If there’s one thing you can expect from Ab-Soul, it’s the unexpected. He’s the dark horse of TDE, neither a boisterous man of the people like Schoolboy Q nor a widescreen cinematic storyteller like Kendrick Lamar. Ab-Soul, rather, investigates the territory of his own life, crafting detailed, painful narratives about his struggles and self-discovery.

His latest release “W.W.S.D” is as inward-focused as ever. Soul spits over Jackson Browne’s classic “These Days” in its entirety, adding nothing to the melancholy, redemptive country-rock song besides his equally gray-streaked words. Soul pulls no punches when exploring his insecurities: he details years of fruitless attempts before finding his current success.

“Can I win one time?” Soul asks, running through a laundry list of problems: “expensive clothes, insufficient funds... chasin' the light at the end of the f--kin' tunnel.” As if that wasn’t enough, “God took my angel and left me here.”

Soul also tackles questions about modern modes of media consumption: “Digging for gold in these codeine bottles/tryna picture potential potential in these Instagram models/information racing around the internet/before the iPad was invented/I had a pad, written.”

Nothing comes easy in Ab-Soul’s world, or Jackson Browne’s for that matter. They’re two dudes trying to figure things out, asking questions without obvious answers. Listen below.