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What's The Story Behind That Battle On 'These Days...'? Ab-Soul Explains

Soulo breaks down his battle with Daylyt.

Ab-Soul ends his news album, These Days... with an 18-minute a cappella rap battle. It was a surprising thing to include as the last piece of his project, but also one that showed a different side of Soulo as a lyricist -- and it got fans talking.

"I tweeted out, I wish I could battle rap for real in a league; that would be cool," the T.D.E. rapper recently told MTV News of the origins of the track, where he squares off against respected battle rapper Daylyt. "And I got a pretty crazy little response from that. Not too long after that, I got a DM from Daylyt; he was like, Yo, why don't we do it? I'm like, Yo, that might actually be crazy."

Soul says he was inspired by Joe Budden, who will be squaring off against respected battle rapper Hollow Da Don at Total Slaughter later this month.

Plus, he felt like the battle rap world is in a great space currently, and including it as part of his project further captured his theme of These Days...

"These days, battle rap is as exciting as it's ever been," the Black Lipped Pastor said, adding that he's "always been an advocate of battle rap."

And his counterpart was the right match.

"Daylyt is just one of my favorite -- he's my favorite battle rapper," Soul said. "Not just to mention that he's probably one of the best battle rappers that we have from L.A. area. These Days... Daylyt. You feel what I'm saying? I felt that would be a great."

He was right. You can listen to the epic battle below.

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