Ab-Soul Reflects on Losing His Childhood Home in a Fire

When looking back on 2016, quite a few people in hip-hop experienced life-changing moments -- for better or for worse. Ab-Soul is one of them. While the rapper was finally able to debut his fourth album, Do What Thou Wilt., in December, and share his provocative lyrical tales with fans, he was simultaneously dealing with a loss.

The Black Lip Pastor's childhood home in California, which his mother still lived in, was destroyed by fire several weeks after he completed his album. Rather than share the incident with his loyal supporters, Soul initially kept quiet about what happened, choosing to let the light shine on his new music.

"I lost everything," he tells XXL. "But everyone's safe, nobody got harmed, nobody was hurt. But I'm still here with a smile on my face."

Soul hopes that his experience can inspire others when faced with hardship. "Let me be an inspiration to keep going, no matter what," the 29-year-old shares.

A smile may be on his face these days, but that doesn't mean he wasn't impacted by the hit of losing out on years worth of personal items that can never replaced. "Fan art, you know, gifts that I got from fans, you know," Soulo says. "Just memorable things from my childhood. I grew up there."

But he's looking at the silver lining on this cloud. "There has to be a message in that," he affirms. "I believe everything happens for a reason so I'm trying to find that message and keep a smile on."

The new year looks promising for the TDE signee, who continues to drop new visuals for tracks off DWTW and take his talents to the stage to perform. Seeing his fans this time around will have even more of an impact as he looks to rebuild the art collection they've gifted him with over the years.

"So when y'all come see me this time," the "Womanogamy" MC continues, "I need all that fan art and all of that cool stuff."

Watch Ab-Soul open up about losing his childhood home in the video above and discuss his thoughts on feminism in the video below.