," he captioned the photo, which shows a Mac folder titled "Soulo Final Mixes." "....Release date coming soon... I'm about 2 Kall @justsza ....#TDE"

The albumhas high stakes. While his 2012 album Control System is widely seen as one of the best in TDE's catalog, his most recent album, 2014's These Days, was critically panned.In February, he tweeted frustration that his new music hadn't been put out yet. "This bench is getting warm as fucc tho mayne," he tweeted. "Nonetheless, it's important to move as a unit. It's bigger than me. It's family."

"Wheni putu in the game u better be on fire nigga..." Top Dawg responded. Apparently Soulo hasput together a record to theTDE founder's liking.

Ab-Soul still has to wait in line, though. Kendrick Lamar'suntitled unmastered impressedupon its release in February, and ScHoolboy Q dropped Blank Face LP in July.Top Dawg tweeted the date of Sept. 2, 2016, and that was later revealed to be the release date of Isaiah Rashad's upcoming album, the follow-up to 2014's standout Cilvia Demo. Rashad has dropped twosingles this year, and he looks ready to go.

Ab-Soul is apparently up next, and in another post, Top Dawgrevealed evenmore encouraging news: that Jay Rock's album is "80 percent" finished. Good news to see that his creation process is still continuing after he was in a near-fatal car accident earlier this year. Earlier this year, SZA's new album was referred to as being in 3rd stage creative. This is as close to seeing a crew at full-strength as is often the case.

Seeing all the albums roll out also seems to lend credence to Top Dawg'sacknowledgment of an upcoming TDE tour,but one step at a time.